I shoot in 16x9 30fps frame mode all the time. There are no potholes. Bring the footage into your NLE as an anamorphic clip and have at it. It displays just fine on 16x9 screens.

Another XL1 16:9 question
 

I bought an XL1 recently, and I'm wondering about shooting in 16:9 as it relates to transferring to different formats. I'm planning to shoot a movie, and of course I'd like to shoot in widescreen, but I'm trying to think about how it would look on big screens (if that's possible) as well as on TV screens. I'm assuming it's going to be seen mostly on non-widescreen TVs. Is it better to shoot in 16:9 or not for overall transfer? I'm a little worried about it looking fine on bigger screens, and the picture ending up looking smushed on TV screens when it's transferred to DVD and shown on normal TVs, for example. Or vice versa : I don't know. But I don't know which shooting mode is going to elicit the best results. Or can shooting in 16:9 be doctored in post to where it would fit different sizes of screen? Any thoughts?

Welcome to the boards Nathan.
I own the XL2 and have asked myself the same question. In one way you can assure you're "futureproofing" your work by shooting 16:9 as HD sets are rapidly appearing in more and more homes. On the other hand, you're right in feeling you want to be able to show your work properly on what TV sets are common.
Ultimately, I decided to shoot my personal projects in 16:9 and then convert a duplicate file into letterbox format, a very easy procedure that even iMovie with the right plug-in can accomplish.

Cool. That's what I'll do then; knowing that shooting in that scope will be covered makes things a lot easier. I appreciate the welcome and the reply Eric.

No problem. Best of luck, Nathan.

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

Noooooo. Neither the XL1 nor XL1S shoot in native 16x9 mode.

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.