It’s been a little while since I last posted – I had been torn between my commitment to go 2.37:1 CIH or just playing it safe and sticking with a 16:9 screen. I’m afraid to say it, but at the 11th hour I changed my mind and decided to stick with the 16:9 solution. There were a number of factors that contributed to this decision. Firstly, installation of the lens would be problematic for me, not impossible, but difficult. Secondly, I knew there would be a little compromise in quality going down this route, particularly as the lens I bought is at the lower end of the scale. Don’t get me wrong – the Aussiemorphic is a wonderful lens that is incredible value for money. I was having all sorts of concerns trying to get an acceptable image from this thing. I persevered and got some great results, but was just concerned about committing to mounting the thing only to change my mind later. Perhaps the most important decision though only struck me last night as I demo’d the lens in place vs no lens – the “paused” image looked impressive in my room. At 3 metres wide the image of Daniel Craig in Casino Royale was absolutely stunning. However I noticed as I played the footage that the image appeared a little blurry when blown up to that size, particularly with fast motion on screen. Was it the lens? Was it the screen size relative to the seating distance? All of these in my opinion contributed to an image that seemed impressive for a quick 5 minute demo, but ultimately would leave me fatigued for a whole movie.  The alternative would be to scale back the size of the image, which in my mind would kinda defeat the effect I wanted in the first place – the simpler solution there would be to can the idea of going scope and just mask the top and bottom of the screen while paying 2.35:1 material.

I guess I had my cake and wanted to eat it too. The problem is not the equipment I am using – the problem is the room. It’s just not big enough for me to justify going to all the trouble that scope brings with it. So the compromise is a 92″ 16:9, which I will build 2.35:1 masking for.

So I installed the screen this evening, and its the first time I used the Sony properly in my own room. Stunning! Will definately post some pics over the next few days. On Sunday I plan to build my wall absorption panels and mount them. Ill let the projector run in for about 50-100 or so, then Ill get into the nitty gritty of calibrating it. Heck, I might have a quick stab at it tomorrow night, as I want to sit down with a movie on Saturday night with the missus – its been about 2 months!