Anamorphic

Many of the films I loved the photography of were captured anamorphically. It took me a while to figure out that the anamorphic lens was the common thread through all those films, from the early cinemascope films like Bigger than Life, through the early Dirty Harry films and John Carpenter to Paul Thomas Anderson. I've read quite a bit via the internet about the different formats, such as the Super 35 that David Fincher favours, and although I love how a few of his films are shot (particularly Seven and Fight Club) there is a flatness to that wider image. I was going to purchase a wide angle lens like the Tokina 11-16 (for my crop sensor 550d) and just crop it to cinemascope, but the pinch and pull distortion of the wide angle is not what appealed to me. The anamorphic lens has it's own characteristics - I WANT TO BE JUST LIKE JOHN CARPENTER! I bit the bullet and purchased an old anamorphic Proskar lens off of Ebay, just to give it a go. I've been eyeing up locations to film once I receive it. It could either be terrible or great, but we'll see.