Movie Theater Lens

[Pfiltz]

I have a good friend who is a mgr. at the local cinema house. They used to use film projectors, and moved to digital projectors last year or so. I wonder if those barrel type lenses are of any value for LF photography.

As of now, I only have a Speed Graphic, but hope to get some type of field camera down the road.

I haven't actually really looked hard at those lenses, but the thought crossed my mind this week.

Thoughts?

[goamules]

Their coverage would probably be only be 35mm.

[DKirk]

If they're going free take 'em and have a play - probably little coverage as mentioned above. If all else fails ebay them foe 35mm and digital users. . .

[ic-racer]

If one is interested in using it for photography, you could use it to enlarge 35mm half-frame negatives if you have a matching anamorphic lens for the half frame camera.
Otherwise sell it to some digital freak that does not know what it is.

In terms of projection, there is some contemporary interest in anamorphic digital home-theater projection. B&H sells the lenses for up to $4000. I don't know the future of anamorphic projection because some contemporary digital cinema cameras like the Arri Alexa have 16:9 sensors and don't need an anamorphic taking lens.

[Helen Bach]

... because some contemporary digital cinema cameras like the Arri Alexa have 16:9 sensors and don't need an anamorphic taking lens.

1:2.4 is quite popular, and it can be achieved with a 1.3x squeeze lens, like the Hawk anamorphics (http://www.vantagefilm.com/en/equipment/hawk_anamorphic.shtml), on an Alexa.

Best,
Helen

[brucetaylor]

Yes, 16x9 is about the same as 1.85:1 aspect ratio which has been the standard wide-screen non-anamorphic theatrical projection format for many many years. It's been native in one form or another in 35mm and 16mm cameras for a long time. 2.4:1 is different. It could either be a flat, non anamorphic format or an optically squeezed format, like CinemaScope. Hawk makes the new 1.33 ones for 16:9 cameras, the old ones were a 2.0 ratio squeeze on a 1.33:1 frame. 'Scope lenses have interesting optical artifacts (like horizontal blue flares) that some people love to make with their Alexa and RED cameras.