>>3392928Didnt want to depress you but just show the limitations because it can be very expensive and remorsfull if it doesnt work out as you would like to.
If you can work with those limitations you can still produce very great footage!
I had the luck of getting an ultra star for cheap (off ebay in a forum for cinema projecting), built a rig with SmallRig parts and tried shooting. With my dslr it was so hard to get the shot in focus because in the OVF i couldnt tell if it was actually in focus or not. With the lcd i had no focus peaking or anything, had to manually zoom into the image and judge it this way. Worked, but not as easy (tried it on a a7II once and was a little bit easier with focus peaking, automatic focus magnification and evf). Soon have the chance to try it again, maybe continous AF can automatically match the focus when i focus the adapter but dunno. Could report back if interested).
With shallow dof you should keep the distance and because the rig was quite heavy, shooting without tripod I could only do so for a little amount off time. Probably applies to any filmmaking camera rig though, also if you shoot on a glidecam on which you cant rack focus.
The shots i got in focus were tack sharp though. There you see why those projector lenses once cost 2000-3000$.
If you dont want to shoot wide open so you have a greater dof plane to work with you may as well just get a wider lens and matte it. You wont get the oval bokeh, lens flares and horizontal barrel distortion though. Oval bokeh can be faked, like anything (
>>3388837 ) but only works with longer lenses to not vignette and only wide open. Distortion can also be faked. Which brings me to another characteristic: If you rack an older (real) anamorphic lens it has some weird shift on the size of in and out of focus areas.
Another modern projecting lens would be the Schneider Cinelux. If you want more vintage characteristics, which flare, you should look into older onces though.
