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I don't know if any one is still reading this topic, I see the last post was in October, but... I just bought an Optoma HD70 DLP 720p 16.9 after many long hours of research. I've been collecting 16mm for many years and I've worked in a Movie Theatre for about 8 years. I only recently heard of this Idea of using anamorphic lenses with video projectors. I've been using them with 16mm, Super 8 and now 35mm for a long time. Our Theatre uses a fixed Height and the image gets Wider, not taller. I've been in some local chains where the image does NOT get wider, so you can go either way in theatres.

Our theatre is a one screen art house set up for 1.33, 1.37, 1.66, 1.85, and 2.35. We have lenses and aperture plates for each format. In my home, 16mm scope is about 2.66. 16mm has always been the original format of scope from 1952. Ben Hur for instance is 2.66. To do this, slight cropping occurs in 16mm on the top and bottom because a 35mm scope image doesn't quit match up with the 16mm frame of 1.33 or 4.3. Now…

I understand the Idea of using a Scope Lens in front of a Video Projector, but at some of these screen sizes you are describing, I can’t really see the point. With the new 720p and up 16.9 projectors on a 16.9 screen, the amount of image loss is not very demanding. I also never understood this salesman stuff of measuring a screen diagonally. If I have a 100 inch Diagonal Screen, it’s still not telling me how tall the image is because I don’t know if you have a 4.3, 16.9 or a 2.35 screen! It’s stupid…. But that’s just my personal pet peeve… anyway, I went from a 19” TV with letter boxed Laser Disks, to a 9ft wide 16mm Cinemascope Screen and thought it still wasn’t big enough… why? Because the super wide image wasn’t tall enough to give me that feeling I got in a good Movie Theatre.

My friends and I who collect 16mm found that until you got up to a huge 12 ft wide screen, 2.66 looked to long and thin. However, with these 16.9 Video Projectors, I find a letter boxed scope image of about 2.35-2.39 is much more pleasing and theatre like. My 16.9 screen is about 7ft wide by almost 5ft tall. I just used a tape measure and it’s about 110 diagonally… I have the HD70 mounted on the ceiling and if I want to, I can still open the screen up to it’s full 9ft wide width, but I find in practice, it’s not necessary in my living room. I also did the zoom up thing with the older 4.3 projectors, and it was a pain in the butt unless you have a remote zoom with lens shift. You get real tired of doing that after a while, especially if you are watching a few things in different formats in one evening. That guy who mentioned having a projector that remembers your lens settings has a great idea there… So for me, after years of getting up to move curtains, projectors, lenses, etc. Having a 16.9 Projector with choices of 4.3, Native, 16.9 and Letterbox Zoom on my remote saved the day. I have black bars in different formats, but if you have your contrast adjusted right, they are just that. Black. No black masking needed. Some day maybe, but right now, no big deal and the size of 2.35 is still impressive with a screen about 4ft tall by 7ft wide in a normal size living room. The free screen I got from Circuit City is only 7ft wide, so I imagine 90% of you are using a screen about the same size. Incidentally, I never even opened it. It’s still in the shipping crate. I use a Draper Luma pull down I got from a School Supply Company. It’s full size is 9 x 7.

Over the years I’ve tested a lot of Video Projectors that friends bought or our theatre rented for presentations and the bottom line was always, does it look as good as 16mm? These Video projectors didn’t until very recently, and I’m talking about Projectors costing as much as $6,000. Right now, we’ve hit the jackpot when you can buy a Projector for under $1,000 that looks as good or beats 16mm. I’d love to have 1080, but for now, I’m totally blown away by 720p. Anyway, getting back to Anamorphic lenses.

Check out e-Bay. You can buy an Anamorphic lens for around or even under $200 to experiment with. Used 35mm lenses are available. They are very large and should accommodate any Video Projector lens out there. I have 5 Kiowa (?) and two Singer D 16mm scope lenses that are big enough to use with my Optoma HD70, so I’ll do some experimenting, but paying $5,000 for a scope lens is ridiculous with all the used scope lenses on e-Bay! If you’re that rich, get the 1080 machine and have a guy come install it for you. If you’re not, like me, go get a used lens and mess with it and tell us if you really see that much of an improvement.

I think the main thing would be to reduce the SDE right? These new projectors don’t even have that as an issue. I’m sitting only 9ft from my screen sometimes and it’s totally a non issue with the HD70. Broadcast HD totally blows 16mm out of the water too. I can’t wait until the High Def DVD wars are over and we start getting some good content to watch. Sometimes I think you guys are splitting hairs, ya know? Brightness too. I think that issue is now gone too with this years projectors. Be aware also that you loose light with a scope lens. Depending on the lens, it can be noticeable. Also, most photographic scope lenses have a distance ring. You set the distance for your throw. It’s not fixed. It has a range. This Singer lens I have has a range of 2 meters to infinity, so that’s not an issue either with a good lens. I think these $5,000 lenses are kind of well… you think about it.