I don’t use vintage telephoto lenses (over 200mm) very often; in fact this a first time I’m reviewing a 300mm telephoto prime. As you might know, due to the lack of the optical image stabilization, such lenses can be difficult use for video. A rock solid tripod is a must and the actual lens has…
FM LENS | Anamorphic Focus Module | REVIEW
As I continue my Anamorphic journey, it’s time to take closer look at one of my favorite solutions so far! We’ve already explored a few double focusing setups including Proskar-16 & Sankor 16F as well as some single focus options including Optex/Century, ISCO Wide-Screen 2000 & ISCORAMA 42, but the lens I’m reviewing this time…
Canon 13mm F1.5 Lens for Super16 / BMPCC / Digital Bolex
If you are not using any Super16 cameras, you might want to skip this review because this lens doesn’t cover bigger sensors. While testing the little Canon C-16 13mm F1.3, I wasn’t planning on making a review about it. “Just another c-mount prime lens” I thought to myself. It was only when I edited the…
Introduction to LEICA-R lenses | Budget Buyer’s Guide
This website has been in existence (at the time of writing) for well over 3 year, but until now there hasn’t been a single proper mention of any Leica lenses, which is clearly not right because Leica-R Lenses in particular are incredibly popular for video use. I can’t try them all, but thankfully a fellow…
ISCORAMA 42 MC 1.5x Anamorphic Lens Review
So far my anamorphic journey took me through a few quite different low budget solutions including Proskar-16 2x, Century/Optex 1.33x and ISCO Widescreen 2000 1.5x anamorphic lenses. Our next stop is one of the legendary ISCORAMA lenses, which outside of proper anamorphic cine lenses are the most respected anamorphic solutions for video use. I would…
Affordable 360° Follow Focus Gears! | COOL-LUX-GEAR Review
Adding follow focus gears to photo lenses can be a bit of a hassle. I’ve certainly experienced that over the years. Until recently I’ve been using various temporary gears that I would swap between my lenses, but like everyone else who has had their hands on cine lenses, I really wanted to invest into more…
35mm Battle at 6K |Zeiss Jena vs Rokinon DS vs Zeiss Super Speed
A few days ago a test video was posted to VLFV facebook group, which intrigued me so much I decided to make a post about it! The video above, filmed by a fellow vintage lens user Blaise Villars compares 3 very different 35mm lenses, with different mounts, speed, prices, age, type & status. These…
Comparing Helios 58mm F2 Lenses
I originally created this post in 2012. Since then I’ve learned a lot about these lenses and Helios 44-2 has become my favorite lens, so I decided to revise it with more up to date info and additional test (second part of the post) Original Test (revised): A lot of people claim that the Helios…
Using Angenieux 9.5-57mm F1.6-2.2 on BMPCC/S16 | In-depth REVIEW
In this post we continue to look at various lenses for BMPCC (and upcoming Super16 replacements from BlackMagic). Over the last few years I’ve been collecting various 16mm (film format) and Super16 lenses to see what works best and also offers best value for money. Among these, there are plenty of little Angenieux zooms that…
Creating “Selective Focus” & “Miniature” effect | TITL Adapter Review
Over the last few years I’ve been testing and reviewing all sorts of vintage lenses, rarely touching on a subject of adapters. Eventually I will do an in-depth post about all the adapters I use for vintage lenses, but this time I want to take a closer look at a very unusual adapter, which in…
