Sirui began their lensmaking journey with cine lenses, and, in particular, anamorphic lenses, and only later branched out to more standard autofocus lenses like the Sniper Series (APS-C) and more recently the Aurora full frame line. Perhaps it was inevitable for the two different lens lines to collide as they have in what is a world’s first – an autofocusing compact anamorphic lens. This is a lens that sports traditional gearing designs for cine work, but also borrows some of the autofocus features of their new Aurora lenses. So much of modern camera design is hybrid, splitting photography and video features mostly equally. Sirui is clearly hoping to capitalize on that trend…but have they pulled it off? You can find out my full thoughts by watching the video review below…or reading on.

https://youtu.be/QL6BSg7ip9E

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Thanks to Sirui for sending me a review sample of this lens. As always, this is a completely independent review. *The tests and most of the photos that I share as a part of my review cycle have been done with my Sony a7RV or Sony Alpha 1 cameras.

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Let’s dive a little more into the specifics of the lens.

• This is an S35 (APS-C) lens, though it seems to cover the full frame image circle on my Sony bodies.
• It is a 40mm lens, which is a focal length that is growing in popularity (it actually measures the equivalent of 42mm on full frame due to different ratio).
• Switch to the 1.5x S35 crop, and you have a full frame equivalent of 60mm.
• The anamorphic “squeeze” is a constant 1.33x, or a 2.35:1 ratio when shooting 16:9 (you will have some black bars on top and bottom and a wider cinematic look after desqueezing).
• The T-stop of the lens is T1.8, which means that it is moderately bright and can create a fairly shallow depth of field.
• Lens mount options include Sony E-mount (tested here), Nikon Z, Fuji X, and M43
• The aperture and focus rings are geared with standard 360° throw rotation for the focus ring.
• MSRP will be $799 USD.
• You can choose between two different versions of the lens, including a blue streak/flare version (tested here) and a natural warm streak version

I’m interested in seeing if Sirui views this lens as a one-off or perhaps an experiment to see if there is a market for this type of lens. Typically they have assigned series names to all of their lenses (mostly utilizing celestial themes like Aurora, Saturn, Venus, etc…), but this lens arrives without any series brand attached to it, relying on the 1.33x Anamorphic label to identify it on the top.

Unlike the Samyang V-AF series of hybrid cine/stills lenses, this lens makes less sense as a photography lens because of the anamorphic ratio. The raw images out of the camera will have a weird stretched look to them.

It is possible to edit that file into the appropriate ratio, but it will require something like Photoshop where you can free transform.

I would only use this lens for standard photography as a last resort, so while this lens is capable of taking stills (just like any cine lens), it really should be treated as a pure cine lens, which is how I’ll handle this review.

40mm Anamorphic Build and Handling

As noted in the intro, I feel like the 40mm Anamorphic takes a number of design cues from the Aurora. This includes the feature set, the fonts, and the general finish of the lens, though the cine design of the lens is apparent from the geared design of the aperture and focus rings.

As with the Aurora lenses, the fonts on the side are bolder than most lenses. This is like the “large print” edition of lenses.

The Sirui badge on the right side and the click | declick button look pretty much identical to the Aurora lineup.

This is a fairly feature rich lens. It has a robust approach to aperture control, including a manual aperture ring that can be controlled with clicks (at one third stop detents) or clickless by changing the position of the switch on the right side of the lens.

You also have the option of switching into A (automatic) mode if you prefer to control aperture from within the camera. This isn’t an iris lock, but there is a nice long detent in between F22 (minimum aperture) and A mode that should keep you from accidentally straying in either direction.

The aperture iris itself is very unique, with a very strongly defined hexagonal shape wide open.

There are 11 aperture blades, and when you stop down the aperture done the shape of specular highlights will become a more typical (for cine) oval shape.

On the left side of the barrel there is a Function button that can be programmed to a wide range of functions from within the camera along with an AF | MF switch.

The front face is more clean and simple. I always like when there is lens information on the front of a lens.

You can see that the front filter thread is a common 77mm size. The front of the lens is a standard 80mm diameter to accommodate a matte box.

The lens itself moderately sized. They call it a compact lens, but it’s nothing like, say, the Samyang V-AF 40mm T1.9 in size. The weight is moderate 614g (21.6 oz). The diameter is 80mm (3.1″), as mentioned, and while Sirui doesn’t give a length measurement, I measure it at right over 120mm (4.72″).

