My first (film) camera When I was in my mid 20's (more than 30 years ago) I found out that a lot of epic Hollywood movies on TV were heavily cropped. Televisions back then had a 4:3 aspect ratio, but those movies were 16:9 and sometimes even wider. Back than most people preferred to watch the movie fullscreen (in stead of having black bars on the top and bottom of te screen). Where I lived there was one departmental store that sold a small selection of wide screen VHS tapes. I bought one (I think it was Bad Boys) and was immediately hooked. I started collecting more and more wide screen movies and eventually bought a Sony Wega 100 hertz widescreen television and a surround sound receiver, as soon as I could afford one, so I could enjoy them in full glory. I also discovered that my (film) camera had a panoramic setting. I didn't photograph much back then and only on vacations (which I didn't go on much), but I loved the pictures I shot in that wide aspect ratio (the camera just blacked out the top and bottom of the 35mm frame to achieve that look). The Sprocket Rocket Years later, going through my photo albums, I rediscovered those photos and started my quest for finding an affordable way of shooting panoramic again. In my research I ran into the Hasselblad XPAN. It was 750 euros. Way way way to too much money for a (film) camera I thought back then and I decided not to go for that option. Oh man, with hindsight I wish I invested my money in one of those cameras, looking at the prices they go for today (between 4.000,- and 5.000,- euros). In stead of the XPAN I bought a Sprocket Rocket and both enjoyed and struggled with that film camera. I liked the aspect ratio, but the hassle of having it developed and waiting for the results, the film wind system that keeps on turning (doesn't have a hard stop) resulting in double exposures, the difficult to guess focus distance and the soft (especially in the corners) lens, made me lose interest after going through a couple of rolls, So it was back to the drawing table. Google's Pixel 2 As I was more or less done with shooting film, I did some research into shooting panoramic digitally. By watching lots of YouTube videos I saw that there was another way of shooting in a wide aspect ratio and that was by shooting with anamorphic lenses. Although anamorphic lenses are and always were pretty expensive, there were cheaper options available. One was a smartphone lens made by the company Moment. I combined it with my Pixel 2 and loved the results, as long as there was enough light. The dynamic range and low light performance of my phone wasn't bad, but paled in comparison to my micro four third camera(s). So the search continued. Proskar anamorphic-16 My next step was buying a cheap anamorphic lens. Not easy, as most anamorphic lenses are incredibly expensive. They're also very cumbersome to use and to take with you. As you have to mount this anamorphic lens, with a clamp, on another (taking) lens and focus them separately. The pictures have to be stretched in post. I use photoshop on my Mac or Desqueeze on my iPad to get everything in the right proportions again. Not easy to get good results. Siriu's 50 mm f1.8 (1.33) So at one point I saw a kickstarter come by from Siriu for the 50 mm f1.8 anamorphic. It was pretty cheap if you compare it to other Anamorphic solutions. It was also a single lens, so no more fiddling with two lenses to get the subject in focus. They make it for various cameras, but I chose to order one for my Sony A7. I was and I still am very happy with that lens. The only downside is that you can't see the final result when looking at the back of the camera, because you see the picture in it's squeezed form factor. Sigma DP Quattro
Looking for inspiration to give my photography juices a new impulse, I not only looked at work made by other photographers, but also looked at gear. Especially, cheap alternative wide aspect ratio solutions (cameras and lenses). I saw a YouTube video made by the company MPB called "Digital Alternatives to the Hasselblad Xpan". One alternative shown was the Sigma DP Quattro, a camera that used the (in)famous Foveon sensor. I was intrigued by the Foveon sensor since I heard of it, many years ago. These (Foveon) Sigma cameras had several quirks preventing it from becoming a succes with photographers. The cameras were slow, pictures were terribly noisy when shot in low light (above ISO 200), pictures get a green hue when shot into the sun and these cameras produce big RAW files which are not editable in Photoshop but have to be processed in Sigma's slow as molasses photo editor. But why buy such a camera with all these down sides. Well, the picture quality produced by the Sigma DP Quattro is amazing under the right circumstances!! I'm still getting used to its quirks but I already have quite some pictures I'm very satisfied with. See the pictures below to get an impression of the pictures it makes (I made). So for now, this is my last stop on this wide aspect ratio journey of mine.
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AuthorHarry Bouman Archives
September 2023
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