Vazen

Vazen was a Chinese lens maker based in Shenyang that designed anamorphic cine lenses with a 1.8x squeeze. Weizhen Liu, an optical engineer, founded the company in 2019. On March 6, 2024, Vazen announced that it had ended operations, and its website, vzlens.com, was replaced with a farewell notice to customers and partners.

Its first lenses were a set of three 1.8x anamorphic primes for Micro Four Thirds cameras, at 28mm, 40mm and 65mm, later also offered in Canon RF mount. Vazen described the 1.8x squeeze as a balance between anamorphic character and image resolution, with a stronger anamorphic effect than 1.33x or 1.5x designs.

A full-frame set of 50mm, 85mm and 135mm T2.8 anamorphic lenses followed, offered with interchangeable PL and EF mounts; the 135mm, announced in 2022, completed the set.