Another XL1 16:9 question

[Jean-Philippe Archibald]

Why not crop the pictures to fit the 16:9 aspect ratio?

[Rob Lohman]

Isn't that what I said just above my list of two points Jean-Philippe?

[Jean-Philippe Archibald]

Ho, You are right Rob, sorry :)

I misunderstood your first point.

[Llewellyn Thomas]

Hi

Just a quick question, I'm to start filming a making of video for a feature film, but the producers are concerned about my camera not filming in 16:9, but in 4:3.

Could anyone please advise me on what difference there would be if I convered it into 16:9 in post.

I'm using Final cut pro - how do I convert 4:3 to 16:9?

Thank you.

Llewellyn

[Brett Tuttle]

you will lose pixels thus image. the xl1 records electronic 16:9. I would buy an anamorphic (spelling) lens to shoot real 16:9

[Jack Smith]

Actually,the XL1S does do 16:9 in camera ,albeit semi 16:9.Do a test as some find it to be of acceptable quality.It it not true 16:9 but it it also doesn't just cut the top and bottom it does use the pixels for added resolution.

[Llewellyn Thomas]

Thanks, I'll give it a go.

[Les Wilson]

I have been doing this often recently. It is simple and straight forward. You will need to evaluate the results for yourself. The means by which the result will be viewed is a big factor. A 16:9 projector in a large room will give you results where the loss in resolution won't be noticable to the regular person. If it's going to be an up close 16:9 monitor with a critical crowd, then maybe not.

There are 3 techniques: Shoot using the XL1 electronic anamorphic, lens anamorphic, shoot using 16:9 guidelines. Each has it's pros and cons. There are good articles on this topic that discuss it at length.

I shoot in electronic anamorphic (everything is tall and skinny in the EVF). FCP detects the footage is anamorphic. Set the Anamorphic checkbox in your FCP Sequence Settings and you will get the properly shaped canvas. Edit as usual. FCP stretches the tall and skinny footage to the right shape. Export to DV and you will see that everything gets tall and skinny again as the QT player and iDVD display in 4:3. That's OK. When you play your DVD on a 16:9 TV or projector, it gets stretched out to the right aspect ratio.

I find that DV's normal lack of resolution in a long shot is a little more noticable when shot in anamorphic (which makes sense) so I zoom in closer. When you consider the frame is much large in 16:9, you'd want to be closer anyway. I'm very pleased with the results and the fact that I can milk more life out of my XL1s before having to invest in an HD or 16x9 camera.

[David J. Payne]

Originally Posted by Ernest House

I shoot in electronic anamorphic (everything is tall and skinny in the EVF). FCP detects the footage is anamorphic. Set the Anamorphic checkbox in your FCP Sequence Settings and you will get the properly shaped canvas. Edit as usual. FCP stretches the tall and skinny footage to the right shape. Export to DV and you will see that everything gets tall and skinny again as the QT player and iDVD display in 4:3. That's OK. When you play your DVD on a 16:9 TV or projector, it gets stretched out to the right aspect ratio.

ernest, i have noticed this tall skinny footage in the viewfinder before and just thought i'd done something wrong..

are you saying that if i opened up a new project in premiere pro and selected widescreen instead of standard, that the footage would be true widescreen? edit: ive tried it and it seems that way!

What if i just connected the camera to a widescreen tv to watch the rushes, would they still be squashed? edit: nope.. try something out before asking these poor men about it in future!

and finally if i exported this edited widescreen project to an avi and watched it on a pc, would this be proper widescreen or still tall and skinny? edit: exporting as we speak so i'll soon know the answer to this too!

[Les Wilson]

I can't speak for Premier but in Final Cut Pro, one sets a property of the timeline to be anamorphic. That causes FCP to stretch it out to 16x9 and it then looks right.

I widescreen TV in widescreen mode will do the same thing. It will stretch squished video which results in the proper aspect ratio.

If you can set the aspect ratio of the AVI file to be 16x9, then it will look right. However, it may squish it back to 4x3. But, if you burn that onto a dvd and play it on a widescreen TV, it will be stretched and voila! You've produced widescreen video.

[David J. Payne]

Originally Posted by Ernest House

I can't speak for Premier but in Final Cut Pro, one sets a property of the timeline to be anamorphic. That causes FCP to stretch it out to 16x9 and it then looks right.

I widescreen TV in widescreen mode will do the same thing. It will stretch squished video which results in the proper aspect ratio.

If you can set the aspect ratio of the AVI file to be 16x9, then it will look right. However, it may squish it back to 4x3. But, if you burn that onto a dvd and play it on a widescreen TV, it will be stretched and voila! You've produced widescreen video.

excellent,thanks for your help. I'm going to view the dvd i created on a 4:3 tv today just to see if it still remains in shape and them I'm all clued up when it comes to premiere pro's 16:9 options! thanks again

[Chris Zimmerman]

I've got a shoot coming up for a showroom video and the client wants to have it displayed on Plasma Screens. I have an XL1s. I have tried to talk him into renting an HD camera for the week, but to no avail he just wants to use what we have.

I know that I can shoot 16:9 (or at least there is a setting in the menu) that will allow this. Has anyone had any experience shooting in this format and are there any potholes to be aware of?

Also is there any software out there that converts across formats? DV to HD and so forth

Thanks for any imput

[Mike Marriage]

Maybe if you have access to a high end converter 4:3 converted looks better but with a format like DV, I always think you want to try and get it in camera because the heavy compression soon breaks up when you mess it about. When I used to use an XL1, I found that shooting in 16:9 gave better results than resizing 4:3 footage in FCP.

[Jason Robinson]

I usually shot with a HDR-FX1, but my usual camera rental guy up and left the US to move to Japan so I am currently renting two XL1 cams (an XL1 and an XL1s) for a wedding shoot this weekend.

That brings to mind that I usually shoot in native 16:9 and I'll have to work around this exact same issue myself. Is there a setting that is best for 16:9 use?

If I have to just chop all the footage in post then I suppose I'm OK with that, but I'd like to see some bars overlay if possible.

[Lorinda Norton]

I've never shot in the faux 16:9 mode because it looks funny to me in the viewfinder. I'll have to try it.

Jason, in the display setup menu you can turn on 16:9 guides.