Anamorphic Video with DSLR

Tigertail · Nov 16, 2011

Does anyone know if it's possible to shoot anamorphic widescreen video on a Canon DSLR? Like using some sort of adaptor or anamorphic lens.

If so, could you then stretch out the original video at 3:2 to 16:9 or 2.39:1 in post and have that increase the quality? This would be in the same way that shooting anamorphically with film has a better look than Super 35 which is cropped as the entire frame is utilized.

If anyone has any idea about what I'm talking about it would be awesome.

Edit: *errr, hope this is the right forum! (didn't realize it was for film cameras) -.-

Helen B · Nov 16, 2011

I've used a Century anamorphic converter with an SLR for stills, albeit about ten years ago. With the converter I have I am restricted to lenses with a filter thread of no more than 58 mm. There was some optical degradation, especially at wide apertures. Stopping down a couple of stops improved the quality. There is also some degradation during de-squeezing. Overall it was a close thing between cropping an image taken without the anamorphic converter and using the de-squeezed anamorphic image. At wide apertures the cropped image was usually better, stopped down the opposite was true.

That assessment was based on high res full-frame images (scanned film), not lower res video footage, and I didn't think that it was worth continuing with the trial. For video with video cameras I always use the converter in preference to cropping, but the same comments regarding aperture apply.

Best,
Helen

unpopular · Nov 16, 2011

I've seen people do this before, at least with stills, and was thinking it would be kind of cool. You can get older anamorphic lenses on ebay for less than $1,000, and in film you probably don't need to be quite as concerned with some of the IQ issues you would with sills, just because the resolution is lower and it's moving.

I don't think you'd want to go with a converter, personally. Older lenses can be found for about the price of newer converters, and converters are not optimized the way the lenses are.

Helen B · Nov 16, 2011

Sounds like a good way of doing it. The new converters are $750 and upwards, so a true anamorphic taking lens for around $1000 is a bargain. As an aside, many of the good converters were made by Lomo and sold under another name. Lomo themselves made good anamorphic lenses, which should still sell for fairly high prices if they are in good condition.