Original Iscorama

• Alias: Iscorama pre 36

• Anamorphic Adapter by Isco Precision Optics GmbH
• Single Focus : Variable Diopter
• Mount: 49 MM

The most desired anamorphic adapters of all times: the Iscorama Pre 36! These were the very first anamorphics released by Isco Optics and, needless to say, were a huge success, leading to the Iscoramas 42 and 54, as well as the Iscorama 2000 series.

What's the difference between the Iscorama 36 and the Pre 36? The 36 is an independent adapter, while the Pre 36 was released first, paired with a cheap 50mm with focus fixed to infinity. The original taking lens could be on Exakta, Nikon F, M42 or Minolta SR mounts. As the other Iscoramas, the 36 has a rear element diameter of 36mm. The Pre 36 is slightly smaller, at 30mm and the Cinegon is slightly bigger, at 38mm. The coatings are also a little different, with the Pre36 and Cinegon rendering orange warm flares and the 36 has a LITTLE less prominent flare.

Part of the Iscorama family, these are the smallest ones, compact and lightweight, at 400g. Front thread is 72mm and back is 49mm, again you can either use clamps or simply stack step rings. The protruding rear element is a great feature that allows you to bring the front of the taking lens really close together. Stretch is 1.5x, leading to an aspect ratio of 2.66:1 when used with a 16:9 sensor. Alignment is set by pressing these two buttons on the side and rotating the front part.

As its big brothers, minimum focus stands at 2m, but there are a few hacks to bring it down to 1.3m - which usually lead to unscrewing the front element, so be careful. Focus follows the standard Isco operation, taking lens set to infinity and single focusing on the Isco's ring. The lens body, though, has several plastic pieces, which is great for weight, but terrible for long term durability. It's quite common to find units with stiff focus or even harder aligning.

The reason this is the holy grail of adapter is due to a series of factors. First, it's lightweight and small, second, flares are beautiful and easy to achieve, third, it packs quite the punch in terms of image quality even at the fastest apertures.

A killer image quality is one of the main reasons people are so greedy about this adapter. Great performance even at f/1.4 with the Zeiss lenses.

Orange and warm flares for this baby. It knocks it out of the park when compared with its multi-coated siblings (the 42 and 54). It has the classic look of a desired anamorphic flare: large, organic, multi-layered and with a long streak.

Designed to cover 50mm and up on full frame sensors, it starts to vignette shortly below that, being totally unusable at 35mm.

Simple to use and sharp to the point that I didn't need to keep triple checking focus all the time. Rack focusing is possible and very smooth and the resulting image has a very organic and dreamy feel about it. The 1.5x stretch is enough to make the oval bokeh become more pronounced. Minimum focus at 2m was the only issue, but still solved swiftly thanks to my large arsenal of diopters. If the 54 wasn't great for run-n-gun, this one definitely plays the part, being small and light. There's not much more to say, it's world use is very similar to the other Iscoramas.

Minimum focus distance can be improved through modifications. Now can be rehoused through Exo Optik's shells.