Anamorphic Lenses on the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4k

Anamorphic Cinematography Series

Our full review of anamorphic lenses on the Black Magic Pocket Cinema Camera 4k will be pending finally receiving our preorder. We are excited for the wide release of the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4k and the opportunity to shoot anamorphic lenses on this camera. This camera has the potential to rival the Panasonic GH5 as the best camera for shooting with anamorphic lenses.

Although we have not received our preorder of the BMPCC4k yet, one of our customers has and he has been kind enough to post a review and demo!

Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4k Anamorphic Lens Specs

Like the GH5, the BMPCC4k has a micro 4/3 sensor. Using our anamorphic lens calculator, the best prime lenses to pair with our anamorphic lens kits will likely be the trusty 58mm f/2 Helios 44 and the 85mm f/2 Jupiter 9 lenses. These lenses with their beautiful bokeh rendering pair so well with anamorphic lens kits.

Since anamorphic lenses double your field of view, these 58mm and 85mm lenses respectively become 29mm f/2 and 43mm f/2 anamorphic lenses. If you’d like to shoot even wider, we also offer our Superscope which keeps the same anamorphic aspect ratio, but adds another 1.5x to your field of view.

In this scenario, a 29mm f/2 with a Superscope becomes a 19mm f/2 anamorphic lens!

Other Blackmagic Cameras

Until the Pocket Cinema Camera 4k reaches full production, the Black Magic Ursa Mini 4k is an excellent choice for shooting anamorphic lenses in the meantime. Below are some demos shot by a customer @hungryboyproductions as well as our link to an overview article here on shooting commercials with anamorphic lenses.

Invest in multiple anamorphic lenses for multiple primes

Anamorphic lenses attach to the front of your prime lenses and transform the spherical image into compressed anamorphic. Zoom lenses aren’t very friendly to anamorphics, and prime lenses work best. So when working with prime lenses, you can certainly change prime lenses by detaching the anamorphic from one lens and moving it to the next.

Summary

If you have found this article interesting and are further interested adding anamorphic to your toolbox as a cinematographer, please visit our anamorphic lens store for demos and examples. We have spent several years collecting, modifying, and testing anamorphic lenses to weed through the junk, make needed modifications, and assemble ready-to-shoot packages.

If you are interested in learning more on working with anamorphic lenses and DSLR, please check out our anamorphic tutorial blog for more anamorphic tips and tutorials!