Kowa Anamorphic

1. Overview

The Kowa Prominar Anamorphic 75mm is a Japanese vintage lens from the early 1970s camera system era, designed with a 2x squeeze factor for Super 35 productions. Kowa originally built these optics for professional use in film and broadcast; today, they circulate in the rental market as sought-after character lenses.

2. Characteristics

Flare characteristics according to the CINEFLARES datasheet:

• Types: Streak
• Colors: White
• Intensity: Strong

Linked pattern entries:

• anamorphic-streak

3. Creative Use

The 75mm is suitable as a medium telephoto lens for portraits and tight two-shots – the 2x squeeze provides pronounced horizontal bokeh ovals and the white streak flares typical of Kowa, which strongly appear with hard point light sources in the frame. The barrel distortion and low contrast due to the older coatings give the image a soft, slightly atmospheric texture that clearly differs from modern anamorphic lenses. Reliable film references are not readily available, as the Kowa Prominar series is rarely documented as a complete set. In the rental context, individual Kowa primes usually appear in indie productions or music videos, often mixed with other vintage anamorphic lenses. Those using the lens should keep an eye on focus pulling: the original housings have tight focus rings with uneven mechanics – a good follow focus system or a rehoused unit will save time on set.

4. Specs Overview

5. Status Tracker

• [x] Datasheet extracted (DOM-direct, 2026-04-20)
• [ ] Overview formulated
• [ ] Creative use researched
• [ ] AI illustration or manufacturer photo (with attribution)
• [ ] Translations (9 languages)
• [ ] Import via import-lexikon.mjs