How to shoot widescreen (16:9) video
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2. Using a widescreen anamorphic adapter on a 4:3 camera
This is the second best option. If you do not have access to a native widescreen camera and have to use a 4:3 one, you can still achieve a full resolution 16:9 image by fitting a 16:9 widescreen anamorphic adapter onto the camera. These adapters squeeze the image horizontally, optically cramming a widescreen image into a 4:3 frame. You then treat the resulting footage as you would in the first example: leave it as it is if shown on a widescreen monitor, or letterbox it if shown on a 4:3 monitor.
The main problem with this method is that most adapters tend to show vignetting (darkness at each corner of the frame) if the zoom is set to the wide setting, forcing you to stick to medium or long focal lengths.
Since there is additional glass in front of the lens, there is also a loss of sharpness, and focusing can also be a problem.
An example of a widescreen adapter is the Century Optics adapter.