Quite a lot of people choose projectors as the centerpiece of their home-cinema system, as this solution costs a lot less than a comparable plasma or LCD, and delivers high-quality images, as well as a cinematographic experience much closer to the real thing. However, most digital projectors cannot display the images as a professional projector does, and this is the reason why the Schneider Optics company has launched in June 2007 the Cine-Digitar 1.33x Anamorphic Lens, an accessory that will
allow users to create 2.35 (Cinemascope) aspect ratio images with 16:9 projectors.

One of the main merits of the Cine-Digitar 1.33x Anamorphic Lens is the fact that it counters the downsides of letterboxing. As some might know, letterboxing is the practice of transferring widescreen films to video formats while preserving the original aspect ratio. However, since almost all displays have a more square aspect ratio than the original film, the obtained video has to incorporate masked-off areas above and below the picture area (often referred to as "black bars," or, more accurately, as mattes). This leads to that relatively distorted aspect of the movies, which is far from the true cinematographic experience most users are looking for.

However, the new lens from Schneider Optics solves this problem, as it "pimps up" an ordinary 16:9 digital projector to create 2.35:1 images. "One of the last technical issues attenuating the true movie experience at home was the ability to fully display superwide 2.35:1 images," explained Schneider Optics CEO Dwight Lindsey, as reported by an I4U article. "The Cine-Digitar Anamorphic Lens eliminates wasted screen space, and enables home theatre users to project Cinemascope the way professionals do, unleashing the image power of every pixel in the projector to deliver the full impact of what the cinematographer intended to present."

Despite being a very useful piece of equipment, not many users will be able to enjoy the advantages provided by the Cine-Digitar 1.33x Anamorphic Lens. And the main reason for this is the fact that the accessory has an MSRP of around 4200 US dollars, which could prove to be way too big of a price for most users.

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