Looking into video I guess will always come with an awareness of Anamorphic lenses.

Very brief history. To make fight back against the availability of the TV, the movie industry started to shoot in wide screen on standard 35mm film stock, using horizontal “squeeze” lenses and then projected the footage with matched “de-squeeze” lenses. The result being very wide capture on skin 35mm film (Movies were shot across the film, not length-ways like stills cameras).

Most Anamorphic lenses cost a bomb, often coming in at 100k+ for a set, so they are only hired for films, but lately a few genuinely good options have become available at reasonable prices. Sirui, Laowa and others can be had for around $1000au, and decent modifiers like the Moment option are even cheaper.

They came with a distinctive look and a few unique elements;

Wide screen as in wider than 17:9 C4k.

You can get as wide as a 3:1 ratio even with longer lenses. This means width and reach with compression. A genuinely unique look, but something cropping can do, with a slight quality drop. If you shoot full height full frame then crop in, I guess you get super wide Super 35 .

Linear (and other) flare.

It can be used for effect or toned down, but either way, it is a thing. You can also use filters to get blue, gold or even rainbow flare lines. Even a bit of fishing line stretched across the lens will do. Any cheap/old lens, a damaged or grease smeared filter, can all flare and be used more judiciously.

Oval shaped highlights.

Bokeh, but not as you know it. Spherical lenses (normal lenses) generally create round or occasionally “cats eye” or other odd looking Bokeh balls, but Anamorphic lenses almost always create oval ones. This is the easiest way to pick a genuine Anamorphic lens. This and the streak thing above can be achieved with any lens using a bit of oval card and fishing line taped to it. There are even tutorials on line for this.

Distortions and focus draw.

The special something most aficionados are drawn to even more than the above, this is also a lens by lens thing.

As tempting as it is to use the de-squeeze feature on the S5, I think I would be happier to take short-cut pathways for occasional and less permanent application of these effects. The streaking is a love-hate thing, general flaring the same* and distortion and oval Bokeh balls are to me more a sign of an Anamorphic being used than an always desirable outcome.

I can see a raft of experimental lens and filter ideas being explored, but no massive outlay on true Anamorphic lenses.

*I get the current desire to re-explore old flaws for the character they add, but lets face it, they are flaws. Chasing the look is just that, a look, not a fix for bad content, gimmicky process or poor technique. Legacy glass can offer a level of organic rendering, but chasing the worst of the past is the latest in a long line of a passing fads.