You may not be aware of this, but the Atlas Lens Co. Mercury 1.5x anamorphic lenses utilize a patented focusing mechanism.
In this video, Atlas Lens Co. CEO Dan Kanes explains the mechanics of flange focal distance and how it influences lens design in the company’s Orion and Mercury series. Their patent for the Atlas Mercury series focus system was granted in 2022.
A lot of anamorphic lenses use the science behind the Newcomer patent, which was filed way back in 1931. It is a lens design featuring a fixed rear group behind a diopter group. This mechanism allows the diopter group to move to shift focus while keeping the back focus position essentially unchanged. It serves as the foundational precedent for the floating focus design used in the Atlas Orion series. Now, with the Mercury series, the entire rear block of the lens moves in and out during focusing, and a secondary spherical group also moves linearly between the anamorphic groups. Why is this important? Well, because the rear group and internal elements physically shift to create the image plane, the patented system is more forgiving, making it easier to achieve a sharp image even if the camera system is slightly uncalibrated.
