Laowa has announced available for its new 1.33x Rear Anamorphic Adapter and 1.4x Full Frame Expander Adapter. Both the front and rear of each adapter features a PL mount, letting you add anamorphic capabilities to your PL mount lenses on your PL mount cameras, or expand the field of view of Super 35mm PL mount lenses to cover a full-frame sensor.
Laowa 1.33x Rear Anamorphic Adapter
The Laowa 1.33x Rear Anamorphic Adapter essentially expands your 16:9 aspect ratio into a 3.32:1 cinematic widescreen camera while maintaining the full resolution of your camera’s sensor. This can then be “desqueezed” in post to correct the aspect ratio, like you would with any other anamorphic footage. Laowa does say that it doesn’t offer the oval bokeh and expand the horizontal view the way front anamorphic lenses do, but that it introduces many of those anamorphic characteristics, creating a distinctive look to lens flares and bokeh. They also say that you’ll eat a half stop of light loss when using the adapter. It’s compatible with the Laowa OOOM 25-100mm T2.9 cine lens and with the following 3rd party lenses…
Angenieux 28-340mm Optimo Zoom T3.2Angenieux 24-290mm Optimo Zoom T2.8Angenieux Optimo Style 16-40mm T2.8 ZoomAngenieux Optimo Style 30-76mm T2.8 ZoomCarl Zeiss Supreme Prime 25 mm T1.5Carl Zeiss Supreme Prime 29 mm T1.5Carl Zeiss Supreme Prime 35 mm T1.5Carl Zeiss Supreme Prime 50 mm T1.5Carl Zeiss Supreme Prime 85 mm T1.5Carl Zeiss Compact Prime 15mm T2.9Carl Zeiss Compact Prime 18 mm T2.9Carl Zeiss Compact Prime 25 mm T2.1Carl Zeiss Compact Prime 28 mm T2.1Carl Zeiss Compact Prime 35 mm T2.1Carl Zeiss Compact Prime 50 mm T2.1Carl Zeiss Compact Prime 85 mm T2.1ARRI 18-80mm Alura Studio Zoom T2.6ARRI 45-250MM T2.6
Laowa 1.4x Full Frame Expander
The Laowa 1.4x Full Frame Expander, as mentioned, allows you to use Super 35mm lenses on a full-frame camera. It’s essentially the opposite of a 0.71x speed booster (like you might use when using full-frame EF mount lenses on APS-C Sony, for example). As the name implies, it offers a 1.4x expansion, so you’re losing a stop of light (again, the opposite of a 0.71x speed booster, which gains you a stop). This essentially means that the Laowa OOOM 50-200mm T2.9 effectively becomes a T4 lens offering a focal range equivalent to a full-frame 35-140mm lens. A quick switch button is provided to allow easy conversion of focus and t-stop scales, and there’s easy back-focus adjustments to ensure accurate and consistent focus (no shims!). Like the 1.33x Rear Anamorphic Adapter, the 1.4x Full Frame Expander is compatible with the OOOM 25-200mm T2.9, as well as these third party lenses…
Angenieux EZ-2 15-40mm T2.0Angenieux EZ-1 30-90mm T2.0Angenieux EZ-1 45-135MM T3Angenieux EZ2 FF 22-60mm T3Canon CN-E 15.5-47mm T2.8 L S Wide-AngleCinema ZoomCanon CN-E 30-105mm T2.8 L S Telephoto Cinema ZoomARRI Ultra Prime 85mm T1.9Carl Zeiss Supreme Prime 29 mm T1.5Carl Zeiss Cinema Zoom 15-30mm
Both adapters are PL to PL mount for now, although other mount versions are expected to be released in the future. The 1.33x Rear Anamorphic Adapter and the 1.4x Full Frame Expander Adapter are available to buy now for $999 from the Laowa website, or both are available together as a bundle for $1,800. They should be arriving at the usual retailers soon.
