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Sirui Autofocus 1.33x Anamorphic 20mm T1.8 Review
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Mar 7, 2025
Photographer Dustin Abbott shares a deep dive review of the unique new Sirui Autofocus 1.33x Anamorphic 20mm T1.8 cine lens. Is this one even more useful than the 40mm Anamorphic? | Read the Text Review: | Purchase the AF 20mm 1.33x here: https://sirui.kckb.me/dabbott-1ol Purchase the Sirui AF 1.33 Anamorphic 40mm T1.8 @ Sirui Store https://bit.ly/4j0ADuv (use code DustinA5 for 5% off) | B&H Photo https://bhpho.to/3C1Hrr9 | Adorama https://howl.link/xhb95lqxkggj6 | Amazon https://amzn.to/4h2f9Ml | Amazon Canada https://amzn.to/3W5drBD | Amazon UK https://amzn.to/3W2uoNa | Amazon Germany https://amzn.to/3DCPoUi Check out the DA Merch here: https://bit.ly/TWIMerch | Become a Patron: https://www.patreon.com/dustinabbott | On the Web: http://dustinabbott.net/ | Sign up for my Newsletter: http://bit.ly/1RHvUNp | Instagram: http://bit.ly/DLAinsta | Facebook: http://on.fb.me/1nuUUeH | Flickr: http://bit.ly/1UcnC0B | 500px: http://bit.ly/1Sy2Ngu Follow Craig @ https://www.instagram.com/craigstoffersen/ Want to support this channel? Use these affiliate links to shop at: B&H Photo: http://bhpho.to/1TA0Xge Adorama: https://howl.link/nt4zdz1goa7ql Camera Canada: http://bit.ly/DLACameraCan Sony Canada: https://www.thesonyshop.ca/?ref=abbott Amazon: https://amzn.to/3HrY64d Amazon Canada: https://amzn.to/3qG1p18 Ebay: http://bit.ly/DustineBay Into the AM Clothing: https://bit.ly/intotheAMda and use code DUSTIN10 for 10% off Fioboc Clothing: https://tinyurl.com/FiobocDA20 and us code DUSTIN20 for 20% off Make a donation via Paypal: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/dustinTWI ============================= Table of Contents:
View Video Transcript
0:00
[Music]
0:10
hi I'm Dustin Abbott and I'm here today
0:12
to give you my review of the CRI
0:13
autofocusing 1.33 times anamorphic 20mm
0:18
f1.8 now Siri's most recent autofocus
0:21
40mm anamorphic lens we've discovered
0:24
was not a one-off it's one of the
0:25
questions that I asked as part of my
0:27
review of that lens wondering whether
0:29
this was a onetime you know Adventure by
0:32
Siri to test the market or if this was
0:35
the beginning of a series it turns out
0:36
it is the beginning of a series and so
0:38
lens number two comes in the form of a
0:41
very similar yet obviously much wider 20
0:44
mm T 1.8 C lens of course what makes
0:48
this series unique is that these are not
0:50
just autofocusing lenses but rather
0:53
these are true cine lenses that happen
0:55
to have autofocus that of course has
0:57
been done a few times most notably kind
0:59
of in this space I would say that
1:01
samyang's VF lenses are somewhat similar
1:03
what makes these unique is that they are
1:05
natively uh 1.33 times anamorphic lenses
1:09
of course cameras are increasingly
1:11
hybrid devices that are just as capable
1:13
for video work as they are for Stills
1:15
and so this is a lens that can take
1:18
advantage of that particularly for those
1:20
who are looking for a little bit more
1:22
cinematic footage and of course that
1:24
letter box you know wide letter box type
1:26
look is certainly a way that does look
1:28
more cinematic most of the time when
1:30
people are serious about getting uh
1:33
cinematic footage you'll see they've got
1:35
quite a big array going on you know
1:37
they've got monitors and they've got
1:38
grips and they've got all kinds of
1:40
things that are going on however I have
1:42
found that with these lenses it is
1:44
perfectly easy to go out and get really
1:46
decent looking footage with just a
1:48
camera and a lens and I think that
1:50
that's going to appeal to a lot of
1:52
people who would like to get that
1:53
cinematic type footage but aren't really
1:55
all that invested in get going into all
1:57
the paraphernal that comes apart of
2:00
being an actual filmmaker so is this a
2:03
lens worth buying an extension to the
2:05
series of what we have already seen well
2:07
that's what we're here to explore in
2:09
today's review like the 40 mm this is
2:12
technically an S35 or apsc lens but like
2:16
the 40 mm it does seem to actually cover
2:19
the fullframe image circle on my Sony
2:21
bodies reasonably well now obviously if
2:23
you're getting like the Fuji X Mount
2:25
version uh you're on an apsc platform
2:28
this is really doesn't matter to you but
2:30
in these cases where you are using these
2:32
platforms where both S35 and full frame
2:35
are available to you uh there is an
2:37
option here now I will say that this
2:39
isn't quite as seamless in covering the
2:42
fullframe image Circle and I I'll show
2:43
you demonstrate that to you here you can
2:45
see from the shot that number one while
2:48
