Anamorphic lenses are well-loved for the cinematic quality of the wider view squeezed onto the frame, oval-shaped bokeh, and iconic horizontal flare – but most anamorphic lenses aren’t made for the social media era that demands vertical videos. But lensmaker Sirui wants to change that with a new trio of cinema lenses that are built to shoot anamorphic in horizontal or vertical positions.
The Sirui Saturn V2 is a trio of three prime lenses at 35mm, 50mm, and 75mm that are purpose-built to support 1.6x anamorphic shooting in both horizontal and vertical orientations. That dual orientation is made possible through a rotating anamorphic mechanism in each lens, so when the camera rotates, the lens can actually rotate too.
Traditional anamorphic lenses are built to fit a wider view onto the image sensor – and that ultra-wide view would need to be heavily cropped to fit in the vertical design for Reels and TikToks.
While most lenses work just fine when turning the camera to vertical, that’s not the case with anamorphic. The de-squeeze isn’t built for vertical shooting and isn't supported on the camera monitor, and the classic horizontal flare would then become vertical.
Sirui’s new trio of lenses – which are built for Sony E, Canon RF, and L-Mount, with Z mount arriving at a later date – use rotating optics in order to create the anamorphic look in the vertical format in-camera.
The Saturn V2 series – which was originally teased last month – isn’t the only anamorphic built for the content creator era. The Balazar Beetle series also supports rotation, and some PL-mount lenses also have a mount that allows them to be turned and re-mounted for vertical shooting.
But the Saturn V2 series arrives in this relatively new rotatable anamorphic category with a trio of bright T/2.9 lenses, a wider 1.6x anamorphic squeeze, along with an all-metal construction.
The lenses' design is built so that all three share the same focus ring position, so cinematographers don’t need to adjust the follow focus rigging when swapping between different focal lengths in the series. All three lenses also use the same 62mm filter size.
The lenses are priced at $599 / £529 each or $1,699 / £1,589 for a three-lens set. Australian pricing has not yet been announced, but that converts to about AU$830 for one lens or AU$2,354 for all three.
The lenses will be available in Sony E, Canon RF, and L-mount at launch, with a Nikon Z version expected to arrive with the second production batch.
You may also like
Take a look at the best anamorphic lenses or the best cinema cameras.
