The project debuted on Kickstarter with a goal of just $5,000, but the response has been far stronger. As of writing, the campaign has surpassed $258,000, signaling significant interest from filmmakers and content creators. The Astra series lenses are coming to Sony E, Nikon Z, and L-Mount.

This year, the company has also released a number of prime lenses in the Aurora series, which is geared more towards photography. The current lineup includes the 85mm F/1.4 and the new 35mm F/1.4.

A New Autofocus Anamorphic Lineup

The Sirui Astra series consists of 50mm, 75mm, and 100mm T1.8 autofocus anamorphic cine lenses. Sirui says the lineup is designed for independent filmmakers and professional creators who need high-end image quality with user-friendly operation for run-and-gun setups.

As with most cinema lens series, the three Astra lenses share a uniform physical design. They have consistent dimensions and ergonomics, weigh between 600 and 700 grams, and all use 67mm filter threads with matching gear positions. This uniformity means operators can swap lenses on rigs and gimbals without recalibrating or rebalancing.

Classic Cinematic Look With a 1.33x Squeeze

Each lens features a constant 1.33x squeeze ratio, delivering a proper 2.35:1 widescreen image without cropping or pixel loss. The resulting footage includes oval bokeh, vertical stretch in the background, and the immersive aesthetic that anamorphic shooters expect.

The Astra lenses also support fast and accurate autofocus, enabling solo filmmakers and small crews to shoot cinema-grade footage with greater ease. Focus distance scales are built in, and the lenses are compatible with LiDAR follow-focus systems for consistent and reliable tracking.

With a fast T1.8 aperture, the lenses are capable in low-light environments and night scenes while offering shallow depth of field and smooth, soft bokeh. Buyers can choose between blue flare or neutral flare versions to match the desired anamorphic look. Shooting into bright light sources emphasizes the signature flare characteristics of each model.

Pricing and Availability

The Sirui Astra 1.33x autofocus anamorphic lenses are currently available through Kickstarter for $799 each, or $2,399 for a three-lens set that ships with a hard case. Once the crowdfunding campaign ends, they will retail for $999 per lens, and the full set will be priced at $2,999.

Mount options include Sony E, Nikon Z, and L-Mount.

The post Sirui’s Autofocus Astra Anamorphic Lenses Attract Over $250K on Kickstarter appeared first on Imaging Resource.

The 20mm T/1.8 1.33x S35 AF Anamorphic lens combines a wide-angle field of view, a lightweight build, autofocus capabilities, and anamorphic visuals in a single package. Measuring just 96 millimeters in length and weighing only 480 grams, it is ideal for gimbal setups and handheld shooting.

With a fast T/1.8 aperture, this lens excels in low-light environments while delivering smooth, cinematic bokeh with its 11-blade aperture design. Its 1.33x anamorphic squeeze factor creates a signature widescreen look with subtle hexagonal flares and elliptical bokeh when shooting above T/2.4. The system also features two optional anamorphic flare choices: Blue and “Neutral,” allowing users to customize the aesthetic of their footage.

Engineered for high-resolution filmmaking, the optical design incorporates Extra-Low Dispersion (ED) glass and a High Refractive Index (HRI) element to minimize distortions and chromatic aberrations. Additionally, it effectively reduces focus breathing, making it a great option for professional video work, including 8K shooting.

This is Sirui’s second anamorphic lens with autofocus for the Super 35 format. Equipped with an STM motor, the autofocus is fast, quiet, and precise, with eye-tracking support for sharp focus in both stills and video. Despite its wide field of view, it offers a minimum focusing distance of just 0.4 meters, making it versatile for close-up shots.

The 20mm lens is designed to complement the 40mm T/1.8 anamorphic, featuring identical gear positions, a uniform 77mm filter thread, and a consistent color tone. This uniformity allows for effortless lens swapping without requiring gimbal rebalancing, making it a convenient choice for filmmakers.

Constructed with an aluminum alloy shell, the lens is built for durability. It includes various control switches, such as a customizable Autofocus Lock button, a de-click switch, and an autofocus switch. A USB-C port located at the rear allows for future firmware updates, ensuring long-term usability.

Where to Order the Sirui 20mm T/1.8 1.33x S35 Anamorphic Lens

The Sirui 20mm T/1.8 1.33x S35 Anamorphic Lens is currently available through Indiegogo at an early bird price of $549. Shipping is set to begin on March 14th. Once the campaign concludes, the lens will retail for $679.

