[Mr.D]

Its cropped up a couple of times so I just thought I'd mention that Optex and Century are doing 16x9 anamorphic adaptors for most cameras. Importantly the Optex unit will work with the canon XL1 in conjunction with a thread adaptor .

The Optex unit seems to have better performance compared with the century unit ( which is being used by the BBC).

I won't post the websites in case its advertising but they are easily found with a search.

These units will allow you to shoot real 16x9 rather than the cropped version found on most cameras. There are some limitations with regard to zooming and focusing and filter attachment becomes complex but they offer a good alternative to shelling out thousands for a 16x9 CCD camera.