We definitely recommend shimming your mount or adapter if you notice your new anamorphic lenses look soft. Our lenses are shimmed by hand before they ship. The mount or adapter is almost always the culprit!
These lenses are absolutely beautiful. Very interesting that we can get 2x with this much character at a true affordable price point. I hope other companies follow suite. Really nice footage and I'm excited to see you use them more.
I love the character of these lenses. Maybe they're not for every project or user, but I think for narrative films they're excellent. Look forward to see what you capture with the final releases.
I'm not going to pretend I understand adjusting back focus, or shimming lenses or adapters, but I do enjoy your videos man. Thanks for putting the effort into reviewing these.
Way better and less "strange" than the DZP Pavo. Different then the rather sharp & clean Laowa Proteus (which are great). If these are sub 3K €, it would be wild.
damn these are beautiful! do you think you could make a comparison between CATOs and Remuses please? I seriously cant decide what i like more now haha.
I really want to see a comparison with the Remus and the Cato! I'm on a super 35 sensor and I'm wondering which I should go with.
2 місяці тому
the shots at 4:30 look soooooooo awesome i love it. I only hope Blazar can fix the multicolored flare thing. The mix of amber, green and even blue ... not so much my thing the rest, for a shoot with a lot of character and a super vintage natural look ... i love it
Cat video, check. Dance party disco strobe light at end, check. Think the only thing missing was that inspirational van-life music and this would go viral! Definitely like that Blazar let you put these lenses through their paces!
You rock man!! Bought your LUTs 👌I see a choice for arri PL or EF. Not sure which one is should get. Can you change the PL to EF like the great joy lenses?
Love the look so far. The look comes pretty close to something like Aivascope 1.75x, with ''cheaper'' flare but better contrast and micro contrast in the center. And way usable than the Remus due to 2x with better distortion on the edges.
I love the aivascope! I just hate trying to hack together parts and don’t trust it on shoots. For the price point I think these Catos are win for that fact alone. Of course anyone who’s comfortable on building a confident build will feel different. But personally I rather not deal with all of that and these Catos are getting that similar look we all want with the barrel distortion and overall feeling
Yeah I think overall these have a mix of vibes from some of all of our favorite anamorphics! The price point is going to be crazy too. Kid a crazy that Blazar stepped up out of nowhere and gave us what we all wanted while making it affordable. I’m sure they have other crazy stuff in the works for more expensive price ranges too
Thanks Cam 👊 great composition & color as always,, even if it was just backyard pet footage this time😆 .. I'm just amazed Blazar/Great Joy just keeps pumping out more n more anamorphics.. It's a shame.. I expected more from Vazen.. can't believe they're just done.. think they priced themselves out of their customer base.. but these came out nice.. I was kinda bummed when I seen all 'silver' flares and no blue.. until I saw your footage.. now I'm glad they did neutral.. cause they pulled it off well.. I was and still am a bit concerned about 2x squeeze for full fame.. but I can always do S35 instead to keep things traditional.. my only concerns are price, as it's not announced from what I can tell.. and which focal length to get.. what do you think.. if just getting one.. 50mm or 85? The Remus I was set on 65.. I'm leaning 85 I guess.. it's just kinda tight then for S35.. idk, guess I got time to think about it.. love the bokeh.. very intense.. I also like how they make them look a bit like Panavision lenses with the logo placement hah.. very warm Cali look to this video,, compared to your usual 'warm Arizona' look.. must be all the green,, thanks again ✌️
@@cammackey the only thing is... I still have the Vazen 40mm T2... its big, its heavy, its MFT mount.., but its a really nice lens.. and although I generally prefer normal/wide focal lengths and feel they're the best 'do it all' lenses.. (with a range of diopters) ,, I'd like to focus on longer lenses.. I like the Ridley Scott anamorphic vibe hah, and atleast ill still get plenty horizontal field.. I should probably just ditch the Vazen or get the 65 Remus, idk.. imagine this lens.., but with that Laowa 50-100 zoom range??? that would be dreamy.. likely a giant, expensive lens though.. so with the Remus costing $950 right now...., I'd love to see this for $2k or less.. $1.2k would be cool.. but then ppl probably won't want the Remus lol.. i wonder how it is though using 2x stretch on FF... I thought they often did the smaller stretch factors like 1.3x, 1.5x... on the FF anamorphics to combat with such a wide sensor.. would be nice if the ZV-E1 actually had some anamorphic firmware
My men amazing job ❤ for fx3 equivalent of 35mm Cato or remus ? I misunderstoof all those crop factors : too much info 😅 I think 50mm cato is equivalent 32mm
@@cammackey really hoping for something like $1200 per lens but honestly i have no idea how much they cost to make.