there is heavy vignette in the corners
2:50
there is no of the hard mechanical
2:51
vignette where you see where actually
2:53
part of the frame is obscured so what we
2:55
see is heavy vignette but it is just
2:58
normal vignette not irredeemable
3:00
vignette that cannot be corrected so you
3:03
can actually although in Lightroom I
3:05
maxed out to 100% slider and there's
3:08
still a little bit left in a high
3:09
contrast you know snowy type seam as
3:12
I've used here however it is largely
3:14
corrected likewise you can see here that
3:17
there is it's not that there's great
3:19
image quality out past that S35 kind of
3:21
Mark towards the edges of the frame but
3:23
there still is some image quality so
3:25
it's not like it's not resolving that at
3:28
all so
3:30
I I'll look at that kind of in two
3:31
different ways uh if you're looking at
3:33
it from the perspective of uh from
3:35
Stills type perspective I wouldn't be
3:37
satisfied with that for for Still's work
3:39
and those Corners are too weak for me
3:41
but it's a whole different story when
3:43
you're talking about video in fact kind
3:44
of one of the anamorphic qualities that
3:47
is quite common in anamorphic lenses is
3:49
that they don't intentionally are not
3:51
super sharp in the corners and kind of
3:53
leave this a little bit softer more
3:55
unresolved corner of the frame to kind
3:57
of focus the eye not only through ven
3:59
yet but also through Focus itself and
4:02
and I see it quite commonly in all kinds
4:04
of cinematic footage and so if you view
4:06
it in that way I mean I think that there
4:08
shots this one for example where I think
4:10
that shooting without any kind of
4:11
correction that it works just fine and
4:14
so um you know it's it's great that we
4:16
at least have that option you got two
4:18
different framing options one in this
4:20
case I think is more compromised than
4:21
what it was with the 40 mm that I felt
4:23
like I could use pretty much seamlessly
4:25
with just maybe a little bit slightly
4:27
heavier vignette in this case there's
4:28
more to it than that and we we'll see a
4:29
little bit more of that as we go along
4:31
in this review but I think for certain
4:33
shots you certainly can get away with it
4:35
now if you're shooting in the S35 crop
4:37
that's a 1.5 times crop factor on these
4:40
various platforms that the lens will be
4:42
available for and that is a fullframe
4:44
equivalent of 30 mm and so wide not
4:47
super wide but wide enough certainly to
4:49
be useful here this is an anamorphic
4:52
lens so it has the anamorphic squeeze so
4:54
the footage coming right out of the
4:56
camera is going to look like this and
4:58
and so it's not going to be in the right
5:00
perspective it's designed to where it
5:01
needs to be Des squeezed and so right
5:04
now the actual squeeze is a constant
5:06
1.33 times so that will give you a 2.35
5:10
to1 ratio when shooting in 169 so that
5:12
gives you some of that the black bars at
5:15
the top and the bottom of the frame and
5:17
that wider cinematic look after Des
5:19
squeezing now you'll see here on my
5:21
camera I actually have an a ninja here
5:24
and this is not just a monitor but this
5:26
allows me to you know actually record
5:28
and I use it a lot as part of my review
5:31
process one of the unique things about
5:33
not only using a monitor like this I
5:35
like this kind of monitor because you
5:36
can also record footage right to it or
5:39
you know you can record what your camera
5:41
is seeing things like that but in this
5:43
case this along with other cheaper
5:45
monitors will allow you to actually view
5:48
the desqueeze and so you can actually
5:50
apply that D squeezing to it and so you
5:52
can see in the monitor you can't see
5:54
that on your camera the camera doesn't
5:55
naturally do the D squeezing at least
5:57
any of the cameras that I have tested
5:59
this kind of lens on but what you if
6:01
you're using that monitor you can see
6:04
what the actual final footage is going
6:05
to look like and that obviously can be
6:07
very very useful the t- stop of this
6:09
lens is T 1.8 and so that typically
6:12
would correspond to an f- stop of f1.8
6:16
the fact however that we're getting an
6:17
actual t- stop which measures light
6:19
transmission of being at 1.8 shows that
6:22
this is a nice bright lens uh it's not
6:24
been unusual in times past for uh some
6:27
lenses for example that are marketed for
6:29
photography that have a maximum aperture
6:31
of f1.4 to have a an actual t- stop
6:35
rating of you know f1.6 even f1.7 so the
6:39
fact that this is nice and bright means
6:41
that it's it's going to be useful allow
6:43
you to H you know keep your your speed
6:45
up in lower light situations so uh as
6:48
noted this comes in a variety of mounts
6:50
