Anamorphic Adapter Guide now available!

Re: Anamorphic Adapter Guide now available!

Aaaaaaaah! Finally received my copy.(It's a long way from America to Austria) Great job you did, Barry! Now if I only had my adapter (seems to be travelling by snailmail from Japan). Maybe this week. Thanks for all the work, hope you're getting along with your Guide to the DVX. :)
 
Some observations

Some observations

I was fortunate enough to have borrowed the panamorphic to test. So far I cant really say I can see a huge difference between squeeze and the panamorphic in my limited testing. I viewed it on my 68cm sony tv and a 42" LG rear projector tv. I imagine the larger the screen the more obvious the advantage the panamorphic will have correct? so going to film will definitely show an advantage I assume. However for the majority of us who view on a standard home tv's /plasma's/rear projections the gain in picture quality will not be obvious.

In wide shots the panamorphic should be better too. As you zoom in the same surface area of the chip will be imaging a lsmaller area of the scene so your picture so the picture should improve eg a close up of a face will look better than a wide shot of people. Therefore in zooming the gains in resolution will be less noticeable.

In wider shots its alot easier to focus the panamorphic compared to zooming in due to great depth of field. I note the substantially wider field of view is a real bonus.

Also when letterbox is on with the panamorphic you get cinemascope which is a fantastic effect I thought. In this mode do you get the same resolution as the ordinary letterbox mode? If so this would still be more than if you cropped to get cinemascope width in post, am I correct?

I'm still undecided about getting the panamorphic. Pro is bonus wide angle, interesting cinemascope and higher resolution. Con is the gain in resolution marginal in my eyes on most tv sets ( and remember in pal land even if I loss 25% resolution if using non panamorphic 16:9, I'm still at the maximum resolution of ntsc which most of you guys seem to cope with quite well), limited mattebox choice, focus issues ( but using at wide most of the time keeps it simple).
 
Re: Anamorphic Adapter Guide now available!

That's a quite good summary of the issues. The anamorphic's advantages definitely come into play the larger the screen size you view it on. And squeeze mode is surprisingly good -- THIN line detail, progressive-scan, and Squeeze mode, all combined, will deliver about as much resolution as a TV set can handle without introducing flicker. The anamorphic is a good product, but buyers should consider all the ramifications before spending $900 on the anamorphic adapter.

In reference to your question, yes, anamorphic+letterbox would give you 2.35:1 at the same resolution as just letterbox.
 
Re: Anamorphic Adapter Guide now available!

Thanks Barry. The friend of mine had your guide which I am waiting to receive.
Up to z70 which is more than half your zoom you can open up to f5.6. As a rough guide I would keep most of shots a f5.6 via nd filtration and liberal use of shutter speeds keeping in mind its affect on motion ( people talking or slow movement and mild shutter speed doesnt giving strobing). F5.6 corresponds to the sharper part of the lens, and I make sure my subject is at a distance greater than 3'7" which if you think about it isnt that hard. Thats half a meter in metric land I think. When's the last time you shot that close really? I would in fact tend to zoom in alittle to avoid the barrel distortion which the panamorphic definitely makes you notice ( love how wide it takes you though, might get it just for this alone!).
I then use the excellent peaking function on the 100a to focus. Just zoom in, focus manually, than pull out.
Is that kind of kosha? I just read the guide yesterday and I just trying to wrap my head around the tables.
 
Re: Anamorphic Adapter Guide now available!

F/5.6 is actually kind of open for close focusing or telephoto work. And the peaking function is most likely tied to the autofocus sensing system, which only works on vertical elements, not horizontals, so I don't believe you can rely too extensively on the peaking function to get accurate focus with the anamorphic attached.
 
Re: Anamorphic Adapter Guide now available!

I've has the fortune of being able to project some stuff I shot on the anamorphic and compare it to stretch mode. I used an epson video projector screened onto a wall so the width of the image was 3m (9 feet or so). In all honesty I couldnt tell much difference in the resolution between the two. In fact I lost track of when I shot it with or without the anamorphic and a mate of mine( film student) couldnt tell the difference either.
When I viewed it on my puny 27 inch sony crt there was no chance I could tell the difference.
However I was totally blown away by how good the dvx looked on the projector though. There was detail that you can see on a blown up picture which the tv just simply crushes out of existence because its so small. For example on distance building I could discern the windows whereas on the tv it was a dark mush. I almost fell off my perch when I saw an image of my dad's face on the screen. It was like being at the cinema. Of course all your mistakes get blown up as well but I was so surprised at how well the dvx handled. In all honesty I can never go back to any small screen device again whether its plasma, rear projection or whatever. The dvx is wasted on such a small screen.
Next week we're going to see if we can project onto a larger screen and discern if there is a big difference in using the anamorphic.

Barry I'm going to keep on thinking about simple rules of thumb so I can run and gun with the anamorphic.
 
Re: Anamorphic Adapter Guide now available!

Barry,
Received the Guide and it is VERY helpful. A question:
How close can I safely focus with the anamorphic adapter (assuming the f-stop is ok)? Your chart goes down to 1' 11.5" while Adam's goes down to .3".
Thanks!
 
Re: Anamorphic Adapter Guide now available!

Depends on how wide-angle you are. My numbers are all based on the lens being at Z99. If you go full wide-angle and have a deep f-stop, you can easily focus to the surface of the lens.
 
Re: Anamorphic Adapter Guide now available!

Hi Barry

I have no problem getting this additional guide- if i need to.

didnt Jan say

Anamorphic vs. Letterbox vs. Squeeze: is also covered in the book? which i already bought.

is there more info in this to "make the desition"?

i dont have anamorphic yet and need to decide if its worth trouble vs rez
 
Re: Anamorphic Adapter Guide now available!

The AA guide is included in the book as the last chapter.

Frankly, the anamorphic is a bit of a hassle to shoot with. But it gives you a lot more resolution under the right conditions. It's much, much easier to just shoot squeeze mode -- but squeeze is a guaranteed loss of resolution. So it's up to you.
 
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