5 місяців тому
People: I want Anamorphics to be sharper! also People: Spherical Lenses look to clinical and sharp! also People: That camera is oversharpening! also People: Now let's add film simulation and soften everything up, a mist filter to get rid of the sharpening and now let's export it at 1080p for the clients and watch it on mobile phones ... I really want to try these ^^ I am such a fan of vintage anamorphics but th hassle with building them is something i do not miss at all^^ i hope one day there are lenses that simply look like a hypergonar on a helios. I have high hopes for the CATO ^^
It depends what I’m filming! If it’s something narrative or I just wanted to use 2x.. then sure. Just make sure you have a decent monitor so you can punch in to the 2X destretched 16x9 image. I’ll still be using the Remus a LOT.
I can't believe that we have access to 2x large format anamorpics that are actually affordable, have lots of character and nice barrel distortion. This is a dream for us indie film makers!
Agreed!!! I’m sure down the road we’ll get more expensive options with cleaner optics.. but honestly I love all the “defects” in this era. Everything is so clean and perfect and it takes me out of image. I prefer to be swooned.
@@eszesfilms1651 They aren't on retail yet so we don't really know, but Blazar did say in interviews that they would resemble the Remus competitive pricing but for 2x. So not super specific, but I would guess below $3000 per lens, and maybe below $2000, but there is no way to know for sure until they hit retail markets.
Thanks for this video Cam! They look awesome and I can't wait to get my hands on one of these lenses. It's a long lasting whish for me to shoot with 2x anamorphic while being affordable.
Crazy how GreatJoy has managed to pivot branding and continue innovating to this degree. The focal sharpness on these seems MUCH improved now that they're properly shimmed.
hey thank you so much for this review. i want to go to an amorphic setup with the blazar (i don't know for now if i will choose the cato or the remus). I was wondering, to your opinion between the BMCC and the S5iix what is the most useful camera for anamorphic shooting? are you thinking to make a comparison between bmcc/s5x/fx3 with these lens? or is it useless as the image quality and the ability to shoot anamorphic is more or less the same with these cameras? thank you so much :)
The Philip Bloom reference made me lol. I’m waiting for B&H notification for availability for these. Love your passion Cam thanks for putting out great content I love the style
Yeah they’re wild! And I wouldn’t say I like them more or less than the Remus. They are two different tools. For instance, I’m about to leave for a commercial job and I really wanna take the Catos.. but the brand needs vertical usage on top of horizontal.. so I’ll be taking the Remus instead
@@cammackey Definitely makes sense. Sick that the brand is cool with the anamorphic characteristics! Can't wait to shoot some guitar playthroughs on the Remus set. Thanks for bringin those to the attention of everyone!
Do you have enough time to do a side by side with the Remus? Or maybe if not make a video comparing these two based on your impressions? Would you say these are sharper than the Remus?
Wide open the Catos are cleaner. Closed down they’re similar I think. But they’re two totally different tools. 1.5X will work better for some people and some people just want 2X. They both have similar types of distortion and looks overall
thank for your lens test. This is a lens I was very curious about. Through testing, I learned about the focus performance and characteristics of the lens. I have one question, 8:42 wide open, 85, T 2.8, 65, open gate mode.... I cannot understand...what dose that means? In particular, what does '65 open gate mode' mean?
