Another XL1 16:9 question

[Rob Lohman]

SVHS should not have anything to do with 16:9.... should. Perhaps
something is wrong? ... i haven't gotten to much experience with
16:9 myself yet, so perhaps someone else can tune in here

[Katherine Sullivan]

hey yall,
i have read some things about how the canon xl1-s will give you white bars to use as "guidelines" if you are shooting with the intention to convert to wide-screen.
i tried it on my cam and didn't get the lines. I just got the elongated lookthat I have also read about.
how do i get the guidelines??
thanks.

[Robert Poulton]

check the manual but I think you can goto display then 16:9 guides when in M mode.

Rob:D

[Katherine Sullivan]

I'll try that when I get home, thanks a lot.

[Chris Hurd]

Katherine

Be sure to switch OFF the 16:9 mode from the camera menu. Then go to the display menu to turn on the guides. The guides work only in the standard 4:3 shooting mode. The manual is in error somewhat as it leads you to believe that the guides can be displayed in 16:9 mode. They can't -- they're only for shooting in normal 4:3 mode, for cropping to 16:9 later in post. It doesn't matter which camera mode you're in, however (auto vs. manual, etc.) -- hope this helps,

[Katherine Sullivan]

chris,
thanks so much.
perfect info.
it sounds like it will work when i get home to try it.
thanks, take it easy.

[Rob Lohman]

As pointed out, guide lines will only work when NOT in 16:9
mode. This is ofcourse what you want, you can't have 16:9
lines in 16:9 mode because you are already in it ofcourse....

[Katherine Sullivan]

thanks a lot yall. i got it to work. i like it. it is a very nice feature.

[David Slingerland]

You also seem to know about the canon xl1. (not the S) I have a small question and just need to be sure. I am going to shoot with my camera for dutch television station that wants it broadcast done in 16:9. I know the canon does not shoot native 16:9 but neither does the Sony pd150. They accept the way the sony shoots, does it shoot the same 16:9 like the Canon? (it will be edited on Avid)
greetings

[Sharon Fraats]

You need to buy an adaptor for the XL1 or PD150, as this is the only way to get a true 16:9. Century Optics sells them and here is a link to a film that was shot one an XL1 using a more expensive adaptor.

http://www.moviemaker.com/issues/50/chineseshoes.html

[David Slingerland]

Not really, the PD10 is already used as it is by the broadcastcompany, I just want to know if they are the SAME. That is it is the same sort of 'fake' 16:9. I know the canon is. but what about the PD150?

[Sharon Fraats]

Please read what Adam Wilt has to say about this...

http://www.adamwilt.com/DV-FAQ-etc.html

do a find on PD150

[David Slingerland]

thanks for the tip Sharon. I havnt seen much of you here but i kindly thank for your contribution. And the answer is Yes they are the same not native 16:9 but they are constructed both differently The Canon and Panasonic use both vertical-pixel-shift method and the sony uses field-doubled/interpolated method. Both are not real and you loose a lot of quality. But that is no problem if the client knows but still wants to shoot with Mini-DV like my case.

[Mark Shea]

Just read http://www.dvinfo.net/canon/articles/article52.php

wish I read it before shooting my last doco. I have an XL1 which I used to shoot footage in 'fake' 16:9 mode.

I now have a problem....this doco incorporates a lot of still photos in 4:3 mode.

Given that the XL1 16:9 is not true 16:9, is there any way to load the footage as 4:3 without it appearing squashed??

[Rob Lohman]

There is almost no true 16:9 con/pro-sumer camera out there,
except for the new XL2 and the HD camera's. This is a "known"
thing.

I'm curious as to your line "I now have a problem...". This suggest
your problem has cropped up now that you KNOW you don't
get a resolution increase (which is what it is, you still DO GET a
16:9 signal, only not with more resolution), however I don't see
why you would not have this problem originally if it was "true"
16:9 (in regards to the 4:3 stills).

So either you have wrongly decided to go with 16:9 (whether it
is true or fake) or you where planning on cropping your photo's.

If it is the latter then continue with everything in 16:9 and just
crop your photo's and be done with it. Your signal is still 16:9.

If the former then there are two ways to convert your 16:9
footage to 4:3 footage:

1. letterbox the footage so you get a widescreen image inside a 4:3 picture (this might still mean cropping your photo's or otherwise you will switch between a widescreen "look" and fullscreen)

2. crop the side of your widescreen image (ie, zoom in digitally) so you get a 4:3 frame

What works best depends on your project requirements. How you
can do this depends on the NLE you are using.