SLR Magic Anamorphot 2.0x-50

• Anamorphic Adapter by SLR Magic
• Double Focus
• Mount: 62 MM

The Anamorphot 2.0x has a more anamorphicky feel than it’s weaker sibling, with 2x stretch, making oval bokeh much more noticeable, and it's larger and heavier than the 1.33x version. It weights around 500g and keeps the 62mm rear threads plus 77mm front threads. Alignment is identical to the 1.33x, with a reverse lock ring - which is pretty awesome -, but getting it aligned properly is trickier and I wouldn't trust just the white line, but also check with flares every time. It features the Near/Normal dial for focus too.

This one isn't supposed to perform well at apertures faster than f/4, and that shows pretty easily. I still find resolution a bit too compromised even at slower apertures at 135mm, so I guess it didn't like the Tair 11A very much either. Maybe it performs better with modern lenses. Poor edge quality is also quite noticeable, disregarding the aperture.

Also, if you go too extreme on the fast apertures, you'll get diamonds all around for bokeh, as you can see in this other video.

Flares are as saturated as the 1.33x version. I'd definitely give these lenses a go if I wanted an extreme sci-fi look from the flares. Using a warm light source takes a little of the saturation, but it's still very strong. A useful tip is that you might be able to fine tune this strong blue with a hue adjustment in post without affecting the rest of the shot, since it's so well defined.

Without the Rangefinder, you're able to get an almost vignette free image at 58mm with the Helios 44, which is great! Not even the Kowa does so good on a 16:9 frame. Switching to the El-Nikkor clears the image completely. Distortion is pretty extreme, but if you're just planning on using a 4:3 crop, you're all good!

In some ways the Anamorphot 2.0x-50 was very similar to the 1.33x, since both lenses have a very similar design. I struggled a lot more with focus this time, even at slower apertures, having to close it down to f/8 or f/11 at some points when most other adapters are fine at f/5.6. Distortion isn't always a bad thing, since anamorphics have very specific distortion patterns. Having the Rangefinder mounted on simplified filming a lot, saving me from a truly double focus system, but still wasn't enough most of the times to be absolutely sure if something was in focus or not.

The low light part was HARD. I tried to hang on to f/4 for best results and to avoid the diamond shaped bokeh, but that caused an increase in the ISO values, plus I had to go for brighter environments, which aren't always available for the no-budget filmmaker. I feel this Anamorphot wasn't expected to be used on full frame sensors and it should perform much much better on MFT or even APS-C.

Readily available. V1 has a screw for alignment lock, V2, shipped as of late-2015 is locked through a reverse ring at the rear.