In the years I've been writing about smartphones, I've been seeing them get better and better at shooting cinematic-looking video footage. However, no matter how many Hollywood directors like Stephen Soderbergh, Danny Boyle and Sean Baker use iPhones for their movies, I don't think the best camera phones come close to movie cameras just yet.
To see if $50 could bridge this gap, I recently bought an anamorphic lens for my smartphone, and took it for a spin in both London and Australia. I've used anamorphic lenses on actual video cameras before, but never on something as compact as a phone, so this was sure to be a learning experience.
For some context I'm using the Realme 13 Pro Plus, and I used the lens on both its 50-megapixel main and 50MP periscope telephoto lens. Many people think that iPhones are the only mobiles that can be used for serious videography, so I wanted to try something a little different.
But let's back up a second; what is an anamorphic lens? Videographers, and certain experimental photographers, will already be raising eyebrows, but the rest of you may need a quick lesson on these video lenses.
Why use an anamorphic lens?
Anamorphic lenses are commonly used on sets for movies and high-end TV series, as they give footage that loosely-defined 'cinematic' look. A few photographers will also use them when going for certain looks, or if they want easily-shareable image samples for a TechRadar article they're writing (that one might be just me).
I could get really technical as to how the lenses work and create the effects they do, but it's easier for me to point out a few of the main benefits of them (if you want a more complex explanation of the science, camera maker Red has a guide here).
An oft-touted benefit is they allow you to capture a wide field of view while maintaining a shallow focal length, and many more pick them due to the unique 'bokeh' look, which is oval instead of circular, and for the striking lens flare (although that's a rather Marmite trait and some don't love it). These all contribute to that 'cinematic' look.
There are some downsides too, particularly when buying anamorphic lenses for video cameras: they can be eye-wateringly expensive, fragile, and bulky to carry and use on a camera. But whether you buy a proper anamorphic lens or a smartphone one, you'll also have to contend with the stretched resulting footage or photos, which you have to de-squeeze yourself (annoying for a photo, an absolute pain if you've shot hours of footage for a film).
So there are positive and negative sides to anamorphic lenses; I've personally taken to avoiding them for shooting cinematic content due to the downsides. But could a portable anamorphic lens for my phone turn that sentiment around?
Using the smartphone anamorphic lens
You don't buy anamorphic lenses for their ease of use, but given that smartphones are meant to be a more accessible way to take pictures and shoot videos, you'd hope it was at least reasonably convenient. And while it's definitely quicker and easier to shoot with than a video camera with such a lens, it's still quite fiddly.
The lens I bought was from Andoer (you can find it listed on Amazon here) and it comes with a clip and a fairly hardy carry case, the latter of which was very handy given I was touring a continent with the lens.
The listing refers to the lens being compatibly with "most smartphones" and mentions a few iPhones the clip works with; it just about fit on my Realme, after some fiddling with some adjustable parts on the clip. However it wasn't the most solid grip, as I'll get to later.
Setting this up took about a minute so it was pretty quick. That was after I got used to the process though, and the first few set-ups were a little more time consuming. Not as much so as setting up a real camera lens, though, so it wins accessibility points there.
As I mentioned before, anamorphic photos and videos need to be de-squeezed in post-processing to be useable, due to the quirks and perks of the lens. This does mean that when you look at your camera app preview, you see the stretched version of the image, and it was sometimes a little hard to get an idea of how a shot would end up. I'm used to using anamorphics on cameras which interpolate footage and give you a de-squeezed preview; no such luck on the default Android camera app. Instead I had to squint my eyes and imagine how the picture could end up.
What was noticeable, without de-squeezing, is that my 'normal' (ie wide-angle, or 1x zoom) camera lens could see the anamorphic lens at the edges. You won't see this in the sample pictures as I cropped them, but it's another reason that these snaps aren't usable on the fly. I only saw interesting results when uploading the photos and videos onto my laptop and editing them, so an anamorphic won't suit people who like to take quick shots for the 'gram.
