Hawk offers the widest range of anamorphic and spherical motion picture lenses in the industry. Discover their distinctive lens series, which offer maximum creative flexibility in the hands of the cinematographer.
“Hawk as a company feels homegrown, like a family, the effort and craftsmanship they put into their lenses is amazing. Everything is done in-house – building the lenses, coating them, calibrating them. They use their science to support us as we turn it into art.” – Terry Stacey ASC
HAWK V-LITE
As seen on: Moonlight / The Wolf of Wall Street / 65 / Argo / Kingsman: The Secret Service / Houria
Hawk V‑Lite 2x anamorphic lenses deliver the unique look and reliability of Hawk anamorphic glass in a smaller package. The combination of their optical characteristics, robustness, user-friendliness, range of focal lengths and surprisingly small size – smaller than many commonly used spherical primes – has made them popular worldwide.
“I like the very compact system of the V‑Lites, and I really like the way it’s very sharp where it has to be and soft on the edge of the frame,” says Léo Lefèvre SBC, who lensed Houria.
The Hawk V-Lites are also available in 1.3x. This unique squeeze factor makes it possible to use nearly the entire sensor area of a 16:9 digital camera to achieve the popular widescreen 2.40:1 release format, Furthermore, the 1.3x lenses combined with a 4:3 sensor stretch the image to 1.78:1 for 16:9 TV release.
HAWK V-LITE VINTAGE ‘74
As seen on: Bridge of Spies / John Wick / Atomic Blonde / Best Sellers / Beats / Bullet Train
Cinematographers who seek the signature 1970s look, complete with low contrast, flares, colour aberrations and other “flaws”, can now achieve that look with lenses that incorporate state-of-the-art optics and mechanics and work seamlessly with the latest accessories. These lenses offer reduced contrast, enhanced flares, pleasant skin tones, the benefit of being small and lightweight, and a macro 55mm. Like the V-Lites, the Vintage ’74 is also available in 1.3x squeeze.
Bullet Train cinematographer Jonathan Sela first used the Vintage ‘74s on Atomic Blonde. “I’ve always loved them,” he explains. “I’ve always liked the imperfection and blooming highlights of the Vintage ‘74 lenses. In our testing for Bullet Train, we realised that the movie has so many practical sources and neon signs that it already had a modern feel due to the production design. The train interiors were so sharp and clean and perfect, and the Vintage ‘74s helped scale that back a little visually, so it’s not quite so high tech and modern looking. As soon as we saw the Vintage ‘74s with some of the set elements, we just thought it looked so much cooler.”
HAWK CLASS-X
As seen on: Inside / Deadpool 2 / The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard / Fast & Furious: Hobbs and Shaw
Calculated from scratch and built in a strictly classic design without resorting to non-traditional methods, Hawk Class-X anamorphic lenses deliver an iconic 2x anamorphic look. Hawk Class-X lenses deliver improved definition, close focus and edge distortion while maintaining the organic look and feel of all Hawk lenses.
“You get this amazing cream feel, but it’s sharp and clean and it doesn’t feel flat,” comments Terry Stacey ASC on his choice of lenses for The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard. “There’s a lot of dimensionality and the colour rendition is amazing. We didn’t need to use much diffusion. They’re fast, and they match across all focal lengths, so you can swap them out. There’s less distortion top and bottom, which is good. […] The Class-X were perfect for this film.”
Hawk class-X is also available in 38-80mm and 80-180mm zooms.
HAWK65
As seen on: Eiffel / Rogue One: A Star Wars Story / The Lazarus Project / The Colony / Earthquake Bird
The Hawk65 anamorphic lenses offer a truly unique aesthetic. They combine an unparalleled high-quality anamorphic look with the right balance of clean image rendition and organic texture. The 1.3x anamorphic squeeze elevates large format sensors to their highest level. New coating technology with soft, natural contrast creates amazing skin tones and makes Hawk65 lenses the perfect companion for digital sensors.
“To portray their connection and chemistry, I tried as much as possible to go with the 60mm Hawk65, which I fell in love with,” says Matias Boucard AFC, who lensed Eiffel. “It has something special.”
The Hawk65s are also available as Vintage ’74, delivering the visual signature of older glass with high-performance mechanics. This includes an ingenious patented Iris Shaping System that produces bokeh similar to that of a 2x squeeze, adding a classic anamorphic flavour. By design, the soft, natural contrast and pleasing skin tones produced by these lenses work in harmony with the unique depth of field characteristics and other subtleties of large sensor imaging.
MINIHAWK & MHX HYBRID ANAMORPHIC
As seen on: It: Chapter Two / Aftermath / Them: Covenant / Reacher S1 / Gaslit
Due to their unique construction, the MiniHawks solve problems associated with anamorphic lenses while preserving classic anamorphic characteristics such as elliptical bokeh and shallow depth of field, resulting in an organic, cinematic feel. They offer superclose focus – almost like macro lenses – with no breathing while focusing. MiniHawks are geometrically well-corrected.
“The MiniHawks gave us the anamorphic look we were looking for, with great flexibility,” notes DP Xavier Grobet ASC AMC, who used them to shoot Them: Covenant. “A lot of the language on this show was on extreme closeups, which these lenses are great for – no need for diopters. Spherical lenses with an anamorphic look – that’s what’s so appealing about these lenses. They’re compact, lightweight and have a great look.”
Just like the MiniHawks, the MHX lenses expertly blend cutting-edge design with traditional anamorphic charm, but with the addition of offering an expansive large format coverage.
VANTAGE ONE & VANTAGE ONE4
Back in 2012, Hawk conceived the Vantage One T1 spherical line of lenses, a major achievement in optical design for motion pictures that was embraced by directors of photography. Eight years later, Hawk built on this success with a completely new line of lenses: Vantage One4, spherical lenses that combine with large-format sensors to produce imagery with striking personality.
The Vantage One4 line of spherical lenses offers an array of creative options in a single set and each lens produces unique optical traits depending on the stop. Unlike lenses that adapt existing elements to fill larger sensors without improving resolution, Vantage One4s have been designed for purpose from the ground up, thus delivering full optical power to bigger sensors. A standard set includes 22, 27, 35, 50, 65, 80 and 105mm focal lengths.
“The glass is so beautiful – I call it a suede quality,” says Magdalena Gorka, reflecting on shooting Into the Night S2. “The bokeh is perfect, with beautiful circular flares that spread on the lens like a sun. […] The One4s have the quality of anamorphic in a spherical lens, and yet they can see more than your eyes can see at night. To me, these lenses are the height of engineering, giving cinematographers more options as we work to create interesting shots.”
The full Hawk Lens line-up will be available this summer at Hawk London, HereEast, Olympic Park, East London. If you would like to discuss a project in the meantime, please get in touch at info@hawklondon.com
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This article was paid for by Hawk.