The post Sirui Unveils 20mm T/1.8 1.33x S35 Autofocus Anamorphic Lens appeared first on Imaging Resource.

A little while ago, in a rather unexpected move, cinematography accessory manufacturer Letus announced an anamorphic adapter to use with GoPro action cameras. So far, anamorphic adapters would usually come with premium price tags well in the thousands, but recently we’ve seen a couple of companies come up with actually affordable ones. The Letus adapter is no exception, coming in at a mere US$199.

What the adapter, which attaches to the GoPro Hero 3+ underwater housing, does, is that it compresses the incoming image horizontally, so that footage with a wider aspect ratio (and consequently a wider angle-of-view) fits withing the boundaries of the video format the GoPro records. So for example, when recording in 16:9 aspect ratio, the anamorphic adapter will squeeze in image in the cinematic 2.39:1 format into the space available.

This means that during post production, the footage needs to be stretched to a 21:9 ratio, which has a much more cinema-like look to it than standard 16:9 footage. Alternatively, the adapter can fill the full 4:3 format of the sensor in the GoPro Hero 3 and 3+, and the footage can later be stretched to 16:9, but with a wider angle-of-view than the GoPro’s native 16:9 footage would provide.

Now RedShark News has published some first footage taken with the new Letus anamorphic adapter, which you can find in the video below. There is strong barrel distortion in the images, which is probably due to the adapter’s wider angle-of-view further exaggerating the distortion already present in the design of the GoPro lens.

Letus Anamorphx Adapter Test. GoPro Hero 3+ Chloe Mae Loop Profile. from jared abrams on Vimeo.

It remains to be seen how popular the Letus anamorphic adapter for GoPro will prove, as filmmaking and cinematography isn’t really the first thing that comes to mind when thinking of GoPros. However, the tiny action cam has grown quite a bit in popularity with professional cinematographers and filmmakers; going so far as to have GoPro themselves release a pro-oriented firmware, with such features as enhanced image quality and the cinema-standard 24fps frame rate.

More info on the Letus AnamorphX-GP can be found on the company’s website.

The post First sample footage from the Letus anamorphic adapter for GoPro emerges appeared first on Imaging Resource.

If you want to capture a truly cinematic vision of video, there’s something about shooting widescreen video that is intensely cinematic. The widescreen format is so intimately associated with the heights of 20th century film making that it’s a look a great number of people want to replicate. But anamorphic lenses are expensive, and cropping down your video leads to resolution loss. But a new Kickstarter wants to bring true 2.4:1 video to the iPhone with an anamorphic adapter lens for the iPhone 5 and 5s.

Rather than chopping the top and bottom off of a full resolution video, the lens adapter essentially squeezes in more of the scene horizontally, while leaving the vertical untouched. This leads to skinnier, squished looking footage. But then you can use software to stretch it out to the proper dimensions, leading to fully widescreen footage. As the creators at Moondog Labs explain it:

Anamorphic lenses were introduced for filmmaking in the 1950’s to create an immersive, panoramic experience intended to compete with the widespread adoption of television. In addition to a wide aspect ratio, the anamorphic aesthetic is characterized by horizontal flares, distortion that creates a unique sense of depth or dimensionality, and oval “bokeh” or blur for out-of-focus areas. For these artistic reasons, anamorphic filmmaking has been enjoying a decades-long renaissance. However, due to the complexity and expense of the optics involved, anamorphic lenses are not readily available to most independent filmmakers. We believe there are stories best told with an anamorphic aesthetic, so we have developed an affordable 1.33x Anamorphic Adapter specifically for the iPhone 5/5S.

The very first run of $85 adapters has already been sold out, but there are still discounted ones available for $105 and $125, depending on how quick you are to back the project.

Now, you’ll still be shooting on an iPhone, so you’ll hit the usual problems with limited dynamic range, and good luck getting that classic anamorphic bokeh. But it’s certainly a lot cheaper than trying to buy a traditional anamorphic lens for a more professional camera.

(via NoFilmSchool)

Nominal iPhone video capture format, 16:9 aspect ratio

Raw anamorphic video capture before “de-squeeze”

Anamorphic video after de-squeeze, 2.4:1 aspect ratio

The post Shoot ultra-wide with new Kickstarter anamorphic iPhone lens appeared first on Imaging Resource.