The P+S Technik 35-70mm T3.2 is made in Germany and is one of very few front anamorphic zoom lenses available. Its 1.5x squeeze is unique and allows the lens to give anamorphic characteristics like oval bokeh and streaking lens flares, but also cover almost any 16x9 or 4:3 image sensor. The lens gives you the ability to get a widescreen scope look and format out of cameras that don’t have 4:3 sensors, which opens the door of anamorphic shooting to a broader audience of cinematographers and cameras.
This zoom has a really nice look and bokeh. It is one of the smallest anamorphic zooms I've ever seen and has a really nice range. I could definitely shoot a whole project on this lens and it is also a great lens for anything that requires a small footprint.
P+S Technik is an optical engineering company based in Germany that has become well known for rehousing lenses including Kowa Anamorphics, Canon K-35s, Cooke Speed Panchros, Super Baltars and many others. They also build lenses, and so far they are off to a good start. P+S Technik made a unique lens with their 35-70mm T3.2 1.5x front anamorphic zoom. This is one of 2 brands or “families” of lenses in our comparison test that has a 1.5x squeeze factor. This lens easily covers ARRI’s 4:3 sensor in open gate, but where it shines is with 16x9 sensors. Since it’s only a 1.5x squeeze, you can use your entire 16x9 sensor to get a “widescreen” aspect ratio with plenty of resolution. This lens changes the rules for anamorphic shooting and fills a gap for folks that want a lot of the characteristics of front anamorphic shooting, but are limited to a 16x9 sensor.
The lens covers a useful range. 35mm with a 1.5x squeeze is fairly wide and 70mm gives you a nice head and shoulders close-up. However, head-and-shoulders is about as close as you will be able to get since the lens has a 4’ 11” minimum focus distance. But that’s easy to fix with diopters, which is a fairly standard accessory when shooting anamorphic.
The lens is quite sharp wide open, which is great because since it has an iris with 7 straight blades, bokeh goes from a nice oval when shooting wide-open to stretched pentagons when you stop down. The lens has good contrast, and has a nice amount of barrel distortion. When it comes to lens flares the 35-70mm does not disappoint. They are classic anamorphic streaking flares. Breathing is very low and not distracting at all. The lens isn’t tiny, but it’s a very manageable size and weight considering the useful range it covers.
This lens has so many applications, especially gimbal and Steadicam applications, and other than the minimum focus you don’t have to sacrifice much to use a zoom over primes. Yes, it’s a 1.5x anamorphic, but the oval bokeh is still really nice and will make a project stand out from the pack.
I loved this lens! It is incredibly hard to make an anamorphic zoom. It is even hard to make it a front anamorphic. But this lens was all of that, plus it was small, renders a beautiful image and is incredibly affordable. At just above $26,000, you're getting a focal range of 3 lenses. It only weighs 6.5 lbs and can easily be thrown on any gimbal or be handheld with a lot of ease. Oval bokeh, sharp, good contrast. An underdog in the test but everyone was in love with it once we were done.
The small and lightweight P+S 35-70mm CS has been quietly winning fans the world over. There's very few Full Frame/Vista Vision anamorphic lenses, and even fewer zooms. The 2:1 zoom range is really useful for most typical shooting situations and the squeeze ratio is nearly a perfect fit for the "Open Gate" mode in the popular Alexa Mini. This lens is an excellent accompaniment to vintage anamorphic prime sets. The flares feel similar to Kowa Anamorphic primes, and gives a magnificent look. This lens has been particularly popular on gimbals and steadicams.