So I was shooting on the BMCC6K which has a 6:5 Full Frame Open Gate mode! Essentially it’s just the 3:2 open gate mode but with the sides cropped off more. It delivers a perfect 2.4:1 final aspect ratio on a 2X anamorphic lens
@@cammackey Thank you for your answer. So you're saying you used 3:2 open gate mode. As mentioned in the previous video, you are talking about shooting using 3:2 open gate mode and then cropping it to 2.40:1, right? Are you referring to it as 6:5 open gate mode? You're not using 6:5 anamorphic mode, are you? This point was very confusing. 6:5 means anamorphic mode. Anyway, thank you for the reply and the video. I hope you always do your best.
This may be a stupid question (I’m fairly new to the world of filmmaking and such), but how do you operate the camera while pulling focus? Specifically when doing run and gun esque stuff? I’ve seen that wireless focus system you’ve been using. It seems great but you have to have the actual dial mounted to a phone. Do you mount the dial to the rig somehow and adjust focus that way? Or do you just directly dial it in via twisting the focus ring?
Ok now this looks brilliant! Tried to find their prices but seems like not announced yet? What I like about Blazars is that they seem to have so much character that don't need any extra "artificial" dehancing in post.
@@cammackey I'm sorry but one last question: Do you need to shim the EF version (have zero experience also don't know if I can buy the needed tools for it) because I'm aiming for it due to weather sealing and ease of using back VND. I know some PL lenses extend from the back, and these lenses actually can interchange between PL and EF by buying the $99 mounts. The Meike EF-to-E has a good weather sealing to the E-mount, and the EF mount can be gaff-taped if needed as we have a very wet season for like 3 months during summer "monsoon" in Dhofar, Oman. Planning to get either these or the Remus and might use them to film some "interesting" looking wildlife/nature beauty short film which can get pretty wet on my A7SIII. Thanks a lot in advance.
That’s not entirely what they said. They were saying it won’t cover the full coverage of full frame open gate.. meaning outside of a standard 2.4:1 delivery you’ll get vignetting on the wider focal lengths. But majority of final deliverables are within 2.4:1, including almost every anamorphic film. So they’re just disclosing the full boundaries of the lenses. But in short, they will cover FF 16X9 and FF 6:5
We definitely recommend shimming your mount or adapter if you notice your new anamorphic lenses look soft. Our lenses are shimmed by hand before they ship. The mount or adapter is almost always the culprit!
These lenses are absolutely beautiful. Very interesting that we can get 2x with this much character at a true affordable price point. I hope other companies follow suite. Really nice footage and I'm excited to see you use them more.
Love the look of the sample footage !! 👀 great job Cam!
this looks so much better oh my goodness. great shots too!
i mean they looked good before but that shimming really helped!
Yes accurate back focus is beyond important t!!!
Philip Bloom would love this 🐈 🤣🤣🤣
I love the character of these lenses. Maybe they're not for every project or user, but I think for narrative films they're excellent. Look forward to see what you capture with the final releases.
Agreed!!
right, i have their 1.8x lens and I love the character that it produces
I'm not going to pretend I understand adjusting back focus, or shimming lenses or adapters, but I do enjoy your videos man. Thanks for putting the effort into reviewing these.
Way better and less "strange" than the DZP Pavo. Different then the rather sharp & clean Laowa Proteus (which are great). If these are sub 3K €, it would be wild.
damn these are beautiful! do you think you could make a comparison between CATOs and Remuses please? I seriously cant decide what i like more now haha.
Good idea!!
Now that the back focus is fixed they look absolutely amazing.
I really want to see a comparison with the Remus and the Cato! I'm on a super 35 sensor and I'm wondering which I should go with.
the shots at 4:30 look soooooooo awesome i love it. I only hope Blazar can fix the multicolored flare thing. The mix of amber, green and even blue ... not so much my thing the rest, for a shoot with a lot of character and a super vintage natural look ... i love it
Cat video, check. Dance party disco strobe light at end, check. Think the only thing missing was that inspirational van-life music and this would go viral! Definitely like that Blazar let you put these lenses through their paces!
i cant wait for these lens!
