Lomo 20-120 with rear anamorphic adaptor with stainless steel PL mounts and parfocal

The Lomo 20–120mm with the dedicated rear anamorphic adapter is a very interesting piece of vintage Soviet cinema glass. If yours has been properly converted to stainless-steel PL mounts and is genuinely parfocal, it becomes considerably more desirable as a working cinema lens.

The lens is generally identified as the LOMO 35OPF18-1 20–120mm T3.3. It is a large-format, Russian/Soviet-era cinema zoom with a reputation for being surprisingly good optically. Contemporary users describe it as a high-quality spherical Lomo zoom with very little breathing and a particularly useful macro mechanism.

The important thing is that the 20–120 itself is spherical.

When you attach the dedicated 2x rear anamorphic adapter, you effectively turn it into approximately:

40–240mm anamorphic

Parfocal is VERY important

If your particular lens is genuinely parfocal, that's a significant selling point.

It means you can:

Zoom → focus → zoom in/out

and the subject remains in focus.

That's exactly what you want from a cinema zoom, particularly for:

• Documentary
• Live work
• Steadicam
• Wildlife
• Music videos
• Crash zooms
• Long-lens work
• Anamorphic shooting where you don't want to pull focus after changing focal length

The lens has also been described as having very little breathing.

The macro mechanism

Another unusual feature is the rear macro/diopter mechanism.

The 20–120 has a macro stage that can bring the lens surprisingly close to subjects. What's particularly interesting is that this mechanism can also operate with the anamorphic adapter attached.

That's a pretty unusual capability for a vintage anamorphic zoom.

The physical beast

This is not a lightweight zoom.

Published examples put the lens around 5–6 kg, with roughly a 150mm front diameter and around 350mm length before adding the anamorphic back.

So you're talking about a proper studio/support lens, not something you'd casually put on a Sony FX3.

You'll want:

• 19mm studio support
• Proper lens support
• Large matte box
• Strong PL mount
• Good tripod/remote head

The stainless-steel PL mounts

This could actually makes this  particular example more interesting than an original OCT-19 version.

A professionally machined stainless PL conversion gives it modern camera compatibility and makes it much more attractive to rental houses and cinematographers.

A Lomo 20–120 + dedicated rear anamorphic + professionally converted stainless PL mounts + verified parfocal performance isn't just an old Russian zoom.

It's a fairly unusual working anamorphic cinema zoom.