I'm thinking of buying the Panasonic Anamorphic Lens Adaptor for my 100A. I've read that focusing can be a bit tricky when shooting with an Anamorphic lens becsue it can only focus on either the vertical or horizontal plane, but not both at the same time. I've also read that even with the new Chrosziel Matte Box and Anamorphic Adaptor Plate for the Panasonic Anamorpohic Lens Adaptor there is still a problem with vignetting when zoomed out wider than .6mm. is that true and has anyone any sucess or horror stories regarding the focusing issuse with the Panasonic Anamorphic lens adaptor.

no, but the mount itslef a piece of plastic junk...
ive returned 3 of them... the screw thread is so cheap its not funny...

Oh I've never liked anamorphic lenses. For cameras with big chips (16 mm film!) they're ok, and anyway, in that instance they're often 2x anamorphics to get proper 2.66:1 widescreen.

But anamorphics for DV are feeble 1.33x converters that seem to introduce more problems than they solve. There's focus problems, zoom range loss, v'finder distortion, no filters allowed and so on. The way to fill a 16:9 screen is with a 16:9 chip, and as the FX1 costs the same as a DVX100B it looks like a no-brainer to me.

tom.

well to be honest, id rather shoot with a DVX + Ana lens simply due to teh camera being so much better in many situations..

I also prefer the fact that the colour gradations (surprisingly) far exceeds the Z1 in accuracy... u dont have the kind of control on the Z1 as u do on the DVX... Also to me progresive scan is of the utmost importance, so it a give and take affair on this one..

I DP'd a feature length indie last with twin 100x's and the panny anam adapter. You get use to the focusing issues rather quickly. I didn't have a problem with vignetting but barrell distortion is apparent below a zoom factor of 10.

The final product was not blown up, so I can't attest to the quality of a print with that lens.

If you really want to shoot anam though, you should be fine. Just give yourself practice time.

I'm considering the purchase of one of these lens adapters for my DVC80. I've never seen on mounted on a camera. (Maybe that should tell me something.) Does anyone have a picture of a DVC80 or DVX100 using the Panny 16:9 adapter?

http://img103.imageshack.us/img103/1394/adapter25ft.jpg

http://img103.imageshack.us/img103/590/adapter37xu.jpg

I took these pictures because I am trying to sell it right now. It is a nifty device and I have had some great results with it but I would rather move to something with a 16x9 CCD.