Anamorphous lenses - Experiences?

[superconnie]

I just found something interesting in an HiFi forum, Anamorphous lenses for video projectors. They turn an 4:3 format picture into an 16:9 and a 16:9 into a 21:9 super widesreen picture. They basically stretch the picture horizontally and the benefit is that you have no loss of pixels. Of course the image has to be adjusted (compressed) in horizontal size by adjusting the graphics resolution accordingly.

Has someone experience with lenses like this? It could be a good solution for one single projector instead of 3 projectors....

Christian

- Happy new year
- Ein frohes neues Jahr
- Es guets neus
- Feliz Año Nuevo
- Shinnen Omedeto

[NicD]

I've done a similar thing with curved mirrors which works well - but only to a point. 21:9 would be getting beyond that I think... the scenery would start to look flat and squashed and scenery movement would be accelerated to the edges. This can make hand-flying (especially landing) quite an ordeal.

[steveeverson]

i've used a camcorder wide angle lens i bought from ebay for about 25pounds .. works well- made a piece of wood with a hole in that it fits in and attached to the front of my video projector. It makes a 4 1/2ft wide picture about 7 feet. (keeps the aspect ratio the same) Anyone wants details feel free to PM me.- also most modern projectors have an aspect ratio selction in the menus...
cheers
Steve

[superconnie]

I know... most newer projectors can be set 4:3 or 16:9 but in one of the two settings you lose pixels. Either on the side or on top/bottom. And none of the projectors is able to go 21:9. That's cinemascope format and quite interesting for simflight...

Christian

[BHawthorne]

What price point are the lenses? I have pretty standard 16:9 projectors (InFocus SP5000). If the gaming app has FOV correction settings 21:9 should work ok if you have a screen setup for it. My goal currently is using 3 projectors and TH2G, but if I can achieve the same with 2 projectors, dump the TH2G and go horizontal-span, that would give higher FPS (less pixel count to strain the system). I have extensive experience with using the TH2G, so I'm used to the FOV issues and how to address them in many cases.

[andyb]

Panamorph seem to be the most commonly used anamorphic lenses that I have found.

Pricing can be found at:
http://www.panamorph.com/Products.html

I've not had first hand experience, but I've seen them at a couple of shows and they certainly offer an alternative to increasing horizontal field of view .... but not cheap.

[BHawthorne]

SoftTH has FOV force settings parameter in it's preference file, but I've never used it. I'd have to use 3 projectors to go that route though.

[superconnie]

I have found this company in Germany

http://www.iscoprecisionoptics.com/i..._cinema_d.html

Price range is somewhat around 1200 Euro (us$1600). Its expensive but if you only need 1 projector instead of 3....?

Christian

[BHawthorne]

I have found this company in Germany

http://www.iscoprecisionoptics.com/i..._cinema_d.html

Price range is somewhat around 1200 Euro (us$1600). Its expensive but if you only need 1 projector instead of 3....?

Christian

I think it ultimately comes down to consumables bulb cost vs initial outlay of lens cost. With ywh supplying affordable projector bulbs, it's probably cheaper for me to keep with the 3 projector route. It's interesting to research out alternatives for me none the less.

[superconnie]

I wonder why these lenses should be better that a curved mirror.... if the mirror is curved correctly, the effect is the same. Of course the arrangement of the projector is different.

The effect of the image acelerated to the edges could be minimised by having the correct shape of the mirror. Maybe it also could be corrected by settings of the graphic card.
Does special software exist to correct image size and geometry in realtime? A good graphic card should be able to handle that...
Or is special software not necessary? Maybe some cool, never used features of the graphics driver?