Arri Alexa Mini LF + Statera 1.5x Full Frame Anamorphic Lens Test
This test is presented on Youtube for easy chapter marker reference, however I have also made the test available on Vimeo.
I recently tested out the new Statera 1.5x Full Frame Anamorphic lenses from Ancient Optics and Old Fast Glass on the Alexa Mini LF and I am blown away!
Chapters
00:00:00 50mm T 2.2
00:01:05 50mm Flare
00:03:51 50mm Portrait
00:04:29 50mm T 2.8
00:05:02 50mm T4
00:05:52 50mm Flare T2.2 - T4
00:06:12 75mm T 2.1
00:07:27 75mm Flare T2.1
00:09:03 75mm Portrait T 2.8
00:09:52 75mm T 2.8
00:10:30 75mm Close Focus
00:11:19 75mm Portrait T4
00:11:38 75mm Portrait T4 - T2.1
00:11:50 75mm Close Focus T4
00:12:10 75mm Close Focus T 2.1
00:12:20 100mm T2.2
00:14:19 100mm Flare T2.2
00:17:06 100mm Flare T4
00:18:07 100mm T4
00:19:09 100mm Close Focus T2.2
00:19:32 100mm Close Focus T2.2
00:20:06 100mm Close Focus T4
00:22:24 135mm T2.9
00:23:25 135mm T4
00:24:02 135mm Flare
00:26:31 135mm Close Focus T2.9
00:26:48 135mm Close Focus T4
00:27:14 135mm T2.9 Handheld B Roll
They are absolutely stunning lenses with a lot of character wide open, and they seem to hit their sweet spot when stopped down around a T/4, becoming much sharper and cleaner. They really are like having 2 sets of lenses in one - a vintage, bloomy, funky anamorphic look when shot wide open, and a very crisp, clean, modern look when stopped down.
I tested the 50mm, 75mm, 100mm and 135mm. These lenses are fast at T/2.2, T/2.1, T/2.2, and T2.9 respectively. The silver housings are very unique and well constructed with no telescoping or rotating fronts (a common issue on several older anamorphic lenses). They have large, uniform focus and iris gears, making your AC's life easier, and consistent 125mm front diameters, making adding a matte box on effortless.
They also have incredible close focus, with the 75mm able to achieve a 1'6" close focus. But with that speed and macro focusing ability does come the one drawback to them, their considerable size. The 100mm and 135mm are very large with the 135mm weighing in at over 10lbs.
The 50mm and 75mm are smaller, but are still larger in size compared to lenses like the Atlas Mercury and Xelmus Apollo lenses. To me that is a minor trade off for having the ability to get 2 very unique looks out of each lens, and to have the 1.5x bokeh look and feel more like a traditional 2x on a Super 35mm sensor.
These lenses are a new collaboration between Ancient Optics and OFG, built from the ground up and based on Japanese style optical designs like Todd AO, Cineovision & Xtal Xpress (some of my all time favorite anamorphic lenses). I'm very excited to see the 35mm and 40mm which are in development and set to release early next year.
The footage in the test has a fairly dense LUT applied which I used to see how it would these lenses would look for a particular project. Above is an example of the footage with the LUT and in Rec709 out of camera. There are also many other videos from these lenses available in 4K and Rec709 on Old Fast Glass website, check them out here.
What lenses do you want to see tested next? Leave your thoughts in the comment section below!
