Is there a way to shoot animorphic 2.39:1 widescreen on a Sony HVR-Z7U?

[Cyrax9]

Okay, so I'm basically wondering if it's possible, either through the use of a DoF adapter or some sort of 1/3" bayonnet adapter to attach an animorphic lens to the Sony HVR-Z7U for the purpose of shooting animorphic (scope) widescreen that I can convert to 2592x1080 in post. (My goal is to avoid shooting at 1920x1080 and cropping to 1920x800.) If this is possible, can someone please recommend an adapter or adapters and lenses that could be used to do this? For DoF adapters that attach to the front of the lens, the HVR-Z7U uses a 72mm thread, and for adapters and lenses that attach directly to the camera, I'd need something that would be capable of connecting to a 1/3" mount. So far I'm having trouble figuring out what combination of animorphic lens and possible adapter for connection to this camera would be required to actually shoot an image that could be stretched to the 2.39:1 aspect ratio in post, and could use a bit of help. Thank you all in advance for any help you might be able to offer me.

[aedipuss]

black tape on the viewscreen at the appropriate size. film only inside the tape. crop while rendering to your output.

[Cornucopia]

B&H sells one like this: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1195988-REG/slr_magic_slra50_1_33x_anamorphot_50_1_33x.html for the low, low price of $849.

Just so you know, you won't find a half-way decent one for less than ~$500.

Scott

[aedipuss]

i wasn't joking.

[Cornucopia]

I'm sure you weren't, but the OP specifically didn't want to crop/lose resolution.

Btw Cyrax9, the better NLEs support anamorphic video, so you could leave your footage unresized until the edit is finished. Just set up the project/sequence as anamorphic, and properly (manually) interpret your footage.

Scott

[aedipuss]

added lenses will only make crappy video. use the part of the original sensor that's 2.39/1. any other way will result in blurry/unusable video. "near normal focus" is not good.

[aedipuss]

just so you know many movies were shot on 4:3 35mm film and cropped in post to 16/9. there is no better way.

[Cornucopia]

I disagree. I would say, in terms of quality, from highest to lowest, it usually breaks down like this:
4k shoot cropped down to ultrawide HD/2k
Dedicated cine anamorphic lens
High quality lens + high quality anamorphic adapter
Std HD lens shoot cropped down to ultrawide semi-HD
Std HD lens shoot + std anamorphic adapter

Scott

[Cyrax9]

B&H sells one like this: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1195988-REG/slr_magic_slra50_1_33x_anamorphot_50_1_33x.html for the low, low price of $849.

Just so you know, you won't find a half-way decent one for less than ~$500.

Scott

Scott, thank you; that's actually the adapter that I've been looking at. The only possible issue that I'd need a workaround for is the thread size. This will fit a 62mm lens, but the HVR-Z7U uses a lens with a 72mm thread. Is there another converter, such as an additional step up/down ring that would allow me to connect the 62mm adapter to the 72mm lens thread? For example, could I use this step down ring from Adorama to attach the 62mm anamorphic adapter to my lens? http://www.adorama.com/prosd7262.html

Btw Cyrax9, the better NLEs support anamorphic video, so you could leave your footage unresized until the edit is finished. Just set up the project/sequence as anamorphic, and properly (manually) interpret your footage.

I'm looking into this, but it's my understanding that even in Premiere Pro, some features might not be available if the footage is interpreted anamorphically. My plan is to edit in either FCP7 or Premiere Pro CS6, so I am considering leaving the footage unresized until I finish editing.

added lenses will only make crappy video. use the part of the original sensor that's 2.39/1. any other way will result in blurry/unusable video. "near normal focus" is not good.

I've seen plenty of footage that was shot through depth-of-field adapters that doesn't look blurry/distorted or otherwise unusable, and often looks better than footage that was shot at true 16:9 and cropped to 2.39:1.

just so you know many movies were shot on 4:3 35mm film and cropped in post to 16/9. there is no better way.

True, many films were shot on 35mm film in 4:3 and cropped/reframed in post, but many others were shot on 4:3 film with 2x anamorphic lenses to fit a 2.39:1 image into a 4:3 frame. While a 2X anamorphic lens/adapter would look insane on a 16:9 sensor, a 1.33x anamorphic lens/adapter works fine on the wider sensor. I would rather have the higher resolution image filmed anamorphically than a lower resolution image shot with spherical lenses and cropped. (Besides, a 2592x1080 anamorphic image can be easily enlarged to 3840x1600. If need be, I'd rather do a 67.5% enlargement than a 200% enlargement of the finished film.)