Did I just hear Cam say he likes neutral flares?!
He’s seeing the light
That ending was enough to sell me on the Catos.
You rock man!! Bought your LUTs 👌I see a choice for arri PL or EF. Not sure which one is should get. Can you change the PL to EF like the great joy lenses?
We here for it
I guess it was a must to film your cats with the CATOs 😅
Is that a cat joke?! Haha these are my roommates cats so I don’t get it 😂😂😂
@@cammackey It was supposed to be a pun because of the cat in the CATO.
@@MrCoffis hahahaha I get it not. Geeze I’m dense hahaha
Love the look so far. The look comes pretty close to something like Aivascope 1.75x, with ''cheaper'' flare but better contrast and micro contrast in the center. And way usable than the Remus due to 2x with better distortion on the edges.
I love the aivascope! I just hate trying to hack together parts and don’t trust it on shoots. For the price point I think these Catos are win for that fact alone. Of course anyone who’s comfortable on building a confident build will feel different. But personally I rather not deal with all of that and these Catos are getting that similar look we all want with the barrel distortion and overall feeling
@@cammackey Same thought, Catos are more solid and I like the pricing of Great joy/ Blazar too.
Off cat - "Philip Bloom would love this" hahaha - I was just gonna say, T2.8 is giving me HAWK vibes ala Shogun. That's insane actually
Yeah I think overall these have a mix of vibes from some of all of our favorite anamorphics! The price point is going to be crazy too. Kid a crazy that Blazar stepped up out of nowhere and gave us what we all wanted while making it affordable. I’m sure they have other crazy stuff in the works for more expensive price ranges too
Thanks Cam 👊 great composition & color as always,, even if it was just backyard pet footage this time😆 .. I'm just amazed Blazar/Great Joy just keeps pumping out more n more anamorphics.. It's a shame.. I expected more from Vazen.. can't believe they're just done.. think they priced themselves out of their customer base.. but these came out nice.. I was kinda bummed when I seen all 'silver' flares and no blue.. until I saw your footage.. now I'm glad they did neutral.. cause they pulled it off well.. I was and still am a bit concerned about 2x squeeze for full fame.. but I can always do S35 instead to keep things traditional.. my only concerns are price, as it's not announced from what I can tell.. and which focal length to get.. what do you think.. if just getting one.. 50mm or 85? The Remus I was set on 65.. I'm leaning 85 I guess.. it's just kinda tight then for S35.. idk, guess I got time to think about it.. love the bokeh.. very intense.. I also like how they make them look a bit like Panavision lenses with the logo placement hah.. very warm Cali look to this video,, compared to your usual 'warm Arizona' look.. must be all the green,, thanks again ✌️
I would 100% do the 50!! What would you say is a good price for these?
@@cammackey the only thing is... I still have the Vazen 40mm T2... its big, its heavy, its MFT mount.., but its a really nice lens.. and although I generally prefer normal/wide focal lengths and feel they're the best 'do it all' lenses.. (with a range of diopters) ,, I'd like to focus on longer lenses.. I like the Ridley Scott anamorphic vibe hah, and atleast ill still get plenty horizontal field.. I should probably just ditch the Vazen or get the 65 Remus, idk.. imagine this lens.., but with that Laowa 50-100 zoom range??? that would be dreamy.. likely a giant, expensive lens though.. so with the Remus costing $950 right now...., I'd love to see this for $2k or less.. $1.2k would be cool..
but then ppl probably won't want the Remus lol.. i wonder how it is though using 2x stretch on FF... I thought they often did the smaller stretch factors like 1.3x, 1.5x... on the FF anamorphics to combat with such a wide sensor..
would be nice if the ZV-E1 actually had some anamorphic firmware
The top and bottom blur of the 50 is awesome, thanks for the test
My men amazing job ❤ for fx3 equivalent of 35mm Cato or remus ?
I misunderstoof all those crop factors : too much info 😅
I think 50mm cato is equivalent 32mm
I just ordered the Remus but now I'm thinking about canceling the order so I can see the price of the Cato.
