Sirui 50mm f1.8, an affordable lens for cinematic videos
7.2.2020
Translation: Eva Francis
This anamorphic lens creates videos in the aspect ratio of an ultra-wide motion picture film.
Sirui has released an anamorphic lens for considerably less than a thousand francs or euros. It’s designed to fit onto three versions for the following mounts: Fujifilm, Sony (E-Mount) and Panasonic/Olympus (Micro Four Thirds). The expected delivery date is the end of February 2020.
What’s an anamorphic lens?
An anamorphic lens projects a version of the image that’s compressed along the longer dimension, resulting in images in cinematic widescreen shots, i.e. with an aspect ratio of 2.4:1 or 21:9.
Of course you could just crop the image to the desired cinematic aspect ratio. But that would result in a narrower angle of vision. An anamorphic lens lets you create ultra-wide rectangular shots.
A wide-angle lens would also increase the angle of vision, but a shot with a 50-millimetre lens looks different from one with a wide-angle lens.
First impressions
The Sirui 50mm f/1.8 is operated manually. It has no autofocus and the aperture is adjusted by turning on the lens ring. Designed for cinematographers. The closest focusing distance is 85 cm.
I gave this a quick try and uses the Sony Alpha 6400, an APS-C camera. This lens isn’t suitable for full format. The image section corresponds to about 85 mm in full format.
My first impression of the image quality is very good. Theoretically, slight losses could occur due to the subsequent image distortion, but I didn't notice any of that.
The quality of the lens itself is also excellent: the housing is made of metal, everything feels solid, the lens rings are neither too light nor too hard to turn.
Our video crew is interested in the lens; we might soon have a professionally produced video to show you.
David Lee
Senior Editor
David.Lee@digitecgalaxus.chMy interest in IT and writing landed me in tech journalism early on (2000). I want to know how we can use technology without being used. Outside of the office, I’m a keen musician who makes up for lacking talent with excessive enthusiasm.
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