so that includes Sony e- Mount which is
6:52
tested here I've mentioned Fuji X also
6:54
Nikon Z is available and even a micro
6:57
4/3 so obviously the crop factor is
6:59
going to be two times there and so 20 mm
7:02
is going to behave more like 40 mm full
7:05
frame equivalent as has been the case
7:07
with the series both the aperture ring
7:09
and then also the focus Rings they are
7:11
geared with the standard teeth settings
7:13
and so you can throw gearing on there if
7:15
you're so Desiring the actual Focus
7:18
throw here is 360° though I will note
7:21
that this uh manual focus isn't as good
7:25
this remember this has to be focused by
7:27
wire because we now have an autofocus
7:29
motor means there's no hard stops here
7:31
so you don't have that to work from and
7:34
it also just means that the feel is a
7:36
little more vague and not as as good as
7:40
a true manual focus lens however I do
7:42
appreciate the fact that it remains
7:43
linear and we have a full 360° throw
7:46
which allows you to have some Precision
7:48
in that and again that's more of a
7:50
standardized uh setting for that MSRP
7:54
has not been announced uh yet for this
7:57
lens however the 40 mm uh MSRP was $799
8:01
but it's pretty often the case with SI
8:03
products they start at a discounted
8:05
price and frankly they often remain at
8:07
that discounted price so I wouldn't be
8:09
surprised to see the price actually
8:10
settle out to being 700 even $650 or
8:14
slightly more moving ahead two different
8:17
variations are sold of the lens there is
8:19
a Blue Streak uh flare Edition and then
8:23
there is a natural warm streak Edition
8:25
that's what I have tested here I tested
8:27
the Blue Streak on the 40 mm I see a lot
8:31
of design language that is familiar to
8:34
me from the recent Siri Aurora 85 mm
8:37
f1.4 Stills lens some of the same fonts
8:41
and then also basically the same feature
8:43
set here and so that includes the
8:45
ability to both click and declip the
8:48
aperture which is very useful an ammf
8:50
switch on the side a focus lock or
8:53
custom button here on the side function
8:55
button you can program to a variety of
8:57
different features there and then then
8:59
also some weather ceiling is part of the
9:01
design all of those things are very very
9:03
welcome because it becomes part of the
9:05
feature set that people that are
9:07
shooting in this space you know might
9:09
come to expect on other lenses so the
9:11
fact that we've got all of that and then
9:13
also we have got an anamorphic lens is
9:16
pretty great now consistency is somewhat
9:19
important in these lenses and so what we
9:21
will find is that as far as the diameter
9:23
D diameter here is 80 mm or 3.1 in that
9:28
allows you to have the
9:30
standardized uh kind of front width for
9:32
putting on a standard mat box there the
9:34
length here is considerably shorter
9:36
however than the 40 mm lens you can see
9:38
here from the side it is only 90 mm in
9:41
length 3.54 in that's 30 mm shorter than
9:45
the other lens and as a byproduct it is
9:47
considerably lighter it's only 499 G or
9:51
17.6 o that is a weight Savings of 101
9:56
gram so obviously significant
9:59
I will note that this is really compact
10:01
for an anamorphic lens anamorphic lenses
10:03
tend to be much larger than this and
10:05
frankly I've tested one from C before uh
10:08
a I believe it was the Saturn 35 mimer
10:11
and I think it was a t2.9 if I'm not
10:14
mistaken and that lens was a little
10:16
narrower than this but it was
10:17
considerably longer and so this is a
10:20
beautifully compact lens particularly
10:21
for having such a wide focal link so
10:24
that's great um and so the aperture
10:27
works well does everything that we would
10:28
want inside we have 11 blades and of
10:32
course in this case it is a traditional
10:34
oval shape that is part of the look of
10:36
anamorphic the 40mm had a little bit of
10:38
a weird uh bcast signature of specular
10:41
highlights when it was wide open this is
10:44
a little bit more traditional and
10:45
frankly it is better for it on the lens
10:48
mount itself we do have a USBC Port that
10:50
will allow for firmware updates very
10:52
important on a lens with autofocus like
10:55
this minimum Focus distance is 40 cm now
10:58
unfortunately that results in still very
11:00
low uh level of
11:03
magnification so just know that you're
11:06
um you're not going to there's probably
11:08
going to be moments where you would like
11:09
to get a little bit closer to your
11:10
subject than what you're going to be
11:11
able to do just not necessarily a
11:13
strength for either one of these lenses
11:15
to this point it does come with a nice
11:18
uh nylon zippered case kind of a premium
11:20
type packaging and the lens itself
11:22
