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Cinematography3 min read

LESSON 99

Anamorphic or spherical lenses

Squeezed wide frames versus clean round optics.

IN THIS LESSON

  1. What spherical means
  2. What anamorphic means
  3. The anamorphic look
  4. Practice: which to choose

What spherical means

Almost all lenses are spherical: their glass is shaped so the image is recorded with the same proportions it had in front of the camera. To get a wide cinema frame with a spherical lens, you crop a taller frame top and bottom, as with the Super 35 film format or a 16:9 sensor framed for 2.39:1. Spherical lenses are simpler, lighter and cheaper than anamorphic ones and free of their distortions. As film stocks improved and digital intermediates arrived in the late 1990s and 2000s, many productions moved to spherical lenses for wide films.

What anamorphic means

An anamorphic lens uses cylindrical elements to squeeze a wide view sideways so it fits a narrower frame, and the image is stretched back out for showing. Because it uses the full height of the film or sensor, it keeps more detail than a cropped widescreen frame. The optics were developed by Henri Chretien during the First World War, first used in a cinema film in 1927, and taken up by 20th Century Fox for CinemaScope in 1952. The Robe, in 1953, was the first feature released that was shot with an anamorphic lens.

The anamorphic look

Anamorphic glass leaves fingerprints. Bright lights produce long horizontal flares, often blue. Out-of-focus points become vertical ovals instead of circles. A 2x squeeze lens of 50 mm gives the horizontal view of a 25 mm spherical lens while keeping the vertical view and depth of field of a 50 mm, which is why anamorphic is said to have shallower focus. Wide anamorphic lenses below about 40 mm bend perspective in a cylindrical way that some directors use as a signature. They also need more light.

Practice: which to choose

This is working practice. Choose spherical for documentary, run-and-gun work, tight budgets and anything that needs fast, light, sharp lenses. Choose anamorphic when the flares, oval highlights and wide frame are part of the story's look and you can afford the weight, the light and the extra care in focus. Budget anamorphic adapters with a 1.33x squeeze give a hint of the look on 16:9 sensors. Always tell the editor the squeeze factor so they de-squeeze correctly. Write it on the camera report and in the clip names.

Try it today

  1. 01Find a film you like and check whether it was shot anamorphic.
  2. 02Pause on a bright light: look for horizontal flares and oval bokeh.
  3. 03Shoot a night street scene with your widest aperture.
  4. 04If you can borrow an anamorphic adapter, repeat the shot.
  5. 05Compare the two and decide whether the look suits your story.