The Great Joy 50mm T2.9 1.8x Anamorphic Lens joins the growing list of new anamorphic options hitting the market. Yesterday you read about the Samyang 50mm T2.3 XEEN Anamorphic that will retail for $19,999 USD, well the Great Joy is at the opposite end of that spectrum and it will cost $1,279 USD (this is a 20% off early bird price).
The sample footage looks pretty decent, especially for a lens at this price point. $1,279 USD is not a lot of money to pay for any lens so the reward probably outweighs the risk.
If the name Great Joy sounds slightly familiar it should. Last September they announced a 60mm T2.9 Full Frame 1.33x Anamorphic Lens & 1.35x Anamorphic adapter.
Their latest offering, the 50mm T2.9 1.8x Anamorphic covers a 33×24 mm image circle. If you are shooting open gate 4:3 you can get a 2.4:1 image without any vignetting on a camera with a full frame sensor.
The 50mm T2.9 1.8x Anamorphic weighs 1.04-1.09Kg / 2.29-2.40 lb depending on the mount choice. It has a focus rotation of 270 degrees and a close focus ability of 70cm / 2.35′. The lens also has industry standard 0.8 pitch gears on the focus and iris and an 82mm front filter diameter. Great Joy doesn’t list what the front diameter of the lens is.
The optical design of the lens consists of 16 elements in 12 groups and it has 11 aperture blades. Above you can see some examples of the bokeh you should expect from the lens.
The lens is available in 6 different mounts, including PL which is nice to see for an anamorphic lens at this price point.
Great Joy also has plans to release two more lenses in the series, a 35mm and 85mm, sometime this year.
Price & Availability
As I already mentioned in the article, the lens will be available for an early bird price of $1,279 USD if you sign up before the Indiegogo campaign starts. You do need to put down $2 USD to secure this early bird deal.
Great Joy will officially launch the lens on Indiegogo on the 11th of May. They are also promising that the first backers will receive their lens on the 21st May. Like any crowdfunding project, we always urge you to use common sense and be well aware of the risks. There are never any guarantees with crowdfunding projects that you will receive a product or that it will ship on time.
