Reviewing the Vazen Anamorphic Lenses
Anamorphic lenses deliver a distinct set of visual characteristics and bring what some filmmakers refer to as a textured, unnatural and even filmic look to their work. In this in-depth review, I’m going to explore the visual characteristics, user experience behind the Vazen Anamorphic lenses in 28mm and 40mm focal lengths.
Overview
The Vazen anamorphic lenses are an affordable alternative to more well-known Anamorphic lenses used in bigger productions. Available as a set including a 65, 40 and 28mm, the Vazens come in either Canon RF mount or Micro-Four Thirds mounts. Although these lenses have been around for a while, I finally got a chance to try out the 28mm and 40mm lenses, thanks to Vazen reaching out to me for a review here on the channel. The big question is, did the Vazens live up to my expectations, or did they fall short?
Usage
Using the Vazen Anamorphic lenses introduces a caveat—the 40mm and 28mm lenses, while visually compatible, don't play nice together in terms of size, weight, and focus gearing. The significant difference in dimensions and the absence of a filter thread on the 40mm lens necessitate adjustments, adding time to lens swaps. Filmmakers integrating matte boxes or follow focuses into their workflow should consider these nuances.
Focus Throw
When it comes to pulling focus and iris, the 40mm Vazen has a 300 degreee rotation and the iris ring has a 90 degree rotation. On the other hand, the 28mm's focus throw is 120 degrees. I feel like this makes for a disjointed user experience when using the lenses together as a set. Now when shooting with these lenses independently, this isn't so much of a problem. The 28mm is especially pleasant to use when filming solo, with the 40mm being a bit on the cumbersome side for handheld use.
When paired together, the Vazen anamorphic lenses unfortunately make for a disjointed user experience.
Coverage
Both the 28 and 40mm Vazen Anamorphic lenses have a 1.8x squeeze factor and are meant to cover a Super 35 sensor. This produces a 2.39:1 Cinescope format when desqueezed from the 4:3 format. Since the RED Komodo does it’s desqueezing in camera thanks to a variety of built-in anamorphic modes, I didn’t have to do any work in post to de-sequeeze. This in my opinion makes the Vazens a great pairing with the RED Komodo.
In terms of sensor coverage, Vazen states on their website that in the RF mount version, the 40mm lens covers the full height of the RED Komodo and Canon C70 sensors, giving you a vignette free image. One thing they didn't mention is that you need to be in a 4:3 anamorphic mode to avoid the vignette. When shooting in 3:2 anamorphic mode on the RED Komodo with the 40mm lens, I did experience very strong vignetting that gets even stronger when you stop down. Even in 4:3 anamorphic mode on the Komodo, I still experienced vignetting, especially at higher T-Stops. As I opened up the iris, the vignette began to disappear around T4.
So even though Vazen advertises that the 40mm as vignette-free, I found that that wasn't the case. The 28mm does vignette in 6K 4:3 anamorphic on the Komodo quite heavily, which might be a huge negative for some. Personally, the vignetting is something I can deal with by simply cropping the image in post, but it’s not always optimal. Cropping a little bit of the shot isn’t the end of the world for me, especially since I’m shooting in the 6K anamorphic mode on the Komodo. On the other hand, if you’re shooting in 4K on a camera like the Canon C70, this might be a deal-breaker.
Minimum Focus Distance
As with most anamorphic lenses, the Vazens pose a bit of a challenge when it comes to shooting close to the subject. The minimum focus distance of both the 28mm and the 40mm is 2.7 feet from the front element of the lens, meaning you aren’t going to get right up onto your subject without the use of a diopter. On these shots, I did use a +1 diopter from Lindsay Optics to get as close as possible to my subject.
Characteristics
Now with all of that out of the way…I think that the beauty of these lenses, or any anamorphic lens for that matter is the imperfect and almost unnratural look it brings to the footage. From the flaring, distortion, breathing and distinct oval orbs in the bokeh, the Vazen anamorphic lenses bring those characteristics without being overly aggressive…yet still more pronounced that the cheaper competition.
Flaring
When choosing an anamorphic lens for my project, there’s a good chance I’m doing so to get the distinct horizontal flaring that anamorphic lenses produce. With that said, I don’t always want an over-the-top flare that many anamorphic lenses are known for. With the Vazen Anamorphic lenses, depending on the light source and angle that light hits the lens, you will definitely see the distinct blue flaring and it stands out in the frame. I don’t tend to favor an aggressive flaring, so I found the flaring on the Vazens to be generally pleasing, fairly easy to control and overall, not too distracting.
Bokeh
As my taste in cinematography evolves and changes, I find myself desiring an out-of-focus area with interesting character. The bokeh that the Vazen anamorphic lenses produce brings that unique oval pattern to the image with some slight cutting towards the outer edges of the frame. I personally like the imperfection of the cutting. Now the other aspects of the out-of-focus areas can be described as slightly smeared, a bit organic and even swirly with the right amount of detail in the subject. Ultimately, this turns out to be my favorite characteristic of the Vazens.
Distortion
Another distinct anamorphic characteristic is the unique distortion at the widest edges of the shots. The Vazen anamorphic lenses have barrel distortion that bows out vertical lines towards the outer edges of the frame. As I expected due to it being a wider focal length, the distortion is a lot more evident on the 28mm. This type of distortion can comes across distracting and can even be looked down upon from fans of spherical lenses but I feel that this often comes down to being a stylistic choice.
Breathing
The focus breathing is fairly significant on the Vazens. From what I gather in my brief experience with anamorphic lenses as a whole, this is a common trait and it’s nothing to freak out over. This comes down to yet another stylistic choice.
Sharpness
On a 6K sensor like the RED Komodo, these lenses are very soft when shooting wide open, especially in the corners of the frame but they start to sharpen up as you stop down. I feel like the softness does make it a little bit more difficult to nail focus when shooting solo but what I’ve found is that the sweet spot on both the 28 and 40mm Vazens is in the T4-T5.6 range.
I found that when shooting at higher T-Stops, the image sharpens up significantly but more often than not, if I’m shooting on an anamorphic lens, I’m doing so to take advantage of the look when shooting with the lens opened up. Again, this comes down to personal preference and a stylistic choice but I did feel that the Vazens were a bit too much on the soft side for my liking.
Why I Like Shooting Anamorphic
Having shot on just a few different anamorphic lenses, including the Sirui line and Atlas Orions, I’m finding that the more I shoot on Anamorphic lenses, the more I love the aesthetics they bring to my shots. I love the widescreen format that anamorphic lenses provide, especially at a time when more and more content is being produced for vertical screens, whether we like it or not. With the organic characteristics of the bokeh, breathing and flaring…I simply can’t ignore lenses like the Vazen anamorphics when considering which lenses to choose for my projects.
In conclusion, despite their downfalls when it comes to the 40mm’s cumbersome size and the set’s overall mis-matched pairing, visually…the Vazen Anamorphic lenses have provided some of my work a bit more of a distinct look and feel. At a time where camera gear is so accessible and more and more creators are cranking out content at such a rapid pace, a bit of character is an absolutely welcome addition to a filmmaker’s arsenal of lenses.