Test: Hawk C Anamorphics 35,50,75,100, 135mm

[Björn Benckert]

We just got our set of Hawk Anamorphic's delivered from Darryl Wood today. Short story, we are super happy with the delivery and the lenses. Just shot some frames out the window with all 5 lenses both in full 5k and in 5k Ana.

A sample:



More samples... also showing what each lens is covering in full epic 5k:

http://www.syndicate.se/Default.aspx?Id=116

user: hawk
pass: ana


Dont forget to click / zoom into the stills, I find the sharpness quite amazing considering those lenses are 2 x anamorphics. Love the way they focus separated from the blurs. Could not think of anything better to put infront of a epic. Now we can not wait, since when the dragon comes out of the cave, those lenses will shine even more.

The set is awailable for rent world wide from today. Just send me an email and I give you a estimate.

[Andy White]

Nice :)

Björn, are these the ones that need the blue streak filter adding (ie mid barrel anamorphics) or the ones that copied the old Lomo Roundfront designs?

Very jealous

[Joe G.]

It happened that the first one I clicked on seemed to have a lot of chromatic aberration:

A004_C003_0616F6.35mm 5k Ana v2.jpg

The vertical edges are going orange and blue. Was it just that lens?

[Björn Benckert]

That is chromatic aberration, it might be enhanced by the fact that Im shooting trough the window. But from comparing it to other wide anamorpics (this is a 35mm equal t oa 17mm square) I think this is better than anything else in that regard, panavsion included.

this one is the same lens but focused inside instead for on the wall outside...

http://www.syndicate.se/Files/~usr/h...205k%20Ana.jpg

[Kemalettin Sert]

whats the difference between these and vlites
http://instagr.am/p/KMsi3VPUCB/
we tested vlites on Epic 5K Ana mode i would share it if i find footage..

[Mark Toia]

Anamorphic Milk bottles... you have to love there characteristics. :)

[Björn Benckert]

Love the soft texture and the still preserved sharpness. Click on the images in the browser to see pixel 1:1
I just love how the focus separation is on these lenses... it looks like big productions from the 70's.

I was told the "C" in hawk-C stands for Compact... holding the 35mm in my hand makes me wonder about the size of the regular/ V 25mm :) it must be huge, our 35mm is as big as the epic, our follow focus barely fits underneath..

Also the V-lite are 1.5 x squeeze, to make 2.35 out of a 16:9 sensor. Then there is a V series that is the "studio line" i.e guess big lenses.. and then there is the C series that are the compacts that match the V series, the C's are suitable for steady cam work and such according to vantage web page still they are quite big and heavy lenses. the 35-100 in case weight about 23kg.

[Mark Toia]

Had a look through all your pics, There is some serious smear going in those shots... but that's what makes those lenses so charming.

I'd hate to do a big 3d post job using them, image 3d tracking that mess and trying to comp around all the lens distortion. Would do your head in...

That said, i wouldn't hesitate shooting them on a nice feature film. Who really cares about in pin sharp images corner to corner anyway. It's more about the richness that comes from that glass that is so appealing.

Have fun with those bottles mate, Look forward to seeing some cool shots from them.

[chad vachter]

what does a set of those go for ?

[Björn Benckert]

I think mark, that part of the smear is me shooting trough a dirty / wet window. But yes they are quite far from the look of ultra primes.
Regarding post (thats what i do) I think its really cool to work with lens oddities like this lenses have. We will shoot grids etc with each lens and make nuke / flame setups that makes the source from each lens perfectly rectlinear, flat and without cromatic aboration so we can get "perfect" out of these lenses. Then the 3D tracking and the post is not an issue. But also off course create setups so we can go in reverse so that we can warp our CG to fit the lens used.

But you are right it's far more easier to just shoot lenses like UP, MP or RPP an start of with a rather flat image. But I find that usually then thats what you end up with. Usually even if there is a lot of talk about adding flares etc in the process i find it so that if shot flat, then thats usually how it comes out in the end.

love the glare and light flares in those lenses and it's hard to recreate, But we actually have some ideas of making an image based flare plugin/spark using our milo and shooting frames of a precise light source hitting the sensor kind of "one light frame frame for each pixel". Then use transfer nodes to build up a light source that fills out the shape of a regular spline So that the light source can be square or any other size or shape. That would be a superb way of making post flares, not like the poor stuff we have today like the knoll flares or sapphires or such. Just need that day in a dark studio with the milo setup and nothing else to do, sadly that does not happen to often :)

We bought the hawks trough Darryl Wood / Spinningmirrror, I will not reveal the price here but he got a similar used set minus the 135mm on he's web page that goes for 89k USD if I remember correctly. I tried to get a quote directly from Vantage for a new set but no real reply, my guess is that Vantage rather be the only rental house in europe holding these babies so they are not interested of selling a set to some stupid swede... well, that did not really stop us did it :)