Re: Anamorphic panoramas

[Tony <scope@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Steve Morton wrote:
>I feel there are two main problems with anamorphic attachments:
>
>1. quite limited angle of view
>2. image quality
>
>The purpose built complete anamorphic prime lenses (usually 2:1) have
>better quality and can offer a much wider angle of view but:
>
>1. the on film image size is usually for 35mm cine format: only about 19
>x 22mm
>2. these lenses are _not_ cheap

Just to clarify: - the anamorphics I am talking about give a full 35mm
frame compressed image without vignetting.  

While custom-made anamorphics that couple direct to the camera are best, it
is possible to use some of the larger ones including 2x compression as a
supplementary lens in front of a 35mm camera lens of 50mm focal length.
Vignetting is the biggest problem and can only be assessed by checking
through the viewfinder.

Image quality:  Isco Optik produces good quality lenses and from my
experience the screen image looks sharp when viewed from the correct
distance. Even IMAX would probably look fuzzy if you were really close to
the screen.

On the subject of cost, as with any camera lens, you get what you pay for.
Anamorphics are probably more expensive because the production runs are
much smaller than for normal lenses.

Tony Andrews