I have been gushing about the Cosmicar since I got it. I saw one image that caught my eye a year ago and it never left me, so I found it again, and discovered it was caught on the Cosmicar 75mm c-mount. I searched for other pictures and videos about the lens, and at the time there wasn’t much. In fact, I think there were only 2-3 videos shot using the lens on Youtube at the time and they weren’t great. I saw the potential, though. I showed a few samples to a photography friend of mine and asked if there were any lenses he knew of that could achieve the look. Things like the Zeiss Pancolar, the Helios, and Jupiter came up, but I already knew about those. I’m not sure, but something seemed off and magical about the Cosmicar, so I decided to get one.
Lucky me, I found a seller on ebay with a few early copies with perfect glass but had body blemishes/fading. $60 shipped to Japan. Best purchase of the year. (outside of my GH5)
I started taking photos with it and was ecstatic that it was everything I hoped it would be. Very little to no vignetting on the GH5 sensor. Shockingly sharp at f/1.4. FANTASTIC BOKEH. Makes the highlights bloom just the right neon color. Perfect. There’s some photos on my Instagram accounts shot with it and I used it a bit in my 180fps slow motion video too. It’s a permanent part of my lens collection.
But what about Anamorphic? It’s too long to use on my 1.33x lenses. The actual body is too long to use on the Möller 32/2x. You can use it in ETC mode, but you lose some of the good parts of the edges when you do. The Isco Ultra Star fit the picture nicely. Almost no vignetting, super clean, easier to use than the Möller. Small enough to go portable. Not crazy on flare but has that perfect oval bokeh.
I shot a test of myself just to see how it would look, and we have a winner.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BdkZun6Hr8m/
The only issue with the Cosmicar is it doesn’t have round aperture blades. As soon as I have the resources, I’m going to look into the possibility of doing a swap. It’s fine, as most of the good DOF shots are benefited by the full aperture.
I already had a shoot day booked with my friend Jennifer Liza, a model in the Tokyo area. She was down to try some weird lenses and I took the Cosmicar/Ultra Star combo into the city. We went to Shinjuku and Akihabara to find some good places and lights.
The only problem I had was doing any kind of scenery. A few shots in the video, especially in the beginning, have more vignetting than most and for some reason the video files fall completely apart when trying to color correct. No tripods were allowed in the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building Tower, so I had to hand hold with a mini rig in a surprisingly crowded area.
Everything else came out great. With a little bit of work, I think this is a viable rig for a big project. I almost want to shave the front off my Ultra Star just to try to get rid of that little vignette completely, but it may just be the fact that the rear of the c-mount lens just barely works vignette free as is. Either way, this is a real-deal setup that I will keep even as I start focusing my collection down. These types of videos are helping figure out what I want to work with in the future. I have definitely found something special. Here’s to the future!
Once again, thanks to Jennifer Liza for helping me out with this vid!
https://www.instagram.com/jenem_/