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Anamorphic lens for drones. Is it a new thing?

Heindrich1988

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I've seen some beautiful cinematic videos shot on the Freewell Anamorphic lens recently, some shared by forum members here.

Doing some research, I was surprised to see that PGYTech and PolarPro, Freewell's two main competitors, don't even have an equivalent product. Searching on Chinese online retailers, I only found one other unbranded(?) lens offering 1.33x stretch, which I believe is actually more standard for such lenses.

This leads me to think, is it a new development for drone photography/videography? Do you guys consider it an important tool to have? Do you think Freewell's rivals will release alternatives any time soon?

I'm asking because I'm looking to buy my first filter(s) for my Mavic Air 2. From the research I've done, it seems that there is no qualitative difference between Freewell and PGYTech. However, I am currently in China, so PGYTech is more convenient and a bit cheaper compared to Freewell, so I would have chosen the PGYTech VND (2-5) for my first filter, which should cover all ND filter needs. BUT... if I want an Anamorphic lens, I might as well order my filters from Freewell too to get free delivery for orders over $99.
 
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I managed to find the name of the company with the 1.33x lens. It is indeed a Chinese company called Kase (卡色).

Its ND filters are a little cheaper than PGYTech, but its anamorphic lens is actually more expensive than the Freewell version. ($57 vs $40).

If I were rich, I'd be tempted to buy one to test it. But let's just say that whatever their products are like, their marketing is awful. They don't even seem to have an official website, and instead have local affiliates selling their products via their own websites. (I found a UK version and an Australian version).

This is a poor effort to market this product on their official(?) YouTube channel.

 
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Nostalgia! The propellers are visible, as in the days of the Phantom! :D
 
I was excited about trying an anamorphic lens, but my experience was not that great. I first tried a less expensive one for the Mavic Air 2 that I found on Amazon. The edges were not sharp at all. Unacceptable really. I returned it. Next, I tried the Freewell. That lens was sharp across the entire lens. The problem I ran into was that my video processing software, iMovie, and Wondershare Filmora9 did not know how to process them. They did not expand them so the final result looked compressed from the sides. If someone has used those filters successfully with iMovie, I'd like to know how they did it.
 
I was excited about trying an anamorphic lens, but my experience was not that great. I first tried a less expensive one for the Mavic Air 2 that I found on Amazon. The edges were not sharp at all. Unacceptable really. I returned it. Next, I tried the Freewell. That lens was sharp across the entire lens. The problem I ran into was that my video processing software, iMovie, and Wondershare Filmora9 did not know how to process them. They did not expand them so the final result looked compressed from the sides. If someone has used those filters successfully with iMovie, I'd like to know how they did it.
I'm fairly certain that any video software requires a manual change to the aspect ratio to make the footage look correct. There's no way for the software to just know that your video is not supposed to be the standard aspect ratio. There are probably a number of Youtube tutorials on how to change the aspect ratio using those programs. (I don't use any of those, so I can offer no assistance there) I could help if you used Openshot or Hitfilm.
 
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