How much do these cost per lens? Can’t find answer
Pardon my ignorance but will the production lenses come shimmed or is that best left to the filmmaker? Love seeing that anamorphic magic!
Im not sure honestly, I will ask when production comes closer
How much will a set of four cost? No reason just wondering
Lol
Great footage! Ordering the cato
What's the price on these? Can't find anything anywhere
Hmmm... I wish the flares were a little bit more subdued. Still the sharpness looks pretty good.
Well.. I was blasting flash lights directly into the lens from 3 feet away haha. They’re more subtle in real life
@@cammackey true lol
1:40 top tier flare humour
😂😂😂😂
Oh wow the price of that lens projector 😂!!!!! I guess it's a specialized tool that's gonna make 10x the investment.
When will we get a price for these? Really hoping they're not too expensive
What do you think they should be priced at?
@@cammackey really hoping for something like $1200 per lens but honestly i have no idea how much they cost to make.
People: I want Anamorphics to be sharper!
also People: Spherical Lenses look to clinical and sharp!
also People: That camera is oversharpening!
also People: Now let's add film simulation and soften everything up, a mist filter to get rid of the sharpening and now let's export it at 1080p for the clients and watch it on mobile phones ... I really want to try these ^^ I am such a fan of vintage anamorphics but th hassle with building them is something i do not miss at all^^ i hope one day there are lenses that simply look like a hypergonar on a helios. I have high hopes for the CATO ^^
Love your videos! What was the 10 day filming job?
Don’t want say the brand but it’s western commercial stuff
The Mateus Asato of photography
Really hoping it stays below 1.300$
will it works on Ronin 4d?
@makeartnow got them to work I think!
What lut are you using for your blackmagic footage?
Mine ;) link in description
@@cammackey I might be an idiot lol, but none say they're for black magic! What one do I grab haha
Would you put this on the FX3 or would you recommend the Remus?
It depends what I’m filming! If it’s something narrative or I just wanted to use 2x.. then sure. Just make sure you have a decent monitor so you can punch in to the 2X destretched 16x9 image. I’ll still be using the Remus a LOT.
What adapter did you use for fx3 ? 🙏🏻
How do they compare to the 1.5x Remus that I just bought :D
They’re similar, but 2X! Haha. I’ll still be using my REMUS a lot!
What's the aspect ratio of this video?
😍😍😍😍😍
Hey Cam let’s be friends! You seem cool
I still wanna be like you when I grow up 💅🏽
I can't believe that we have access to 2x large format anamorpics that are actually affordable, have lots of character and nice barrel distortion. This is a dream for us indie film makers!
Agreed!!! I’m sure down the road we’ll get more expensive options with cleaner optics.. but honestly I love all the “defects” in this era. Everything is so clean and perfect and it takes me out of image. I prefer to be swooned.
where is the price?
@@eszesfilms1651 They aren't on retail yet so we don't really know, but Blazar did say in interviews that they would resemble the Remus competitive pricing but for 2x. So not super specific, but I would guess below $3000 per lens, and maybe below $2000, but there is no way to know for sure until they hit retail markets.
You rock man!! I see a choice for arri PL or EF. Not sure which one is should get. Can you change the PL to EF like the great joy lenses?
Thanks for this video Cam! They look awesome and I can't wait to get my hands on one of these lenses. It's a long lasting whish for me to shoot with 2x anamorphic while being affordable.
Crazy how GreatJoy has managed to pivot branding and continue innovating to this degree. The focal sharpness on these seems MUCH improved now that they're properly shimmed.
hey thank you so much for this review. i want to go to an amorphic setup with the blazar (i don't know for now if i will choose the cato or the remus). I was wondering, to your opinion between the BMCC and the S5iix what is the most useful camera for anamorphic shooting?
are you thinking to make a comparison between bmcc/s5x/fx3 with these lens? or is it useless as the image quality and the ability to shoot anamorphic is more or less the same with these cameras?
thank you so much :)
The Philip Bloom reference made me lol. I’m waiting for B&H notification for availability for these. Love your passion Cam thanks for putting out great content I love the style
Wow man these are insane! I know these are just the pre-production lenses are you liking them more than the Remus rn?
