If you are interested in Anamorphic lenses, there is a company called the MA Studio Hui from China, who is working on making an Anamorphic lens called the Huilens. It will be a 50mm T1.9 lens with a 1.8x squeeze for APSC or Super 35mm and will come in the taste of mounts for Canon EF and PL.
On the Chinese blogpost about this lens I cannot find the price of the lens, however someone told me that it will cost 10.000HKD or RMB which is around 1300 to 1500usd and that is actually quite affordable compared to what is on the market right now.
The Huilens will be competing with the likes of SLR Magic and Vazen, but the Huilens will be much easier on your wallet compared to those two. A similar lens from SLR Magic, will be the 50mm t2.9 with a 2x squeeze, which cost $2599 usd and is only be available in MFT mount.
While from Vazen, we have the 40mm T2 with 1.8x squeeze which cost $3250 usd but this is available in MFT and Canon RF mount. The Huilens with EF and PL mount are much more flexible in adapting to many mounts and also be able to work with more higher end Cinema Cameras.
But talking about the price, at the moment the most affordable anamorphic lens on the market is of course from Sirui, however those have a 1.33x squeeze which does not give much of an anamorphic look to the image. As I am right now filming myself with a 1.33x squeeze lens and the only way to show you that this is anamorphic is with the lens flare.
And Sirui Lenses are only for mirrorless cameras, while the Huilens having a Canon EF mount could be mounted on more Cinema cameras using EF mounts, but also enable you to use speed boosters with the Huilens on smaller crop sensors.
Other information about the 50mm T1.9 Huilens is that the minimum focus of this lens will be either 60 or 80centimeters. But if it is not close enough you can add a diopter to the lens via its 82mm thread.
The focus throw is 180 degrees which is fairly little for a Cinema lens, but have to say I personally like short throws, but others might like long throws for more precise focussing. And it will have markers for Meters on one side and Feets on the other side of the lens.
Last October they were 80% done with the lens and have a prototype made also they have some test footage done and posted online on their Bilibili channel.
They already have plans for making a 85mm T2.9 1.8x squeeze lens.They are aiming to start selling the 50mm T1.9 lens in October and it’s definitely a lens I am interested in.
Hopefully we will see more of this lens this year!
