@P4INKiller I understand where you are coming from.. The anamorphic image can be very seductive, if you want to make your own, it's a good idea to do some vimeo/youtube searches to find some stuff you like the look of, and start searching ebay to find the lens/adapter used to create the vimeo footage. A really good idea to set yourself a budget to work within as this can get expensive. Try and figure out what sort of setup you need for the footage you want, if you need to rack focus on shots you will need an anamorphic adapter that will allow you to, and a lot of them don't.. the anamorphic footage on vimeo will also help you to decide if static footage gives you what you want, if it is, then you might consider the cheaper anamorphic route, where you focus two elements separately, this route can be much cheaper, but as you can imagine setup time and flexibility is compromised.

It may take a while to get the look that you are after, but these lenses and adapters do come up for grabs on ebay or here on PV marketplace, knowing what you want before parting with your money will help you, of course, asking questions here is always worth a try :)

@P4INKiller when you decide that a lens fits your needs, and you decide what your budget is, then you get the lens from within your budget, the price is right! This is especially true when you are picking up something that doesn't appear very often for sale... another good idea... stop looking now you have chosen, start shooting :) I looked at the century anamorphic myself as it provides a very compact setup!

Enjoy! :)

I have a Century 58mm threaded .. I paid $550 for it new from schneideroptics about a year ago. I got lucky, I went to the site and they had just put the last 8 into a clearance sale.

I just had a look .. they still have the 37mm threaded variety for $395 https://www.schneideroptics.com/ecommerce/CatalogSearch.aspx?Searchstr=1609&SCID=-1

I can not advise as to how wide you can go with the 37mm .. I believe it is optically identical to the 58

@P41NKiller

That's a great find .. something for those here looking for an easy to use anamorphic. I ended up making my own filter attaching ring from an 77mm extension tube and a 77-72mm step down ring

@Roy_Batty

I use the mark on the top of the anamorphic to get close to vertical alignment, but go by eye after that. Rotate the adaptor one way, then another. Watch the live feed and repeat this motion with decreasing magnitude until you reach alignment. You'll see stuff stretch one way, then another. I have a Kowa, and the mark is accurate, I think, but without a reference point, eyeballing the alignment mark on the barrel of the anamorphic only gets you so close.

Focusing for me takes some back and forth, and some looking at the focus scales. I'm not sure if the focus scales are still accurate with an anamorphic on front of a taking lens versus on a projector, but they seem close-ish. I don't measure, I just guess, "that's about 15' away", then set both the taking and anamorphic lenses to 15'. After this I focus one then the other (usually taking lens first). To my eye, the adapter focuses in one dimension while the taking lens focuses in another (one focuses vertical, the other horizontal). Thus it is possible to have one in focus, with the other still smeared. Focus Assist is your greatest friend with dual-focusing anamorphic setups.

@P4INKiller

Glad you got an anamorphic. I was worried too at the time of my first purchase that I'd end up not liking it and would keep buying more anamorphics, but I wouldn't trade the Kowa for anything other than a "single focus" of at least 1.5x squeeze (AKA a Lomo or Iscorama).

You should think hard about adding a Tokina ATX 0.4x Achromatic Diopter to your setup. My Kowa is already resolving plenty, but with the Tokina, it has some extra "edge". I'd bet it'd work wonders on the Century.

For what it's worth, I did a write up on the Panasonic LA7200. It doesn't provide a "quick" setup but I'm not sure anamorphic shooting really calls for speed, it's more precision. I like the LA7200 and chose it for it's price and performance over some of the other offerings at the time I purchased it. I think they go for around $1000 on ebay now.

http://stronzvanderploeg.net/2012/08/10/anamorphic-shooting-with-the-la7200-part-2/

Not everyone's experience and quite strange to hear yours - he's certainly not a nutter in my several experiences and correspondence with him - but perhaps elucidate more about what happened - not backing him - just v weird as was always a gent with me and others.