Regards

Steven

In a practical sense, there isn’t such a thing. Although some very expensive higher end products may be sold with anamorphic lens and sled as bundled into the package (think companies like Runco/Vidikron, SIM2, etc. just might do something like that, in all cases that I can think of, (under $20,000), I can’t think of any products that do.

That’s a true separate lens, we’re talking about.

On the other hand, there’s what Panasonic does on their PT-AE3000 (and PT-AE4000 – which so far is only announced in the EU). They are “emulating” an anamorphic lens setup. They do this by simply designing the Panasonic to work with 2.35:1 screens instead of 16:9. To do this, they get the letterbox (which is still there) to hit above and below the screen.) The other half of the problem, is when a user wants to watch 4:3 or 16:9. Normally part of those pictures would also be off the screen. They solve this problem by zooming out the lens, creating an overall smaller image, that now fills the screen vertically, and for 4:3 or 16:9 creates letterboxes on the side.

To make that work reliably, one needs:
1. A zoom lens with roughly a minimum of a 1.5:1 zoom ratio. However, if that small, then the actual projector placement would have almost 0 flexiblity. Thus, with the Panasonic, and it’s 2:1 zoom, that still leaves some decent projector placement flexibility, though a lot less than for a standard 16:9 setup. Remember if working with the Panasonic, to look at the placement numbers when using that “emulation” to make sure placement will work. The regular placement numbers for 16:9 have far more range.

2. The zoom needs to be motorized (want to get on a ladder everytime you want switch between a 2.35:1 movie, and a 16:9 football game?)

3. The projector needs auto focus too. The truth of the matter is, that zooming in and out frequently, it is extremely unlikely that a projector will hold perfect focus, thus without auto focus – same problem, you might have to get on that ladder to refocus from time to time (or regularly).

So far, I’m only aware of the Panasonic doing anamorphic lens emulation. I am aware of hobbyists doing it manually. Yep, getting up out of the chair, and adjusting the zoom and focus manually every time they switch content shape. It’s a pain, but will do the trick. Still need a lens with good zoom range, and the right placement to make it work.

The Panasonic is an elegant solution, btw. it technically is inferior to actually getting an anamorphic lens and sled, for several reasons, not the least of which is that if your front wall is white, you’ll have no problem seeing the letterboxing overshooting that 2.35:1 screen. Another reason is that you still aren’t using 100% of the pixels (only about 80%). (same as with regular 16:9 viewing of 2.35:1 content. With a real anamorphic lens, you use 100% of the pixels. Ultimately that means a brighter, sharper image at the same size. -a

Steven