The manual focus ring is geared and has very light damping. It has a linear focus throw of 360°, so major focus changes won’t come quickly, but you will have greater accuracy for smaller throws.

At the rear of the lens you’ll find a USB-C port that allows for quick and easy firmware updates.

I actually did a firmware update already (which helped stabilize some AF), and the process was a simple drag and drop into the folder that will pop up once the lens is attached to a computer.

You’ll also find a weathersealing gasket located there, and I suspect there is further weather sealing as well.

The lens barrel is made of metal (aluminum alloy), and it has a nice, anodized black satin finish. Overall I would call it a nice looking lens even if I do find the badging/writing a little overwrought.

Minimum focus distance isn’t great (60cm, or right under 2 feet), and the resulting magnification level isn’t super high. It isn’t difficult to get inside that minimum focus distance if you aren’t careful. Here’s as close as I could get to these Christmas decorations before moving past MFD.

I would say that the overall handling and feature set of the lens is enjoyable. It takes a lot of features that I’ve come to appreciate on stills lenses and has largely done a good job of transferring into a functional autofocusing cine lens.

The lens also comes with a nice package, including a nice zippered nylon case with a carrying strap. I would say that in general this lens is being handled like a premium lens but without a particularly premium price. The MSRP is $799, but an early bird price of just $639 is available here. That’s not bad for a lens that does something we haven’t seen before.

Autofocus

Sirui has equipped the 40mm Anamorphic with an STM or stepping motor. While I consider STM motors to be the lower tier of modern mirrorless AF motors (with Linear and Voice Coil motors in an upper tier), the truth of the matter is that there’s a pretty broad range of performance with STM motors. This one is fairly good, with overall quiet operation, fairly quick speed, and good confidence (particularly after a recent firmware update.) Most of what I’ll show you in the review (other than photos of the lens) will be screenshots from video footage for obvious reasons.

We were able to get good and stable tracking of faces even when shooting through glass to capture a holiday scene.

Locking focus on an animal subject was also no problem:

For the most part focus also seemed to be pretty solid when tracking a dog running towards the camera:

Focus noise is very low. I heard a very slight buzz during intentional focus pulls from close to distant, but picked up no ordinary focus noise.

Focus pulls were smooth and quick with no visible steps. There is a nice level of damping to the pulls which makes them feel smooth. Focus breathing isn’t high, but it is noticeable, which is a bit disappointing for a cine lens like this. This makes big focus pulls feel a little more abrupt than I would prefer when going from one face to another.

Initially I saw a little bit of hunting in my “hand test” where I alternately block the view of my face with my hand and then remove it to test the confidence and speed of moving from one subject to another. That was solved via a firmware update, however, leaving me with a nice result afterwards.

The bottom line is that this is an infinitely easier lens to use to get run and gun footage, however. I’ve previously mostly had to work off a tripod when shooting anamorphic unless it is a matter of prefocusing and moving to keep proper focus, so I can see a lot of potential for using this lens and potentially others to follow.

Sirui Anamorphic 40mm Image Quality

The Anamorphic 40mm T1.8 has an optical design of 16 elements in 12 groups, which includes some exotic elements like a aspherical element along with 5 cylindrical lenses.

There is no published MTF chart, as cine lenses tend to be a bit less about overall sharpness and more about the general look of the footage.

First of all, however, I want to explore full frame coverage. While the Sirui 1.33x Anamorphic is being marketed as an S35, it seems to cover the frame image circle pretty well. Let’s take a stills shot take covering the whole full frame image circle.

There are no corrections here, but you can see that the full image circle is being covered with just a bit of vignette in the corners. This shot is at F5.6, yes, which will reduce some vignette naturally. This shot at F2.8 and with bright, snowy corners shows a bit heavier vignetting.

But once you desqueeze that shot, it doesn’t look too bad. Add a little vignette correction, and the resulting shot looks fairly good.

Obviously using S35 instead will eliminate any vignette issues, but I do like the fact that I feel like I have two separate framing options when using the Anamorphic 40mm on a full frame camera (I used it on both a Sony Alpha 1 and a Sony a7RV).

