There are numerous companies that are known for manufacturing anamorphic lenses. The following are the most well known in the film industry:
Origination •
Panavision is the most common source of anamorphic lenses, with lens series ranging from 20 mm to a 2,000 mm anamorphic telescope. These include: •
B-Series (1965) - Panavision's second series of anamorphic lenses, these were restored and brought back into commission in 2013. •
C-Series (1970s) - These are small and lightweight, which makes them very popular for steadicams. The 20 mm C-Series is Panavision's widest anamorphic lens, of which only two were ever made. The C-series remain popular among cinematographers for the broad pedigree of popular films they have captured. •
Super High Speed (D-series) (1976) - Made with Nikon glass, these are the fastest anamorphic lenses available, with T-stops between 1.4 and 1.8; there is even one T1.1 50 mm, but, like all anamorphic lenses, they must be stopped-down for good performance because they are quite softly focused when wide open. •
E-Series (1980s) - Made with Nikon glass, these are sharper than the C-Series and are better color-matched. They are also faster, but the minimum focus-distance of the shorter focal lengths is not as close. The E135mm, and especially the E180mm, are great close-up lenses with the closest minimum focus of any long Panavision anamorphic lenses. •
Primo (F-series) (1989) - These are engineered with maximum aperture and optical quality in mind across all focal lengths, and as such are quite large and heavy by comparison to other series. They are the sharpest Panavision anamorphic lenses available, and are completely color-matched. •
G-Series (2007) - These combine the optical quality of the Primo lenses with the size and weight of the C-Series. •
T-Series (2016), Panavision's latest anamorphic lens series, designed for digital cameras initially, but also film camera compatible through specific re-engineering at Panavision. They are named for, and bear the signature of, Panavision's first lens engineer
Takuo Miyagishima, and are based on many of his lens design ideas. •
Vantage Film, designers and manufacturers of Hawk lenses. The entire Hawk lens system consists of 50 different prime lenses and 5 zoom lenses, all of them specifically developed and optically computed by Vantage Film. Hawk lenses have their anamorphic element in the middle of the lens (not up front like Panavision), which makes them more flare-resistant. This design choice also means that if they do flare, one does not get the typical horizontal flares. •
C-Series - developed in the mid-1990s, these are relatively small and lightweight. •
V-Series (2001) and
V-Plus Series (2006) - These improve upon the C-Series as far as sharpness, contrast, barrel-distortion and close-focus are concerned. This increased optical performance means a higher weight, however (each lens is around ). There are 14 lenses in this series—from 25 mm to 250 mm. The V-Series also have two macro lenses (65 mm and 120 mm) with a unique focusing mechanism enabling the closest minimum focus of any anamorphic lenses available. •
V-Lite - 8 very small anamorphic lenses (about the size of a Cooke S4 spherical lens), which are ideal for handheld and Steadicam while also giving an optical performance comparable to the V-Series and V-Plus lenses. •
Vintage 74 - Similar to the V-series, but incorporating vintage uncoated glass from a spherical lens set built in 1974. These lenses have a softer quality and enhanced flares. •
V-Lite 1.3× (2008) - The V-Lite series with a 1.3x squeeze factor, enabling the use of nearly the entire image area of
3-perf 35 mm film or the sensor area of a 16:9 digital camera to provide the 2.39:1 release format. •
V-Lite 16 (2008) - Lenses for 16 mm anamorphic production, in both 1.3x (for Super 16 mm) and 2x (for standard 16 mm). •
Carl Zeiss AG and
ARRI developed their Master Anamorphic lens line, debuted in September 2012, to provide minimum distortion and faster aperture at T1.9. These are spherical lenses with the anamorphic element at the rear, as opposed to third-party modified Zeiss-based anamorphics such as JDC and Technovision. •
Cooke Optics also developed their Anamorphic/i lens line, providing T2.3 aperture and color-matched with other Cooke lens lines, which is marketed as their "Cooke Look" feature. Like Zeiss, it's a totally new lens design which is different from third-party modified Cooke-based anamorphics such as JDC and Technovision. Cooke also developed its Anamorphic/i Full Frame Plus in 1.8× squeeze ratio for full frame cameras. •
Lomo Lens Company : Russian Manufacturer of synchro-anamorphic. Most famous for their vintage Round Front and square front lenses. •
