The Caldwell Chameleon Anamorphic prime lenses offer a retro anamorphic look with modern mechanics. The entire 1.79x squeeze set, 48mm, 60mm, 75mm, 90mm, 112mm, & 150mm will cover full frame sensors and offer the traditional optical aberrations and flare characteristics unique to front anamorphic lenses. The Chameleon Primes employ a Stokes focus system that creates a fairly unique focusing experience compared to many other anamorphic primes. The aesthetic result is the compression of the subject in the vertical plane only. This creates an artistic “attention pull” without creating a “zoom” effect as well. Also, this system helps maintain a constant anamorphic compression across the entire field of view. This more uniform compression helps reduce the “mumps syndrome” that occurs in many other anamorphic lens designs. The complete set can also be converted to Super 35 coverage for cinematographers hoping to capture more edge aberration and optical character on smaller formats.
Cooke’s full frame anamorphic prime’s feature a 1.8x squeeze factor to allow these lenses to fully cover large format sensors like those found in the ALEXA LF and Sony Venice. These lenses produce Cookes warm color pallet with unique anamorphic effects caused by the uncommon squeeze factor. They also feature the Cooke i/Data protocol for sending lens metadata to the camera system.
The Laowa Rangers are a pair of lightweight full frame zooms. Available in 28-75mm and 75-180mm T2.9, these zooms provide filmmakers with a compact and high quality zoom perfect for steadicam or handheld work. They produce a reasonably sharp and attractive image with rounded bokeh. The two zooms are optically similar in terms of performance and quality.
