A rare 1.5x Kowa Anamorphic lens

We've only seen 1 of these per year pop up for sale at various places. They're very rare and this one is guaranteed to be functioning and sharp, unlike from other sellers. No risk involved and no surprises here.  

Rare 1.5x stretch. 

A non-multicoated lens so it EASILY flares nicely with strong Blue Streaks.

Sharp Glass.

Strong Metal body with smooth focusing reminiscent of a proper Cinema lens.

This is a dual focusing lens. (Both SLR lens and Anamorphic lens needs to be focused)

Canon 5D and SLR lens not included.

Compatibility: Since the back end is wider and the body is shorter, on crop sensor cameras we've used this Kowa 35 lens paired to a 28mm Nikkor f2 lens with little to no vignetting.  No vignetting with a 50mm lens on a Super-35 sensor camera.

Actual lens may vary slightly from the lenses in the photographs above or have slight cosmetic defects that dont show in photos and wont affect the functioning in any way. The optical sharpness, clarity and anamorphic squeeze strength all perform perfectly.

FAQs

Q: Why do you use these lenses over more newer modern Anamorphics? 

1. These lenses are still much much sharper (and more affordable).

2. The classic look and feel.

3. Unlike using newer 1.33x Anamorphic lenses that tend to still look almost spherical (mainly due to lack of 2x Anamorphic Bokeh and wider depth of field), when using a 1.5x, 1.75x or 2x lens, your footage will scream Anamorphic-CinemaScope to the viewer.

Q: What's the difference between these lenses and other projection lenses found elsewhere?

A: There are many projection lenses but not all are made for filming and projecting. Most in fact are projection only. Most are aspherical (non anamorphic). And most are much larger, heavier and have a very long 12ft, 15ft, 25ft or even 50 foot minimum focus distance. With the extra length, weight and long focusing distance they make for very impractical shooting. We only deal with lenses that we would use ourselves daily which have practical features. 

Q: Whats the best way to get a 2:4:1 ratio with these lenses?

A: Since these lenses yield an apprx 3:1 ratio when shooting with a 16x9 sensor, you'll need to crop or use a 4:3 or other squarish capture format. But 3:1 ratios are becoming somewhat popular these days in the music video world and on MTV.

Also, many camera makers are beginning to catch on and give us 4:3 and other more squarish capturing ratios. Many videos are being broadcast in super-wider mode lately, but shooting Raw or with a higher bit rate allows you to crop so to achieve the ratio of your choosing (16:9, 2.35:1, 3.55:1, etc.)

Q: How do you treat the image in post? Adobe Premiere and Photoshop?

A: Video - There are a few ways to do it in Premiere but we like to create a sequence based on the clips native setting whether its 4k or 1080 or 720. We put 1 clip on the timeline and change the motion settings in the Effects Control tab. Uncheck Uniform Scale and then change the height from 100 down to 50 if using a 2x lens. Or from 100 down to 75 if using a 1.5x. Some people will change the width from 100 up by 2 or 1.5x depending on the squeeze strength of the lens. Sometimes you'll bump it up or down a little to your liking. We personally leave it squeezed a little so that it screams cinemascope even more.

From there, just copy the clip and paste attributes to all the other clips in the timeline.

A: Photo - To de-squeeze, in Photoshop if your image is 1920 pixels in width and 1080 pixels in height you would adjust the height down by 50% or divided by 2 to 540 if using a 2x lens. Or double the width from 1920 to 3840 leaving the height at 1080.

You'll need to uncheck Image Constraints. Otherwise when you adjust the height the width will also try to stay constrained. 

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