Great Joy 85mm T2.9 1.8x Anamorphic Full-Frame Cine Lens Announced – Trio Completed

Lens News

by Jakub HanNovember 24^th, 2022

Great Joy 85mm T2.9 1.8x anamorphic complements the 1.8x anamorphic trio of full-frame cine lenses from Great Joy. The lens will be launched in December 2022 via Indiegogo with an early bird price of $1,445 and a planned delivery in January 2023.

Throughout 2022, the Chinese lens company Great Joy introduced two 1.8x anamorphic full-frame lenses – first the 50mm T2.9 (announced in April) followed by the wide-angle 35mm T2.9 that was announced in August. Soon, a third focal length will finalize the Great Joy anamorphic series – let’s take a short look at the upcoming Great Joy 85mm T2.9 1.8x anamorphic lens.

Great Joy 85mm T2.9 1.8x anamorphic lens: features

The lens has a constant squeeze ratio of 1.8x from 0.7m (minimum focusing distance) to infinity. As an anamorphic cine lens, it offers a full-metal-built body with a geared focus and iris rings, and visible distance marks. The 16-bladed aperture is available between T2.9 and T22 and the focus ring rotation is 238°. The iris ring features an 84.3° rotation.

The focal length and angle of view are 84.2mm (16.2°) vertically and 45.5mm (44.8°) horizontally. Anamorphic lenses are always wider (horizontally) than spherical lenses with the same focal length. The optical structure of the lens encompasses 18 elements in 15 groups. The lens will be available with three types of flares – blue, amber, or no flare.

According to Great Joy, the lens covers full-frame sensors up to 36x24mm and even VistaVision sensors up to 40.96×21.6mm.

As with previous lenses from this series, there will be six different mount options – Canon EF, PL, Sony E, Canon RF, Leica L, and Micro Four Thirds. The EF and PL mount versions come with both lens mounts that are user-interchangeable. Please note, that the EF/PL version of the lens has a protruding rear element and is therefore not compatible with adapters with optical elements, drop-in filters, and some camera models with internal ND filters.

Physically, the PL version of the Great Joy 85mm T2.9 1.8x anamorphic lens weighs 1.18kg, it is 132mm long and the front outer diameter is 85mm. There is an 82mm front filter thread.

Price and availability

The Great Joy 85mm anamorphic lens will be launched in December 2022 via the Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign. The company plans to start mass production and ship the first batch of lenses in January 2023. The second batch shipping should happen shortly after that in February 2023.

You can sign up here for a 15% off launch day special, which will see the lens priced at $1,445. That means the full retail price of the lens is planned to be $1,700.

Now that the three-piece lens set is complete, Great Joy will also offer a custom-made hard case for all three lenses (35mm, 50mm, and 85mm) for $139.

Do you have experience shooting with any of the previous Great Joy anamorphic lenses? What do you think about the new 85mm T2.9 lens? Let us know in the comments section underneath the article.