The anamorphic revolution continues with the new Sirui 75mm Anamorphic lens. This is the 4th lens from Sirui that has made anamorphic video both affordable and easy.
If you don’t know what I am talking about then let me summarize it for you. Before Sirui’s lineup of lenses it was either really expensive to get anamorphic lenses or difficult. All other anamorphic lenses are very, very expensive and they are also usually built for PL mount cameras which meant that to use them you most likely had to get an expensive cinema camera. The only way to shoot anamorphic on a low budget was to either get adapters which don’t give that same look or many people would hack and build anamorphic lenses using projection lenses but those were usually very big and not easy to use because of focusing problems and other issues.
Well, in December of 2019 all that changed when Sirui released the first ever true anamorphic lens that was sharp, affordable and that worked with mirrorless cameras. That was the 50mm F1.8 Anamorphic lens with a 1.33X squeez aspect ratio. Then in 2020 they followed that up with their 35mm F1.8 anamorphic lens and then at the beginning of 2021 they released the beautiful 24mm F2.8 Anamorphic lens.
Here we are in May 2021 and Sirui just released the amazing 75mm F1.8 anamorphic lens that also has a 1.33 times squeez aspect. This means that when shooting with this lens, just like on all their other lenses, you get a 33% horizontal field of view increase. This lens works on MFT and APS-C cameras which shoot in standard 16 by 9 aspect ratio. The final image will be de-squeezed by 1.33 times which results in a ultra-wide cinemascope video with an aspect ratio of 2.4:1
➡Get the 75mm Sirui Anamorphic Lens HERE
➡Get the 24mm Sirui Anamorphic Lens here: https://bhpho.to/2NYmBji
Also on Adorama https://adorama.rfvk.net/GjX3RB
and Amazon https://amzn.to/3dPlkWJ
plus eBay http://ebay.us/OAQwDP
➡Get the 35mm Sirui Anamorphic Lens here: https://bhpho.to/2KE6upH
Also on Amazon https://amzn.to/38BmSzm
and Adorama https://adorama.rfvk.net/xAqjR
plus eBay http://ebay.to/3mQnKFb
➡You can get the 50mm Anamorphic Lens here: https://bhpho.to/30mYs9S
Also find it on Amazon https://amzn.to/3hXqAX1
and Adorama https://adorama.rfvk.net/xWykR
plus eBay http://ebay.to/3ru9l58
Of course the wider aspect ratio is not the only reason why most people choose to shoot with anamorphic lenses. Some of the other anamorphic characteristics that this lens produces are those beautiful oval bokeh highlights. This lens has 13 aperture blades which is why it produces perfectly smooth and natural looking bokeh.
Another characteristic are the typical horizontal lens flares. Now, for those of you worried about overly strong blue streaks, I can tell you that from my testing this can be easily controlled. When using a mattebox and the right angle to the light source, you can make the horizontal lens flares as strong or subtle as you want.
What I do love about this lens is that aside from the blue light streaks it also produces very organic looking secondary flares and light blooms. By having a light source hit the front of the lens at an angle you can produce beautiful glows and haze effects that take away a bit of that digital edge from today’s ultra high definition cameras.
Another great thing about the Sirui 75mm lens is that it’s surprisingly sharp considering it has actual anamorphic optics inside. Unlike standard spherical lenses, most anamorphic lenses suffer from terrible softness specially when shooting wide open. Well this lens can deliver relatively sharp images when shooting wide open at F1.8 but once you close the lens down just one F-stop you will notice it’s as sharp as any good spherical lens.
Now if you want that soft and shallow depth of field then this lens will deliver even better than the previous lenses from Sirui. Considering it is a longer focal length of 75mm and that it’s an anamorphic lens, you will not have any problems getting that very narrow focus that creates a nice separation from the background and foreground.
Even when I was shooting with this lens on a micro four thirds camera I was able to get a shallow depth of field both when my subject was close to the lens or even as far as 20 feet away. If you get the APS-C version of this lens that will be even more noticeable.
Just keep in mind that this lens is manual focus only. You will definitely have to practice a lot when pulling focus on a moving subject. Getting the right focus when the subject is closer than 15 feet is not as hard since the focus ring has a nice, long throw of 186 degrees. However once you are focusing on a subject from 20 feet to infinity that’s when a slight adjustment of the focus ring makes a big difference and can sometimes be a bit hard to nail.
Also this lens has a minimum focus distance of 4 feet or 1.2 meters. So if you are hoping to get real close up, macro shots you will only be able to do that if you put a diopter on the front of the lens. These are easy to find and relatively inexpensive. If that is something you are looking for then definitely check out the different options that B&H has for diopters. When attaching the diopters or any filters on the front of the lens there is a thread with a diameter of 67mm.
➡Diopters for close focusing https://bhpho.to/3yv7now
How does this new Sirui lens compare to their other anamorphic lenses? It also has a solid build quality yet it’s small and light for an anamorphic lens. It works great alongside the other anamorphic lenses from Sirui and matches the look perfectly. If you end up getting all of them then you will definitely have all the most important focal lengths to be able to shoot a complete project.
Overall I love the images this lens creates. It’s a sharp yet organic looking lens with true anamorphic characteristics. If you are a fan of the previous lenses from Sirui or if you are curious about getting into the world of anamorphic lenses, then definitely check out the 75mm F1.8 and 1.33x squeeze anamorphic lens from Sirui.
Here are my reviews of the other Sirui lenses:
Sirui 50mm
Sirui 35mm
24mm