Anamorphic lenses seemed to disappear in popularity for a while but there is no doubt now that they’re back in a big way. And while there are some moderately low-budget options out there from companies like Sirui, Samyang and Great Joy, they’re still above the budgets of many who just want to play around and experiment. And playing around and experimenting happens to be Tito Ferradans’ speciality. Over on his YouTube channel, Anamorphic on a Budget, he’s experimented with a lot of DIY “anamorfake” options and he’s put together a complete guide on how you can do it yourself to pretty much any lens you already own. At least, he’s put together the first part of it, which is the video above.
The video begins by going over some of the recommended and handy tools you might need in order to dismantle and modify your lenses – which you do absolutely at your own risk. And after some discussion of the Helios 44-2 and why they’re so important in the fake anamorphic discussion, Tito moves on to lens choice before showing us how to design our oval inserts that produce that distinctive anamorphic bokeh.
We don’t actually get to see the actual modification process in this video, as this is the first part in a series Tito’s doing on his channel. Actually modifying the lenses comes in the next part, so be sure to subscribe to his channel. For now, this video will help to get you well prepared with the right tools and figure out exactly which lens you want to try to modify to give something resembling that anamorphic look.
