Cinerama XL2 ...? at DVinfo.net

John Sandel · December 3rd, 2004, 11:25 PM

Okay, so after a few days of shooiting with the XL2 (& loving it), I got to thinking:

Given the cam's natively 16:9 chipset, if I mounted an anamorphic converter---say the Panasonic---how much widescreen coverage could I cram into the chips?

No idea what the math would be on this . . . lovely to think about. Has anybody tried it?

JS

Boyd Ostroff · December 4th, 2004, 06:23 AM

I think the math is pretty simple. In 16:9 mode the XL-2 has an aspect ratio of 1.78:1. Now an anamorphic lens is designed to convert 1.33:1 into 1.78:1, therefore:

1.78 / 1.33 = 1.338

So if you add it to a camera that is native 1.78:1 you get:

1.78 x 1.338 = 2.38

There are some rounding errors here, and those numbers are not very precise, but basically you will be close to the Cinemascope aspect ratio of 2.35:1. Now Cinerama is closer to 2.65:1 http://www.widescreenmuseum.com/wide...rama_specs.htm

This topic comes up regularly in several different forums, but I don't think very many people actually follow through with it. The real problem is: what will you do with the footage you shoot this way. No matter how much you stretch it, NTSC DV-25 only offers 720x480 pixels. So unless you want to up-rez it to some form of HD you're going to have to take your final product and letterbox it inside a 16:9 frame (you will also have to do this with HD for that matter). In the end you will have gone through a lot of trouble to do something which could be accomplished by just cropping the native 16:9 to 2.35:1. And you will have to deal with all the quirks of the anamorphic lens like vignetting, limited zoom range, squashed image in your viewfinder etc.

(trivia question: did you know that Cinerama is an anagram for American? :-)

December 3rd, 2004, 11:25 PM	#1
John Sandel Major Player Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: stately Eldora Road Posts: 386	Cinerama XL2 ...? Okay, so after a few days of shooiting with the XL2 (& loving it), I got to thinking: Given the cam's natively 16:9 chipset, if I mounted an anamorphic converter---say the Panasonic---how much widescreen coverage could I cram into the chips? No idea what the math would be on this . . . lovely to think about. Has anybody tried it? JS

December 4th, 2004, 06:23 AM	#2
Boyd Ostroff Wrangler Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Mays Landing, NJ Posts: 11,802	I think the math is pretty simple. In 16:9 mode the XL-2 has an aspect ratio of 1.78:1. Now an anamorphic lens is designed to convert 1.33:1 into 1.78:1, therefore: 1.78 / 1.33 = 1.338 So if you add it to a camera that is native 1.78:1 you get: 1.78 x 1.338 = 2.38 There are some rounding errors here, and those numbers are not very precise, but basically you will be close to the Cinemascope aspect ratio of 2.35:1. Now Cinerama is closer to 2.65:1 http://www.widescreenmuseum.com/wide...rama_specs.htm This topic comes up regularly in several different forums, but I don't think very many people actually follow through with it. The real problem is: what will you do with the footage you shoot this way. No matter how much you stretch it, NTSC DV-25 only offers 720x480 pixels. So unless you want to up-rez it to some form of HD you're going to have to take your final product and letterbox it inside a 16:9 frame (you will also have to do this with HD for that matter). In the end you will have gone through a lot of trouble to do something which could be accomplished by just cropping the native 16:9 to 2.35:1. And you will have to deal with all the quirks of the anamorphic lens like vignetting, limited zoom range, squashed image in your viewfinder etc. (trivia question: did you know that Cinerama is an anagram for American? :-)