What’s more, the lens does seem to be resolving those full frame corners. At F5.6, I see a tiny bit of softness in the extreme corner, but a bigger problem with Lateral chromatic aberrations (LaCA). Fortunately the latter is fairly easily corrected (at least for stills) as you can see in the right side comparison below.

Removing CA is much more difficult in video work, but you also have the advantage that you are never examining corners at 100% like this, either.

I didn’t notice much real world issue with fringing in footage. You’ll see a little green fringing around window frames in some shots if you’re looking for it, but no more than you will regularly see in professionally produced shows and movies.

I’ll also note that distortion (unlike the Sirui Saturn 35mm Anamorphic I reviewed) is well controlled. I didn’t see any need to correct lines on it:

Sharpness is not biting sharp, but it is good enough even at F1.8 that footage looks very compelling (watch the short holiday film included in the video review. Most of that was shot at F1.8).

Bokeh is a little complicated. You’ll see from the shot above that the aperture has a very distinctive shape at F1.8. I don’t love the look wide open with specular highlights, as I’m much more about round “bokeh balls” than other geometric shapes. I find that specular highlights can look a little harsh at times, too.

But shots without specular highlights look nice and clean, and the actual falloff from focus to defocus is pretty good.

More complex backgrounds look fairly good at close distances…

…and they don’t look bad a little further away, either:

This focal length/maximum aperture combination isn’t going to result in backgrounds being completely blurred away very often, but those of you familiar with cinematography probably already knew that.

Flare resistance is only okay. I tested the “blue streak” version of the lens, so, by design, it is going to give the streak effects often valued for cinematic shots. At bigger apertures there is less definition to some of the ghosting artifacts, but they are there.

Stopping down will increase the clarity of those ghosting artifacts, however.

But I didn’t see blooming around windows, and the flare wasn’t too bad with the sun right out of frame, either.

Video footage generally looked good. Sirui’s optical glass isn’t my favorite, but the anamorphic footage looks very cinematic and works well (particularly if you’re grading it).

This isn’t priced like a Zeiss, and the optical glass doesn’t performance like Zeiss, but for those with more budget constraints who want to produce cinematic content, the Sirui Autofocus 1.33 Anamorphic 40mm T1.8 works pretty well.

Conclusion

The Sirui Anamorphic 40mm T1.8 checks a lot of boxes, particularly for those who don’t have a massive pile of equipment for doing focus follow or stabilized capture. This is a lens that can do the focus follow for you, and because it has electronics, it will even notify your camera what the proper focal length is for in camera image stabilization. That makes it perhaps the easiest true cinema lens yet for grabbing run and gun footage. The current style is dynamic shots that have some natural movement and aren’t shot from dollies anyway, and that really suits what this lens can do.

A lot of the footage for this review was shot by a nephew of mine (from Ansley Creative), and it was just run and gun footage shot over a few hours without any prior experience with the lens. He’s got a great eye, but this also speaks to the ease of use for this particular lens.

This is a lens that hasn’t really been done before, but somehow I suspect that the Sirui Autofocus 1.33x Anamorphic 40mm T1.8 won’t be the last of its kind. It just makes too much sense in an era of hybrid cameras that can produce amazing footage. The ability to shoot the letterbox look makes everything look more cinematic, and the 1.33x constant squeeze is fairly close to perfect for Cinemascope. And, at a reasonable price, the new Sirui lens is the kind of cine tool that pretty much anyone can use (so long as you are willing to do some post work!).

Pros:

• Nice looking lens with nice build
• Smaller and lighter than many competitors
• Includes nice case
• USB-C port for firmware updates
• Very feature rich
• Weather sealed
• Declickable aperture
• Custom button
• Autofocus motor is quiet and moderately fast
• Low distortion
• Fringing is reasonably low
• Vignette isn’t really an issue
• Covers the full frame image circle nearly perfectly despite being an S35 lens
• Affordable price

Cons:

• Some lateral fringing issues
• Sirui optical glass isn’t amazing

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GEAR USED:

Purchase the Sirui AF 1.33 Anamorphic 40mm T1.8 @ Sirui Store (use code DustinA5 for 5% off) | B&H Photo | Adorama | Amazon | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany

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Purchase the Sony a7RV @ B&H Photo | Adorama | Amazon | Camera Canada | Sony Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany 

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Purchase the Sony a6600 @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay 

Purchase the Sony a6400 @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay 

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