Cheap and workable .. look for a Sankor 16C or a Ishico Proskar, both are 2x I think I paid about $150 AUD for each discovered in a local store .. you can find them on ebay for around $200-$250US .. don't forget you'll need to mount it.

Under $700 look for the Kowa 16H .. I paid $550US on ebay

Acceptable option http://www.ebay.com/itm/ANAMORPHIC-LENS-CLAMP-KIT-KOWA-SANKOR-SINGER-ISCO-/300569782054 .. this struggles with the Kowa

I intend to get http://www.redstan.com/index.php?route=product/category&path=33 before I shoot anything paid with Kowa

I bought them all about a year ago .. in a frenzy of excitement :)

The first three expect to be able to use 50mm lens .. a little under. Check out EOSHD, Andrew Reid .. it's one of his specialties. And he has reviewed all of these lenses, except the delrama .. unless I missed it.

And although 50mm doesn't sound very wide .. think .. I am shooting with a 25mm and it's going to be cropped .. aspect wise it's the same

Andrew never reviewed the Bolex Moller 16/32/1.5x which in my opinion, is the finest non-Isco anamorphic you can buy. The LA7200 is a great all rounder and can be used down to 14mm with the Panny 14/2.5. Neither of what I've mentioned is cheap though.

Ischico Proskar is the best cheaper option...I have two :-). Along with a Century 1.33x, Kowa Prominar 8Z, the LA7200 and the aforementioned Moller 16/32/1.5x.

I use the Vid-Atlantic clamp, and the redstan front filter clamp, along with the Tokina 0.4 Achromat.

Mounting the Moller is murder though, and the LA7200 was challenging too.

If I remember right, the Sankor D is quite a bit older than the C, and therefore more likely to have issues.

@beeldlab Wow! Looks fantastic! Lot of it has to do with the camera operator! Btw. Did you use a diopter/closeup lens for these shots? Again this looks spectacular.

beeldlab, love your work. Can you advice on focusing? I have the same Sankor 16c + Helios 44 + GH-2. Do you focus main lens first? I created a focus Chart to shoot, and found you can focus say in the vertical orientation while having the horizontal out of focus. Any tips would be appreciated.

Century 16:9 anamorphic works really well with wide angle lenses. It works perfectly with the 20mm pancake. The Kowa, Sankor and others will only works on 50mm lenses and up. It is like the LA7200 but cost less. Some of them have threaded mount but that it is very rare to find. Most of these lens will come in bayonett mount. If you can find one in thread mount, get it. The best value/performance lens out there.

Thanks for all your input. I ended up with the cheapest anamorphic I could find. Eiki 16f Looks like I need a diopter for close range stuff. Focusing a pain. But if you focus to infinity on both lenses looks sharper than I expected wide open (I had very low standards after I saw how soft it was for objects 6-8ft away)

+1 Tokina ATX Pro

Well, finally got out to shooting some and practicing this focus lens, focus anamorphic stuff. It is still a pain. But I'm on a very small budget.

Thanks for the suggestions. I got an eiki since it was cheap and is exactly the same as the Sankors suggested by you guys and footage looks decent enough so thanks again!

Here's some test footage I shot. Uploaded quality not the best since I don't want to pay for Vimeo Plus! :D

Still no diopter. So no close focusing.

@madrivermoco My wife has a gf2 but is really hard to grab that camera with a lens + anamorphic attached to it. How do you even grip something that front heavy?

@disneytoy We have no chance of using a 35mm lens :D it will vignette. madrivermoco is probably not using a sankor/eiki type ananamorphic.

Even at 42mm my Eiki vignettes pretty bad.

I use the GF1 because it balances better than the gf3 but with the centruy 16;9 on the 20mm pancake, it's actually shorter than the 14-42mm - hell most people don't even notice it's got two lenses - looks stock(ish) & does anamorphic - I think LPowell had got a good pic of the gf1/20mm/CO16:9 - hope he doesn't mind me sharing, but this is the setup I'm using...