Yeah they’re wild! And I wouldn’t say I like them more or less than the Remus. They are two different tools. For instance, I’m about to leave for a commercial job and I really wanna take the Catos.. but the brand needs vertical usage on top of horizontal.. so I’ll be taking the Remus instead
@@cammackey Definitely makes sense. Sick that the brand is cool with the anamorphic characteristics!
Can't wait to shoot some guitar playthroughs on the Remus set. Thanks for bringin those to the attention of everyone!
Do you have enough time to do a side by side with the Remus?
Or maybe if not make a video comparing these two based on your impressions?
Would you say these are sharper than the Remus?
Wide open the Catos are cleaner. Closed down they’re similar I think. But they’re two totally different tools. 1.5X will work better for some people and some people just want 2X. They both have similar types of distortion and looks overall
3:15 last scene from inception
thank for your lens test. This is a lens I was very curious about.
Through testing, I learned about the focus performance and characteristics of the lens.
I have one question,
8:42 wide open, 85, T 2.8, 65, open gate mode....
I cannot understand...what dose that means?
In particular, what does '65 open gate mode' mean?
So I was shooting on the BMCC6K which has a 6:5 Full Frame Open Gate mode! Essentially it’s just the 3:2 open gate mode but with the sides cropped off more. It delivers a perfect 2.4:1 final aspect ratio on a 2X anamorphic lens
@@cammackey Thank you for your answer.
So you're saying you used 3:2 open gate mode.
As mentioned in the previous video, you are talking about shooting using 3:2 open gate mode and then cropping it to 2.40:1, right?
Are you referring to it as 6:5 open gate mode?
You're not using 6:5 anamorphic mode, are you?
This point was very confusing.
6:5 means anamorphic mode.
Anyway, thank you for the reply and the video.
I hope you always do your best.
This may be a stupid question (I’m fairly new to the world of filmmaking and such), but how do you operate the camera while pulling focus? Specifically when doing run and gun esque stuff? I’ve seen that wireless focus system you’ve been using. It seems great but you have to have the actual dial mounted to a phone. Do you mount the dial to the rig somehow and adjust focus that way? Or do you just directly dial it in via twisting the focus ring?
With a second person pulling focus that person would have their own monitor.
@@GearZenChannel yeah I understand that, I meant more for solo stuff. My bad
Ok now this looks brilliant! Tried to find their prices but seems like not announced yet? What I like about Blazars is that they seem to have so much character that don't need any extra "artificial" dehancing in post.
Exactly! And yes they’re not released yet. The price will be shocking compared tot he competition.
@@cammackey I'm sorry but one last question: Do you need to shim the EF version (have zero experience also don't know if I can buy the needed tools for it) because I'm aiming for it due to weather sealing and ease of using back VND. I know some PL lenses extend from the back, and these lenses actually can interchange between PL and EF by buying the $99 mounts. The Meike EF-to-E has a good weather sealing to the E-mount, and the EF mount can be gaff-taped if needed as we have a very wet season for like 3 months during summer "monsoon" in Dhofar, Oman. Planning to get either these or the Remus and might use them to film some "interesting" looking wildlife/nature beauty short film which can get pretty wet on my A7SIII.
Thanks a lot in advance.
company representatives said that these lenses do not cover open gate full frame, they only cover 16:9. turns out this is not entirely true?
That’s not entirely what they said. They were saying it won’t cover the full coverage of full frame open gate.. meaning outside of a standard 2.4:1 delivery you’ll get vignetting on the wider focal lengths. But majority of final deliverables are within 2.4:1, including almost every anamorphic film. So they’re just disclosing the full boundaries of the lenses. But in short, they will cover FF 16X9 and FF 6:5
If you would take only one lens of the set wich one would you recommend? Thanks!
50mm for sure.
Am I a goober? :D
You’re not in my recently blocked so I don’t believe so!!! Lol
@@cammackey Haha. Ok, appreciated.