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Xelmus APOLLO anamorphic primes are impressive in so many ways. They are small, and very light-weight for anamorphic lenses, most focal lengths have Full Frame coverage, and they are probably the closest focusing of any anamorphic lenses. While most anamorphic lenses have close focus distances around 3 feet, most Xelmus lenses focus between 15” to 18”, which is incredible, and makes diopters almost unnecessary.

These lenses utilize rotating astigmatizers to focus, which means: no mumps, a consistent squeeze ratio, no focus breathing, a compact design, and amazing close focus distances. This is the same type of focusing system that Panavision anamorphic lenses use.

As far as their look, they have all the hallmarks of classic anamorphic lenses: the perfect amount of barrel distortion (no pincushion), perfectly oval bokeh, and pronounced lens flares. Wide-open center sharpness is excellent, with gradual falloff. Performance is incredible at T2.8, which is how we would suggest using them for most shooting situations.

As you can see we offer 2 sets of these lenses. The MKI lenses have big, saturated lens flare character, slightly more distortion on the 40mm and 100mm, and slightly softer edges. Also the MKI 40mm does not cover Full Frame, while the MKIII 40mm does. The newer MKII and MKIII lenses feature updated optical designs and a different lens coating formula. There are slight improvements to sharpness, distortion, and edge performance, and lens flares are more subtle than the MKI. Also, the 100mm is slightly faster at T2.3 vs. T2.5 for the MKI. Some MKII and MKII lenses are slightly heavier due to the larger optical elements used which also caused the fornt diameter to grow form 104mm to 114mm on the 32mm and 40mm.

MKII/MKIII also saw the introduction of the new 32mm T2, which covers Alexa 35 and Alexa Mini Open Gate fully, and 3.8K UHD 16x9 on Mini LF (at a 2.39:1 crop)! It’s sharper than the 40mm, with slightly more barrel distortion. It’s absolutely gorgeous, and is one of the most beautiful ultra wide 2x anamorphic lenses out there.

* There is no MKI 135mm. All 135mm Xelmus Apollo were built AFTER the initial release of the MKI 40mm, 60mm, 100mm. So all 135mm Xelmus Apollo should be considered “MKII” with coatings that are the same as the rest of the MKII/MKIII primes. Also, the white and black finshes do not necessarily dictate if a lens is MKI, MKII, or MKIII. All MKI are white. However, you can get MKII and MKIII in black or white.

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