quality feels nice it's you know it's
11:25
lightweight but the build quality feels
11:27
very good this feels like a l nice lens
11:29
and particularly if you're getting it
11:30
near that
11:32
$650 price range to $700 I mean that's a
11:35
tremendous value for a lens like this so
11:38
this is an autofocus lens and uh much
11:41
like the 40mm it is equipped with an STM
11:43
or a stepping Focus motor and like the
11:45
40 mm this is a really good application
11:49
of STM in fact in this case I actually
11:51
found that autofocus speed is better
11:53
maybe being that wider focal length uh
11:55
just kind of works to its Advantage but
11:57
it's able to snap back as you can see if
11:59
not instantaneously with a good amount
12:02
of quickness I had no issues with that
12:04
it's very quiet in operation and so uh
12:07
again no issues on that regard I found
12:10
that eye tracking worked very well you
12:12
can see on the shot as I uh kind of pan
12:14
in towards Nala and then kind of move
12:17
around and then as she begins to stretch
12:19
and begins to move around you can see
12:21
that throughout the shot all of that is
12:23
autofocus taking place no manual focus
12:25
going on there and it's doing a very
12:27
good job of just keeping f Focus where
12:29
it should be locked where it should and
12:31
giving me the outcome that I want and
12:35
and so um really great in that regard I
12:37
did find also that like Focus pulls they
12:40
look great here Focus pulls have uh
12:43
they're they're nice and smooth they
12:45
have a nice cinematic feel to it which
12:46
is I I can't tell you how important I
12:48
find that if it's going to be
12:49
autofocused it needs to be tuned for for
12:52
C still and I think that that is the
12:54
case it's quite an an organic looking
12:56
Focus pool so I like that there's no
12:59
visible steps there's no kind of hunting
13:01
or pulsing likewise I find with my hand
13:04
test that there's a good transition from
13:06
my hand to my eye and back and forth and
13:09
you will note throughout both of these
13:10
testes or these tests that Focus
13:12
breathing is quite low it's it's nicely
13:15
damped and so the byproduct is is that
13:17
there's nothing that's kind of jarring
13:19
that pulls you out of the shot when
13:21
Focus changes you can also see in this
13:23
shot for example that if I go from
13:26
starting with autofocus on a close
13:28
subject and and then I kind of pan
13:30
across to where it's going to pull Focus
13:32
to a distant subject you can see that
13:34
that pool itself is also really nicely
13:37
damped and it feels very cinematic it
13:39
just you go from the the foreground
13:42
Focus point to the background Focus
13:43
Point without anything jarring that's
13:46
great and so autofocus is doing what it
13:48
should in this regard and so I
13:49
appreciate that very
13:51
much so talking about image quality here
13:54
and obviously my coverage of this is a
13:56
little bit different with a a cine lens
13:58
it's less about chart it's more about
13:59
what I'm observing in actually shooting
14:01
footage but I will try to demonstrate
14:03
some of of those attributes we've
14:06
already talked a little bit about the
14:08
fullframe coverage and here once again
14:11
you can see the difference between
14:12
shooting uh full frame and then S35 and
14:16
again you know it it does technically
14:18
cover the full frame but it does that
14:20
with some flaws and and so one of those
14:23
other flaws that is going to be here the
14:25
40 mm was largely Distortion free that's
14:28
not not the case here there certainly is
14:31
some Distortion issues and those become
14:33
much more pronounced when um when you're
14:37
you're actually shooting in the full
14:38
frame and so for example in the shot you
14:39
can see that if you look at the edges of
14:41
the frame there's much more curvature
14:43
that gets there and when we switch to
14:45
S35 just some of that is is cut off and
14:48
so uh that is just one of the areas
14:50
where you can see uh you're going to see
14:53
less of it if you are shooting an S35
14:56
now when it comes to that distortion
14:59
Distortion can be corrected in video
15:02
footage and I and I was able to do that
15:04
you know fairly cleanly however I will
15:07
also point out that it's in many many
15:10
cases software if you're getting like a
15:13
free or a kind of a a budget version of
15:16
various photo or video editing software
15:19
you're going to find that Distortion
15:20
correction is not part of that package
15:22
and it tends to be in some of the you
15:24
know the premium versions so for example
15:26
you know one of the most popular kind of
15:28
free versions uh people will use Dent
15:30
you resolve well if you want to do
15:32
Distortion correction that module is
15:33
