There are new anamorphic lenses in town: The Xelmus Apollo with 2x squeeze ratio offers anamorphic characteristics packed with affordable price. The lenses indeed look beautiful and promising. However, the affordable price is not affordable enough. Read below.

Anamorphic for the crowd

An anamorphic lens is a synonym to beautiful and unique cinematography. The pursuit after the special authentic flare never stops. Unfortunately, anamorphic lenses are also a synonym to an ultra-expensive piece of glass ($$,$$$), a luxury only few can afford. Fortunately, there is a trend to make those lenses more accessible regarding price, so they can be used by independent filmmakers and low budget productions to enhance image uniqueness. 

One option is the Atlas Lens Orion Series which offers real anamorphic look and characteristics within $8000-$9000 price range, and now there is the Apollo 2x Anamorphic series by Xelmus.

APOLLO 2X Series: 2X anamorphic prime lens set

This series is compact, sharp, optimized for distortion correction. We’ve also been very careful to consider flares! We spend a lot of time testing to achieve different coatings to get the desirable flares

According to Xelmus, the Apollo lenses have been developed for 7 years to achieve the precise and unique anamorphic look and standards. As stated by the company: ”This series is compact, sharp, optimized for distortion correction. We’ve also been very careful to consider flares! We spend a lot of time testing to achieve different coatings to get the desirable flares.”

The Panavision connection

According to Xelmus, one of the main features of our lens is the anti-mump system created in 1954 by Mr. Gottschalk from Panavision. This feature allows only vertical breath when focusing from infinity to the close point, which means that the horizontal axis stays locked. Also, this feature can bring the focus point of the lens closer than 1 feet.

The optics are much smaller and lighter than a front variable diopters design system, which make those lenses highly customized on Steadicam, gimbals, and handheld work.

Compact design

The optics are much smaller and lighter than a front variable diopters design system, which make those lenses highly customized on Steadicam, gimbals, and handheld work.

Focus ring mechanics – 270° rotation

The focus ring mechanics allows the focus ring to be really smooth, and feature a rotation of 270° in order to facilitate focus pulling.

APOLLO = NASA = White

The white matches the lens name – Apollo, just like NASA!

The Apollo 2x Anamorphic Lenses are white. Just like the famous spacecraft. As stated by Xelmus: The white matches the lens name – Apollo, just like NASA! And we gotta say it looks beautiful. Red-White-Black – are the main colors of the Apollo lens series”.

General information

There are 3 lenses in the series, 100mm T2.8, 60mm T1.6, and 40mm T2. All Apollo line lenses are compatible with a super 35 sensor. 60 mm, and 100mm are specially made to work with full frame sensors and have a special sign on the housing. Check out the tech spec stable below: 

Watch the video below to explore Apollo’s capabilities and image quality:

Price and availability

The price for a lens is $12,000. Preorders can be made through the company’s website by paying a 50% deposit (all deposits are refundable).

Final thoughts

The Apollos are affordable anamorphic lenses. Nevertheless, affordable is a relative statement. In the bottom line, they are far from being cheap lenses. The competitors (Atlas) are more affordable ($8,000). If Xelmus wants to penetrate the market of small to mid productions, the prices must go down. Meanwhile, we are waiting for Samyang new and really affordable anamorphic lenses (in development). 

What are your insights about the Xelmus Apollo 2x Anamorphic lenses? Would you use them? Would you prefer the Atlas Orion? Let’s know!