Mixing XL1s & A1 footage
 

What's the best way to work with these 2 cameras? I'll be doing a 2 camera shoot of a dance performance, that will end up as a SD DVD. Should I shoot the XL as 4.3, bring it into the 16.9 project, enlarge it to fit & then crop the horizontal? or will XL anamorphic work with the widescreen workflow of the A1? Working with FCP studio (not FCP-S-2)

If it is ending up as standard definition DVD, why not shoot 4:3 SD on the A1 and have a nice match from the get-go? This is a great feature of the camera that has come in handy way more than I expected it to.

To get 16:9 from a 4:3 camera like the XL1s means either an anamorphic lens adapter (which have their own problems), or cropping/stretching the image which means throwing precious pixels away.

For the best end result, I say work off best the native resolution that can be had from *both* cameras.

Thanks Benjamin, I had thought about that, but...

One of the reasons that I'd prefer to work in 16.9 is that there are more and more widescreen TVs out there, but more importantly, when filming a dance on stage, the dancers are usually spread out and only take a small % of the horizontal screen. 16.9 works much better for this, as 4.3 just exaggerates the dead space in the image. I realize that I'll be loosing some quality, but I'd be using the XL for the closer shots so I don't think it would be too bad. The other thing is that some of the people I know with widescreen (I don't have one, so I am ignorant on this), stretch the 4.3 & then complain about the way it looks.

I just want to know the best way to mix these 2 into a 16.9 format.
Thanks,

Having done 16:9 every way possible (native, crop, squeeze, anamorphic, etc.) I disagree; I also say this having filmed 150+ student, collegiate and professional dance performances so I have a sense of what you're dealing with. But everyone has different priorities.

If you are set on 16:9 composition, I'd say make the A1 your wider/master shot and use the XL's faux-widescreen "squeeze" mode to get something your NLE can ingest as anamorphic, then edit it all on an anamorphic DV timeline.

Rent another A1 and charge it to the client?
The cameras would match perfectly. You'd have 16:9. You could maybe sell them an HD version at some point in the future.

Benjamin,
I'll run some tests & see how it works/looks. I guess it's posible I could end up going with 4.3.
Thanks for your time.
Richard - It's more of a favor than a paying job, I'll make some decent $ from selling DVDs, but... Also the closest place to rent a camera is over 5 hours away round trip, so... But thanks.