For those of you who are infuriated or bored by newbie questions, allow me to apologize in advance.

I am just starting to use an XL1 for th efirst time. I am interested in composing in 16x9. I don't care about the resolution loss; it is purely a compose-the-image in widescreen question.

I went into the menu and turned the 16x9 choice on. Nothing happened in the viewfinder--it still displays 1.25:1; what, am I supposed to just *imagine* 16x9?

What exactly did you turn on? And in which shooting mode are
you shooting? 16:9 does not work in easy (greenbox) mode for
example (but I think you shouldn't be able to select it either when
you are in that mode).

The viewfinder will still display in 4:3 (rectangular), however the
content should now be vertically stretched (people look more
skinny). The XL1(s) cannot show the footage in the propert
aspect ratio with black bars on top and bottom.

If you have the XL1S model you can also enable 16:9 guides,
you still shoot in 4:3 mode, but you can see where the content
falls inbetween the 16:9 "mask". You can then crop or add letter
boxing in post etc.

Another newbie question while on the subject, whats the best way to mask the top and the bottom to 16x9 standard in premier and vegas?

In Premiere you should go to effects - video effects - transform - clip - and then choose bottom 12 and top 12 (or is it eleven?)

I would like to declare i am FURIOUS that the viewfinder is vertically stretched! FURIOUS! What is that?? No camera manufacturer would ever do that to a *still* photographer.

Hello? It's a digital image// -it can be masked in the viewfinder if it can be masked on the CCD !@#$%^&*()

thats why I would use the 16x9 guides, the lines let you know well enough what your composition will be, and and nothing is lost.

Admitedly stretching is pretty stupid though.

OMG--thanks for the sympathy; I appreciate it.

But I'm stuck with the XL1 not the XL1s--which as I understand doesn't have those lines.

Do I have any other recourse with an XL1?

I know some people have printed out black guides on a piece of transparency and temporarily attached it to the viewfinder. Or if you view on an external monitor you can do the same thing, only not as tricky as the little viewfinder.

Hello Steve,

Welcome to DV-INFO. This forum is for newbies and pros alike. We welcome all questions and if you use the search funtion, you are likely to find your answer before having to post the question. You need to understand that the XL-1 came onto the market in 1998. At that time, shooting 16X9 was not much of a priority for anyone. With that said, you might use some of the other suggestions that were mentioned. The XL-1 was/is a pro-sumer camera and the extra expense required to implement a 16x9 image in a viewfinder would have put the camera above its target price. No need to be infuriated. I come from a digital still background and there are a lot of still cameras that don't show the full frame in the viewfinder.

The XL-1, despite some limitations, has a beautiful picture coming out of it. How about shooting in 4:3 and letterboxing it in post. Many good NLE's make this a fairly painless process.

Enjoy your new camera!

-gb-

See my letterbox page (www.visuar.com/letterbox/calc.htm) for masks