Best Practices for Shooting Anamorphic on the GH5
6. Custom Solutions can sometimes lead to problems
As I was having some issues with getting my framing correct while shooting Anamorphics on the GH5.. I realized that my 50mm FD lens with Speedbooster on the GH5 was now vignetting. I had to go try my 85mm lens instead. The results were less than stunning as the 85mm has a hard time focusing to infinity through a 70mm Anamorphic lens for some reason. Results were not all that clear and i think it has to do with the focal plane being further from the sensor or that the 85mm lens frontal housing is causing distortion due to the distance of the lens from the anamorphic single focus adapter’s wide front element. Anyways, point is, the footage was a bit blurry even stopped down.
The Magic Taking lens focal length thru the anamorphic lens with single focus adapter is 100mm
I switched lenses to a 50mm Canon EF mount f1.8 lens. Which became a 71mm f1.3 on the GH5 after the speed booster crop factors.
I ended up getting vignette at 71mm..
It looks like 100mm effective focal length through the anamorphic lens is where the sweet spot is…
There is due to the fact that Micro Four Thirds and the speed booster are changing the focal length shorter even more so than when i shot on the Canon APS-C sensor (for more info see the Anamorphic on a budget video I did!) this is in part because the adapter i used for the FD to EF mount is a 1.26X crop. this lengthened the focal length.
So a 50mm FF lens on an APS-C lens + adapter from FD to EF = 100.8mm
On the MFT a 50mm FF lens + speed booster = 71mm (which vignettes) Add in the telescoping of 1.4X crop = nearly 100mm (99.4mm)
If you run into Vignette problems with your anamorphic lens while shooting a custom single focus adapter on a 50mm you can use the GH5’s telescoping mode!
Keep in mind native Panasonic lenses shouldn’t hit this problem as long as you are using 100mm or over Full frame equivalent focal range while using my Anamorphic set up.
Seems strange to want that crop in more but for me because i was adapting Canon lenses using a speed booster i needed to actually lengthen that focal range a bit.
The 85mm FD wasn’t working and was too soft of a lens. I needed something sharper to get through all that glass but still have enough low light for the shot.
effectively the focal range went from 71mm to 100mm through the anamorphic lens without vignetting this time!
7. Lighting Matters
Shooting on Anamorphics require a decent amount of extra light. The more physical glass you are shooting through the more you will have to light your scene. When shooting outdoors ND filters may be required however for over lit or more Sunny locations. The more light the more easily you can control the quality of the image entering the Anamorphic lens and through filters and reduce those noisy shadows.
One note about shooting LOG footage is that by design shooting LOG on the GH5 starts shooting at 400 ISO (that’s 1,600 ISO for you Full frame people)! If you are indoors this isn’t much of a problem and generally will need to light things appropriately higher however outdoors can present problems and that’s where you need proper ND filtering.
8. A little bit about Depth of field
Depending on the shoot you are going for, you also need to keep in mind Depth of field. With my custom single focus adapter that isn’t a problem even in bright sunlight or darker scenes due to the fact that it changes the depth of field without having the open or close the aperture. With Diopters changing the depth of field while you focus you can shoot at hihger fstops and still get some background blur. For more image quality or for anything further than my ISCOs minimum focus field of 5 feet (1.5 meters) take the single focus and diopters off and Depth of field returns to normal and will require ND filters for stopping down in your f-stops. This is an optical condition created by the use of diopters that i discovered while shooting. Much the way ND filters give you another optical lever to pull to get your lighting and exposure correct.
For any New photographer or videographer out there, i highly recommend you check out Tony Northrup’s Youtube Channel for more information about Photography basics.
Also, Learn how ISO, F-Stops and lens Aperture all work in tandem in a triad sort of way and become an expert at it. Once you master that fundamental you can adapt that knowledge to Video and basically any camera.