only available in the premium version
15:35
that you actually have to pay for so
15:37
just note that one of the downsides of
15:38
shooting with a c lens that has
15:40
Distortion is that it does require you
15:42
to have typically the kind of editing
15:44
software that will correct for that so
15:46
again your mileage may vary on all of
15:48
that one of the other things that is
15:50
exaggerated in the fullframe portion of
15:52
the frame but is a problem in general is
15:54
lateral style chromatic aberration they
15:56
are very pronounced in that area that's
15:58
cut off as you can see here but they
16:00
also do exist uh in just in the S35 not
16:04
as bad but I do see some of that and so
16:08
if you're in a situation where it's
16:10
going to be really obvious if there are
16:11
lateral style chromatic aberration
16:13
definitely shoot an S35 uh because again
16:16
it's all of these things are a little
16:18
easier to fix with Stills than what they
16:20
are with video and so I would just shoot
16:23
trying to avoid that now as noted I am
16:25
shooting with the natural streak version
16:27
as you can see here so that's you know
16:29
anamorphic that's part of the look is to
16:31
get that wide kind of streak that goes
16:33
there you can also get the Blue Streak
16:34
as noted the flare itself is is better
16:38
than what the 40 mm was and so I will
16:40
say this for it that I actually found
16:43
that in most situations flare resistance
16:45
was fairly good it's not perfect there
16:47
still are some ghosting artifacts but
16:49
overall I felt like flare resistance was
16:50
fairly good other than you know that
16:52
intentional flare that's part of the
16:54
kind of optical look that is a part of
16:57
that when it comes to color you know I
16:59
would say that I I don't find Siri
17:02
Optical glass to be my absolute favorite
17:04
It's Not Top Class to me but I will say
17:06
that footage looks good and uh you know
17:10
one thing I will say about that too is
17:13
that I I don't find that the lens is
17:14
maybe as naturally sharp as what the 40
17:17
mm was I didn't really feel like I
17:18
needed to add it add a lot of sharpening
17:20
to the 40 mm I feel the need more for it
17:22
here but as you can see here it actually
17:24
holds up to sharpening pretty well and I
17:26
felt like I could dial up quite a bit of
17:28
sharpening without things falling apart
17:30
and to me I preferred the crisper higher
17:33
contrast look there I also prefer the
17:36
fact that the bouquet quality is a
17:38
little bit more traditionally oval here
17:40
um as opposed to kind of that weird
17:43
shape that it was on the 40 millimeter
17:45
so while there's not going to be a lot
17:47
of situations where you produce a lot of
17:49
bokeh well I what is there I do actually
17:52
prefer here so my conclusion is this
17:55
this autofocusing 1.33 times anamorphic
17:58
20 mm T 1.8 it has a few more Optical
18:02
flaws than what the 40 mm did but it's
18:04
also I think a far more useful focal
18:06
length in many situations and you know
18:09
the great thing about what you're seeing
18:10
right now is that I was able to get all
18:12
of this footage with nothing more than
18:14
just a camera and the lens I was able to
18:18
trudge through deep snow and just shoot
18:21
handheld footage and put together
18:23
something that you know is at least
18:25
credible that's the value of this lens I
18:28
think providing affordable functional
18:30
and compact anamorphic lens it's doing
18:32
again something that now has been done
18:34
by CRI but uh I think making it even
18:37
more useful by giving us this wider
18:39
focal length to work with so at the end
18:41
of the day I think that this is a pretty
18:43
cool lens and one that I certainly would
18:46
uh enjoy using for just you know more
18:49
creative content in the future I'll pass
18:51
it on to my team and and Craig in
18:54
particular is more focused on the video
18:56
side of things but we'll use it as a
18:57
part of our team for producing footage
18:59
you know both for the channel for the
19:01
church you know for other things like
19:03
that just a very useful tool and I
19:06
suspect that a lot of filmmakers
19:08
aspiring filmmakers will find it to be
19:10
just that I'm Dustin Abbott and if you
19:12
want more information you can check out
19:14
my full text review that's Linked In the
19:16
description below there are buying links
19:18
there it's just coming to Market so
19:19
those links are just being populated but
19:21
check those out and I suspect there will
19:24
be a promotion code there as well
19:26
depending on what CRI says to me as we
19:28
get close to the launch as always thanks
19:31
for watching have a great day and let
19:33
the light in
19:35
[Music]
#Camera & Photo Equipment
#Online Video