Great Joy 1.35x Anamorphic Adapter

• Anamorphic Adapter by Great Joy
• Single Focus : Variable Diopter
• Mount: 67 MM

I thought I was done with adapters for good, but - surprise! - I wasn’t. Great Joy’s is, just like the lens, a solid unit of metal and glass, featuring focus gears and markings in meters. Rear threads are 67mm, perfect for the base lens, and front threads are 77mm with a standard 80mm outer diameter.

This thing WILL make your setup front heavy - the adapter itself weighs 920g, or 2 pounds - which is not that heavy for an adapter setup considering it IS single focus by using a variable diopter configuration - did you check the Cookbook yet to understand this stuff? All you need to do is set your taking lens to infinity and control focusing directly on the adapter. Minimum focus is 0.7m again, just over 2 feet, and we have 270 degrees of throw. The body also extends while focusing, but no rotation.

Unlike DIY setups and clamps, this one has a built-in solution for alignment, featuring three little thumbscrews and a free-spinning ring that if you spin enough can come off the back of the adapter. Still, you have a good few turns there before you have to get concerned about it.

You align it just like any anamorphic adapter, but this one is a bit more challenging because the flares are super muted and you can’t use them to align the lens! That’s two flareless anamorphics in one video!

The squeeze factor is actually 1.35X, but for the sake of usability, you can desqueeze this to 1.33x and almost never notice the difference. Actually the adapter features a little cheat sheet engraved on the side, as to what squeeze you’re getting by combining it with other anamorphics!

When pairing it with my Contax spherical set, I was able to almost clean the 35mm at infinity, but close focus introduces a lot of vignetting, and based on the astigmatism we see at 85mm and above, I’m betting the variable diopter used for focusing is optimized for a 60mm taking lens.

The adapter performs impressively even at apertures faster than the original T2.8, with superb results on the 50mm f/1.4 - as good as the taking lens permits, to be honest. This kind of puts to rest all of SLR Magic’s 1.33X Anamorphots and most 1.33X vintage solutions unless you want grungy looks and extreme flares.

Considering ease of use, Great Joy kind of also sinks the Letus AnamorphX. It doesn’t have the same coverage, but delivers single focus, consistent squeeze through the focus range, is much more portable, and affordable.