I could be mistaken, but if you want to see what the xl1s looks like on the big screen, check out 28 days later. If you saw that in the theater, it was shot on the 1s.

Thanks for the well-wishes, Eric : same to you. Alex, I heard that about 28 Days Later too, but the thing is they attached some kind of widescreen adaptor to an XL1 for that and it's way out of my price range. I do think for ultimate big screen showcasing for XL1 footage that would be the best way to go, but I'm just working with the absolute bare minimum.

That being said, that movie's definitely proof that it can be done well with an XL1, which is encouraging!

Nathan,

The XL1 does not shoot in native 16x9 mode, so be careful. I believe it's just letterboxing, which you can do in post anyway. Canon's XL2 shoots in native 16x9, so there is a big difference between these two cameras and formats - they are not the same.

I thought the XL1 shot in native 16x9 mode

Man I just cant understand 16.9, letter box, Anamorphic etc...
I'll give it a go

True 16.9 inserts black bars top & bottom on a SD 4.3 TV set ? Wide screen fits normally with no stretch?

Letter box 4.3 SD inserts black bars top & bottom on a SD 4.3 TV set ? Wide screen inserts black bars top & bottom and stretch to fill?

Anamorphic well I'm stuck with this one? 16.9 inserts black bars top & bottom on a SD 4.3 TV set ? Wide screen fits normally with no stretch?
IS THAT RIGHT.

For some reason I just cant get my head around what i'ts doing on both SD TV & Wide screen TV sets.

Cheers
Simon

I thought the XL1 shot in native 16x9 modeNoooooo. Neither the XL1 nor XL1S shoot in native 16x9 mode.

Man I just cant understand 16.9, letter box, Anamorphic etc...

Run, don't walk, to http://www.widescreen.org

See http://www.widescreen.org/widescreen_tv_qa.shtml
and http://www.widescreen.org/faq.shtml

Thanks Chris for the info. I'll absorb all that infomation and understand it.

Where I'm confused is, the conversion from SD 4.3 to 16.9 wide screen TV and how it does it.

Cheers
Simon

XL1 & XL1s, shoot in 4x3 mode with the 16x9 guides turned on. it will allow you to adjust your headroom a bit in post, since you'll be losing the pixels either way if you intend to finish widescreen as the XL1 series crops the top and bottom to achieve 16x9 (33% resolution loss either way, but with cropping in post, you choose the 33%).

XL2 has a 16x9 chip, so it shoots natively in 16x9 with no resolution loss...the numbers simply refer to the ratio of the width vs the height of the screen, the letterboxes are just ways of fitting the 16x9 image on the narrower 4x3 television screens (or monitors).

28 days later was shot on an XL1 with a 35mm adaptor (p+s technik) on the front to achieve 35mm depth of field for a more cinematic look.