Anamorphic Projection Theaters

[alan monro]

Prof .What has happened? it has gone all quiet on this site . Well ---------- After reading all the good infomation provided on this site I have decided to have a go at cinemascope . We are moving soon to the tropical area of Australia and this will be the second theatre i have built DIY . I dont care what a lot of people say about Klipsch speakers i am taking the fantastic speakers with me, love them . I am also considering another cinemascope screen outside near the pool as when it is sticky hot at night there is nothing nicer than sitting outside . In have found a mob that sells coated optical prisms especially for cinemascope http://www.surplusshed.com/pages/item/l9113d.html By the way Prof dont worry about the size of your HT it looks great and evidently goes fantastic . Kind regards Alan .

[Prof.]

Thanks for the kind words Alan...I'm still loving that huge cinemascope image in my small theatre..

The forum has gone very quite..It seems that not many people are ready to venture into the Cinemascope world as yet..

alan monro wrote:

We are moving soon to the tropical area of Australia and this will be the second theatre i have built DIY

How far North are you moving to?

I'm sure you'll have a lot of fun, building your new theatre..

I dont care what a lot of people say about Klipsch speakers i am taking the fantastic speakers with me, love them

Interesting that you should mention the Klipsch speakers..I'm considering putting them into a 16 seat DLP Cinemascope theatre that I'm designing for a friend of mine..
I think they will project the sound very nicely in a 10M. long room..

I am also considering another cinemascope screen outside near the pool as when it is sticky hot at night there is nothing nicer than sitting outside

Sounds like a "COOL" idea!!.

.

In have found a mob that sells coated optical prisms especially for cinemascope http://www.surplusshed.com/pages/item/l9113d.html By the way Prof dont worry about the size of your HT it looks great and evidently goes fantastic ..

Alan, just be a bit wary of those prisms..They are quite small and not suitable for all projectors..
Also the back prism is smaller than the front prism and they have wider angles on the faces, compared to Mark's prisms..
You would most likely need to have a longer TR, to reduce edge distortion from such small prisms..
They look good, being coated and all..and quite reasonably priced..

If you get them, let us know how they turn out..

[moh]

Is there any loss in picture quality when using an anamorphic lens? I mean, is there a discernable difference between the projector alone vs. the projector with the anamorphic lens?

[Prof.]

That depends on the type of lens system used...

With a lens like the Isco cylindrical lens, there is virtually no loss of image detail or image distortion..other than a slight light loss due to the projected light passing through additional optical elements..

At the other end of the scale, you have prismatic lenses (coated or non coated) which are quite thick and don't necessarily have optically true faces, which do introduce some chromatic aberrations, and an effect known as "pin cushion"..
These prism type lenses also have more effect on light output than the much more expensive types..

However..having said all that, these prismatic lenses still perform very admirably and most people use this type of lens..

You have to remember that the letterbox image that you see on the screen is not blown up as in the zoom method..(which has some inherent reduction of the light intensity that hits the screen) but is expanded vertically by the projector or processor..and then expanded horizontally by the lens..
Also, you may have noticed that the letterbox image you see on the screen is quite bright and very sharp..being a small image..so imagine that same quality image now filling your whole screen..That's what you get with an anamorphic lens...

[moh]

That's really cool. Thanks for explaining.

[Prof.]

Just ask away if you have any more queries..