Anamorphic quality vs cropping on digital cameras

[Jay Martin]

I couldn't really find a single answer online about this. I'm trying to find out if there would be a noticeable difference in quality in using a good anamorphic lens on a DSLR over just shooting 16:9 and cropping the image in post. Some people said that because a lot of anamorphic lenses aren't that sharp, the sharpness will ultimately be the same or worse, but I have not come across any comparisons. I was wondering if anyone has done any side by side comparisons of sharpness between an aspherical lens (cropped, less resolution, like 1920 x 800) and an anamorphic lens (stretched out, like from 1920x1080 to 2560x1080) and which one they found to be higher quality. Thanks!

[StreetCleaner]

If you are after a clinically sharp image wide open, forget old anamorphic lenses.

Otherwise, if for you £50k are pocket money, then get this:

http://www.zeiss.com/camera-lenses/en_us/cine_lenses/master_anamorphic_lenses/master_anamorphic_lenses.html

or this:

http://www.cookeoptics.com/l/anamorphiclens.html

 

Anamorphic adapter, for as good as they can be, they RELY HEAVILY on the taking lens in terms of sharpness.

There is no point of doing a side by side comparison because, in my honest opinion, most people don't shoot anamorphic to get a "noticeable difference in quality in using a good anamorphic adapter"
In my case, I LOVE shooting anamorphic EXACTLY because of all the little imperfection that different anamorphic adapter give to the image, making it quite unique and with a distinct visual style. 

[Justin Bacle]

What you get with anamorphic is : 
- FLARES, Oval Bokeh, and all the things that are specific to anamorphic adapters
- Increased seen vertical resolution (compared to just cropping)

Some anamorphic lenses are damn sharp and not prone to flare if you're not into that. (Look at the Ultrastars, Cinelux and other coated modern adaptors)

[Grimor]

They are different things.

The cheaper, the sharper ,the easy way is cropping.

Real anamorphic give others things that a few crazy people loves.

Its just  Aesthetic preferences.

 

[SigurdW]

If sharpness is what you are after, you are better of shooting spherical.

However, some scopes are indeed sharper than others. The Cinelux and Isco Wide-screen 2000 are commonly considered to be sharp scopes, but imo pretty 'sterile'.

I did a quick lens test for a short I am shooting: