American Cinematographer - May 2017 - 65

Test C looked at
the flare
characteristics of
spherical and
anamorphic
lenses, and at the
difference
between the flares
created by
anamorphic
primes and a
zoom lens with a
rear anamorph.

3. Test A, Part 1 -
Spherical vs. Anamorphic
In our first test we compared
three sets of spherical and anamorphic
lenses, all at the same distance to our
subjects. (The spherical shots are on the
left, indicated by an orange "S," and the
anamorphic are on the right, indicated
by a yellow "A.")
Because of their twofold squeeze,
anamorphic lenses have a horizontal
angle of view that is twice as wide as a
spherical lens of the same focal length at
the same camera position.
This bears out in our first test.
The spherical lenses have angles of view
similar to anamorphic lenses with twice
the focal length. For example S-75 (a
75mm spherical lens) has about the
same horizontal angle of view as A-135
(a 135mm anamorphic lens). Note that
we started our comparison with prime
lenses and didn't have access to a
150mm anamorphic.
One way to think about an
anamorphic lens is to say that it
combines the properties of two different
spherical lenses:

* A depth of field similar to that of a
spherical lens with the same focal length
(admittedly, this is an oversimplification, but a useful one given the narrow
scope of this particular test; in fact,
anamorphic lenses display different
depths of field vertically, horizontally
and diagonally - in other words, it's
complicated)
* An angle of view similar to that of a
spherical lens with half the focal length
In this example, the anamorphic
50mm has an angle of view similar to
the 27mm spherical; however the
50mm background is closer to the
50mm spherical in terms of depth of
field - Adrien, in the background, is
soft.
Put another way, with the same
horizontal composition from the same
camera position, anamorphic has less
depth of field than spherical. The result
is that a character in the same frame will
appear more isolated from the environment in anamorphic than in spherical. In
some circumstances this apparent isolation can also convey greater intimacy.
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There is another aspect to the
dual qualities of anamorphic lenses. As
Pierre-Hugues pointed out to me, he
feels it's natural to shoot a close-up with
a 50mm anamorphic, but less so with a
27mm spherical. In other words, the
reduced depth of field of the anamorphic composition offers a unique
combination of a close-up feeling with a
wide-shot frame.
4. Test A, Part 2 - Bokehs
Note that, while the depth of field
is similar between S-50 and A-50, the
quality of the out-of-focus image is not.
This is evident in the luminous bokehs
of the lightbulb on the left and the lens
light on the right. Bokeh is derived from
a Japanese word that has been adopted
in discussions of optics to denote what's
out of focus in an image. The soft-focus
lightbulb on the left is circular in the
spherical images, but it becomes a tall
oval in anamorphic.
The luminous bokehs are an
obvious indication of what's happening
to the entire soft-focus image.
Everything that is out of focus is elonMay 2017

65
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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - May 2017
