Artur Zurawski, PSC, and Pawel Dyllus about anamorphics…

Artur Zurawski PSC photographied Sultan the movie of Indian director Ali Abbas Zafar released almost everywhere in the world in last July.
Sultan is a romantic action drama based on the life of fictional Haryana based wrestler and mixed martial arts specialist Sultan Ali Khan. For this movie shot in anamorphic format, cinematographer Artur Zurawski used among other equipment the Optimo 56-152 A2SC and the Optimo 24-290

“… /… But there are shots or entire scenes where I have to use zoom. Sometimes because I need to keep changing focal length during the shot to achieve some required feeling of movement together with moving camera on any possible device. Or I need very long lens and mostly the long zoom is the best choice for technical (and economical reason).
Another reason is just flexibility during production and this also push me to adapt myself with the final look which gonna be just different because of zoom. When for example during some remote shoot my assistants can’t carry many prime lenses because of size and weight of the luggage – the only option is to be equipped with 2 or 3 zooms covering all needed focal lengths. …/…
My first impression of the Angénieux Optimo 56-152 A2S was that this lens is so small. Extremely tiny and very light weight. 2.2 kg/4.8 lbs only ! Additionally there is no breathing during focusing. …/… I could easily use it even with Steadicam when the very quick changing of focal length was necessary.
The only limit is the light power. 2f-stops darker than my prime lenses.
And another advantage is amazingly short the close focus distance – 0.63m. With this feature I was treating this lens also almost like macro lens. All very close/ macro shots have been done with this glass. ../… “

Polish cinematographer Pawel Dyllus photographied Myrzia, the movie of Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra recently released on October 7 in India, United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Kuwait, Ireland.

“…/… When I first tested the 56-152 lens, I was very surprised that it was possible for an anamorphic zoom to be so light ! It was hard to believe that it weighs only 2.2 kgs - less than the other anamorphic prime block lenses. I was also amazed that an anamorphic lens with such a wide range of 56-152, could have the ability to focus at a close distance of (MOD) - 63cm (2 ft. 1 in.) ! When I used this lens in India (October 2014), I couldn’t even get a block anamorphic lens with such close Focus. When I started to shoot “Mirziya”, I was really in love with the 56-152 because of one more reason : there was no breathing during a change of focus. With anamorphic lenses, “breathing” is generally quite a big issue. Due to the manner of construction of this 56-152 lens, this problem has been almost completely eliminated, which is great. ../…” Pawel Dyllus (http://www.paweldyllus.com)

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