At Cinegear Newsshooter’s Clinton Harn spoke to Anna Piffl of German firm P+S Technik about their new anamorphic 35-70mm zoom lens. Anamorphic lenses are very fashionable at the moment and more and more makers are jumping on the bandwagon. Most high end anamorphic cine lenses have a 2x squeeze that make it easy to get a 2.39:1 final aspect ratio when using 4:3 aspect ratio sensors like those from ARRI. If you use a more common 16:9 sensor camera then you might prefer a 1.33x or 1.5x squeeze factor to get you close to 2.39:1. That’s where the new P+S Technik 35-70 comes in.
PS-Zoom 35-70 1.5x CinemaScope Zoom Test by Panavision Hollywood from P+S TECHNIK on Vimeo.
The 35-70 CS is a completely integrated anamorphic lens with a 1.5x squeeze. The anamorphic elements are at the front of the lens. Unlike some less expensive anamorphic lens adapters which require you to focus the main lens and the anamorphic adapter, the P+S Technik zoom is single focus and much easier to use.
Being 1.5x makes the lens suitable for many Super35 cameras like the Panasonic Varicam LT, Canon C300 and Sony F5, F55, FS7, FS5 and a7R II. It can also be used on a full frame camera like the a7S II from about 40mm upwards without vignette.
Sample footage from the lens shows that it has some nice looking flares and elongated out of focus areas, although the effect is not as pronounced as most 2x anamorphics.
Also announced at the show was a new 70-200mm 1.5x anamorphic to match the 35-70. Detail was limited but expect it to be a good match for the 35-70.
The 35-70 CS isn’t cheap at around $25,000 US. Expect the 70-200mm to be about the same, if not more.
For more info you can visit the P+S Technik website.
