The Sirui 24mm F/2.8 is an anamorphic cinema lens that is available for a variety of camera mounts such as Canon EF-M, Nikon Z, Fujifilm X Micro Four Thirds and others.
You can watch our review featuring sample footage below. The talking-to-camera shots were recorded with the Fujifilm X-H1 and the Sirui 50mm F/1.8 which is also an anamorphic lens.
- Manual cinema lens with unique image characteristics
- Bokeh is limited: Not a very shallow depth of field
- Close focusing distance is 0.6m: Not ideal for close-up shots (in combination with F/2.8 leads to a rather deep depth of field)
- Bokeh has a soft look
- Barrel distortion doesn’t change: Same results at F/2.8 and F/8
- Most cameras don’t have an anamorphic mode: Video is recorded in distorted 16:9 and needs to be squeezed in to a 2.40:1 aspect ratio.
- Tip: Use focus peaking and an external monitor that can squeeze the image to be displayed correctly.
- Lens sits rather tight on the Fujifilm X-T4.
- Focus ring runs smoothly but is audible & makes a sound when hitting infinity or macro end.
- Focus ring almost turns 190° which means it takes some movement to focus from macro to infinity.
- It’s a heavy lens weighing around 780g and bigger than the 50mm version. But still much lighter than regular cine anamorphic lenses.
- Built quality is good just like the other anamorphic lenses from Sirui.
- Overall a capable lens that has the typical anamorphic wide-angle characteristics: Barrel distortion, unique bokeh, blue SciFi lensflare.
- Useful to get a filmic or vintage look.
- I wouldn’t recommend it for documentary or corporate content but rather for commercials and music videos.
- If lensflare isn’t visible it doesn’t necessarily look anamorphic.
- If shallow depth of field is important the 35mm F/1.8 or 50mm F/1.8 are probably a better choice.
I also reviewed the 35mm F/1.8 prime for Micro Four Thirds. You can read and watch it HERE!
Written by filmmaker Moritz Janisch on January 11, 2021
