Best Practices for Shooting Anamorphic on the GH5
9. Determine your distances to your subjects that you are shooting
If you can plan ahead of time while shooting Anamorphic you can start to figure out where to actually place the camera. Let me give you an example, my ISCO has a built-in minimum focus distance (without custom single focus solution) of 5 feet. I have to use a 50mm lens that is effectively close to 100mm when all crop factors are factored in on the GH5.
100mm remember is the minimum focal length i can use due to vignetting that would occur because of the Anamorphic lens adapter. If I added a different lens one that was longer say an 85mm, theoretically it would be okay (however for some reason i have issues with mine – 50mm’s FF lenses seem to be in the sweet spot at least for Canon FD lenses that need that infinity correction – your milege may vary with other lenses).
100mm is the focal field of view that i am essentially working with and need to frame my subject in. So the trick is, if i need a subject very close in the frame and camera is less than Five feet i have to switch and use my custom single focus adapter (assuming i don’t need anything in the background). The custom single focus adapters focal plane is very tight so most thigns that are not in focus get blurred out in the background. If for example my subject is 5 feet or more into the scene that is framed at 100mm, then i can try removing the custom single focus adapter and just using the Anamorphic lens without diopters.
**Note: At some point i really want to try the Rectilux CoreDNA front Rangefinder that corrects for the dual focus issue. Its a much better unit then my custom single focus solution i built, but a lot more expensive too. If anyone has one i could borrow for testing I’d appreciate trying it out!
10. Know your Anamorphic’s Capabilities
This may sound redundant but each Anamorphic Lens is different. They have different lengths, diameters, Anamorphic squeeze value and image quality. Some like the ISCO also do not tend to flare like others do. When shooting know your limits for taking lenses, adapters or speed boosters and how these all affect your shooting conditions.
A really good YouTube channel in addition to my own small corner is Tito Ferradans channel. He has some great stuff and much more in-depth about the various types of Anamorphic lenses if you want to know more.
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