Another issue I faced is the lens wasn't that secure, and it would wobble and rotate a little bit due to me moving the phone. Lots of my camera samples seem a tiny bit askew, with the lens rotated a degree or two to either side. That's often because of small motions when I was trying to line up a shot (or because, on the fly, it's hard to guess exactly what 'straight' is!).
For photography, this was an issue that was addressed with some time spent lining up the lens, but I did notice some wobbling and distortion during videography when I was moving the camera. This was especially true during tilts and rolls, and I effectively ruled out moving my phone like this for shots.
As you can tell from this section I often found myself fighting with the anamorphic lens when taking pictures or shooting videos. That's a natural side-effect with this kind of lens, even though the small form factor (and my opting for the cheapest such lens) definitely didn't help. But were the results worth it?
What do the results look like?
I chose these first two pictures to highlight the advantage of the anamorphic lens as they show just how big a field of view you can grab with this kind of lens.
The first shows the entirety of the Burrunggui rock, something my phone's default wide-angle lens couldn't grab (and the ultra-wide one captured way too much sky for it to be appealing).
The second, of a rock reaching out of the nearby desert, also creates an interesting effect with the nearby landscape helping show a sense of scale to the outcrop. But you can also see some distortion on the left of the image due to the lens being poorly placed; I include this to show how easy it is to accidentally mess up a shot on the lens (and I excuse myself as it was one of my first times using the lens!).
Next up is a portrait photo taken at the same rock as the first image, which I use to illustrate one more issue with anamorphics. Anamorphic lenses don't let in as much light as you'd think, and so bearing in mind natural light is a lot more important in outdoor conditions; I didn't, and in this shot my face is quite dark.
However I really like the potential that anamorphics offer for smartphone photography; I love taking landscapes of people in which the subject is dwarfed by the enormity of their landscape. None of the standard or portrait-mode photos I took on my camera come as close to showing the size of Burrunggui as this picture (even if the friend I gave the phone to in order to take this shot added far too much breathing room on the left, losing lots of the rock on the right).
Now we move 1,000km away to some similar-looking landscapes; I picked these two shots of ghost gum trees to give an idea as to more cinematic shots you can take with anamorphic lenses.
I picked them because they give a better idea as to the depth of field you can get on anamorphics while retaining a wide field of view. The former shows how you can use trees to frame shots, while the latter is one of the few non-landscape shots I took on the phone (at least, it has a close object in frame in the foreground).
They both also have that ineffable 'cinematic look', much more so than similar photos I took on my camera without the lens.
Let's end with some actual video footage; this is unedited, except for my clipping them into a little reel and using Davinci Resolve's de-squeezing feature. Obviously if you were to use these in a video you'd want to crop them and grade them a bit, but I wanted to show the default result.
You can see in some, especially on boats, how motion can cause the lens to rotate slightly or fall out of alignment with the smartphone lens. This may be a problem with the poor fit on my phone, and on certain mobiles it may fit better. In both the desert shots you can also see how I put the lens on at slightly wobbly angle.
The river Thames shots of the boat and bird, show why I like anamorphics for shooting B-roll type footage; with a wider field of view, it's easier to keep moving objects in frame.
The expansive frame is also naturally more dramatic and sweeping, at least with the right environment, than standard videos shot on a phone.
Verdict
After playing around with this anamorphic smartphone lens, I'm not convinced that I'd want to use it for shooting professional videos, but I can really see the appeal of buying such lenses.
They're nearly as awkward to use on a smartphone as they are on a proper camera, and are prone to accidents if you nudge them or move the camera too fast. Plus, you'll need to manually de-squeeze all the photos you want to use. It's extra work and extra faff.
However they're a lot more portable and much, much cheaper than standard anamorphic lenses (don't copy my mistake and buy the cheapest option though!).
I'd recommend anamorphics to people who like taking pictures on their smartphone and want a new way to take dramatic outdoors shots; the wider field of view really helps you appreciate environments.
Mobile videography is becoming a bigger and bigger trend in film-making, not just for the novelty but also for the accessibility (it's hard to go to a short-form film festival now without seeing shorts captured on phones). And I see anamorphic phone lenses giving film-makers an interesting new way to expand the potential of their phone, and save the money they might spend on an expensive camera.
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