You've Not Seen an Anamorphic Lens Like This Before

Chinese lens maker Blazar’s latest anamorphic lens series is highly unusual. The Blazar Beetle 1.33x anamorphic lenses for full-frame cameras feature a rotatable design, supporting distinct horizontal and vertical anamorphic shooting and expanded cropping possibilities.

Available first in a 45mm T3.2 version, the Blazar Beetle 1.33x anamorphic lens is fully manual and designed for photography and videography applications. While an anamorphic lens is not unusual in and of itself — there are many on the market and more on the way all the time — the Blazar Beetle has a button near the lens mount that unlocks part of the lens, enabling the user to rotate the barrel.

French photographer and YouTuber Mathieu Stern got his hands on the new Beetle lens and created a video about his experience.

As Stern explains, unlike most anamorphic lenses, the Blazar Beetle is designed with photographers in mind rather than videographers. While the lens can work for video, its rotating design is especially appealing to photographers.

When used at its default rotation on a camera in landscape orientation, the lens behaves like other anamorphic lenses. Once it is desqueezed, photographers are left with a wider image that uses the whole image sensor area.

The magic happens when rotating the camera or lens. When the camera is in landscape orientation and the lens is rotated 90 degrees, it now offers an expanded field of view at the top and bottom of the frame when desqueezed. Rotating the camera vertically makes it possible to expand the frame vertically.

Anamorphic lenses are known for their oval bokeh and dramatic flare, each changing when rotating the lens, swapping from one flare orientation to another.

As Stern expertly demonstrates, the lens can take beautiful photos with a charming cinematic quality. The rotating design expands creative possibilities and lets photographers and videographers experiment with different aspect ratios without cropping their images.

Filmmaker Cam Mackey also tested the lens, seeing how it worked for photo and video applications.

The Blazar Beetle 45mm T3.2 1.33x is expected to arrive for around $500 in August. It will be available in a wide range of mounts, including Sony E, Canon RF, Nikon Z, Leica L, and Fujifilm X. The 32mm and 65mm lenses are expected to arrive later, and interested photographers can sign up on Blazar’s website to be notified when more information is available.

Image credits: Blazar