White Point Optics: Creator of Lomocrons, Lomo Square front elements joined with Leica R taking lenses. •
Kowa: Japanese manufacturer of synchro-anamorphic lenses. •
Atlas Lens Company: Manufacturer of lower-cost anamorphic prime lenses. They currently produce two lines of lenses: •
Orion Series - 2x anamorphic lenses for film and digital use, which cover the Super 35 mm format. The lineup currently consists of 12 lenses, ranging from 18 mm to 200 mm. They are designed to emulate Panavision's C-series. The 18mm and 21mm employ
fisheye optics at the front of the lens. •
Mercury Series - 1.5x anamorphic lenses for use with full-frame (VistaVision) sized sensors. The lineup currently consists of 7 lenses, ranging from 25 mm to 138 mm. •
Angenieux: Angenieux's first zoom for 35 mm film camera, the 35–140 mm, was equipped with a front anamorphic attachment built by Franscope. The 40-140 anamorphic was used on several Nouvelle Vague movies such Lola (1961) or Jules and Jim (1962). Panavision adapted the Angenieux 10× zoom for anamorphic productions. The 50-500 APZA was part of the standard anamorphic production package supported by Panavision from mid 1960s to the end of the 1970s. It has been used in numerous movies including The Graduate (1967), MASH (1970), McCabe and Mrs Miller (1971), Death in Venice (1971) and Jaws (1975). In 2013 and 2014 Angenieux released a new series of high end anamorphic zooms. These lenses, the 30-72 and 56-152 Optimo A2S are compact and weigh less than 2.5 kg. •
Joe Dunton & Company (JDC): A manufacturer and rental house based in Britain and North Carolina, which adapts spherical lenses to anamorphic by adding a cylindrical element. JDC was purchased by Panavision in 2007. Much of JDC's former lens inventory has since been scattered among various rental houses and private owners, though a new company called Dunton Cine has re-acquired a large portion of it. •
Xtal Xpres (pronounced "Crystal Express") - This was JDC's most popular line of lenses. Three series were built by Shiga Optical Co. in Japan, from old Cooke S2/S3 and Panchro lenses, Canon lenses, and Zeiss lenses, respectively. The series overall encompassed a very wide range of focal lengths, from 18 mm up to 400 mm. •
Speedstar - These are modified Zeiss Super Speeds. •
Elite Optics, manufactured by JSC Optica-Elite Company in St. Petersburg, Russia and sold in the United States by Slow Motion Inc. They are similar in quality to Hawk lenses, and are known for their sharpness and contrast at wide apertures. •
Todd-AO manufactured the Todd-AO 35 series of lenses in the 1970s. Designed by optical engineer Richard Vetter, these lenses were the first outside of Panavision to maintain a constant 2X squeeze across the entire focus range. They are known for having especially intense lens flares. The majority of these lenses are held today by Keslow Camera. •
TechnoVision , an Italian manufacturer () with British and French offices, has adapted and rehoused spherical Cooke, Zeiss and Leitz lenses to anamorphics.
Vittorio Storaro used them for
Apocalypse Now and others. TechnoVision France was purchased by Panavision Europe in 2004. •
Isco Optics, a German company that developed the
Arriscope line for
Arri in 1989. •
Sirui Imaging builds specifically budget anamorphic hobbyist and cinema lenses. They build lenses made for all types of camera mounting systems, including those from Sony, Canon, and Nikon. •
Saturn Series are sets of anamorphic lenses for Full Frame, developed for many different consumer mounting types. •
Venus Series are also sets of fast anamorphic lenses for Full Frame sensors. With a 1.6x squeeze factor, these lenses give you a 2.8:1 aspect on a 16:9 capture area, and a 2.4:1 on a 3:2 capture area. • The company also produces lots of hobbyist lenses, such as the 50mm F1.8 1.33x APS-C Anamorphic Lens with a 1.33x squeeze factor. The hobbyist lenses are not measured in
T-stops but rather
F-stops for hobbyist simplicity. •
Vazen Anamorphic creates fast and large squeeze anamorphic lenses built for proper cinema, with the lenses coming in PL and Canon EF mounts, along with many hobbyist mounts such as Canon RF and
Micro 4/3 sizes sensors. The lenses are built to cinema expectations and have 1.8x squeeze factors on both Micro 4/3 and
Full Frame.
Projection •
ISCO Precision Optics is a manufacturer of theatrical cinema projection lenses. •
Panamorph is a manufacturer of hybrid cylindrical / prism based projection lenses specialized for the consumer home theater industry. •
Schneider Kreuznach, (also called Century Optics) are makers of anamorphic projection lenses. The company also manufactures add-on anamorphic adaptor lenses that can be mounted on digital video cameras. == Super 35 and Techniscope ==