Do I need the anamorphic lense?

M

molocono

Active member
Hi! I'm gonna be doing some work for a local TV station and they want all footage shot in 16:9. Do I need to buy the Panny anamorphic adaptor or is there another way to achieve 16:9? I don't know if I should invest in one, although I could pay it off with one gig.
 
Well, this is complicated yet simple.

You don't need the anamorphic adapter to achieve a 16:9 image.

However, there are two varieties of "16:9", and which one you're after will determine the process needed.

A. There's full screen matted 16:9, which is basically a 3:2 (or 4:3 if you account for pixel shape) rectangle with black bars on top and bottom (which are actually in the video signal) making the "image area" widescreen.

B. There's anamorphic 16:9, which is a 3:2 rectangle with a 16:9 image horizontally squashed into it. The advantage with anamorphic is that when it is viewed on a widescreen TV, it will occupy the entire screen (unless it is also matted to achieve an even wider aspect ratio).

If this video will be for TV broadcast, I would assume they want full screen matted to 16:9 and not anamorphic.

You can matte your video to 16:9 by either shooting in "letterbox" mode with your DVX, or by shooting "Normal" and then matting the footage in your editing software with black bars layered on top of your video. You can also use a mattebox when shooting.

You can make your video anamorphic by shooting with the adaptor in "Normal" mode and capturing, editing, and exporting is as anamorphic. You can also use the DVX100A'a "squish" mode, which I believe simply crops the image to 16:9 and then scales it vertically within the camera to take up the whole frame, resulting in the same type of squished image you get from the adaptor, except it is achieved by scaling up vertically instead of scaling down horizontally (someone correct me if this is wrong).

If I were you, I would just shoot it in "Normal" mode and put black tape on the LCD to simulate the letterbox area, making it easier to frame your shots. Then matte the video to 16:9 with whatever program you edit with.
 
Thanks for the reply.

I actually just talked to the EP of the show and she said that I need to shoot in anamorphic 16:9. Apparently they up and down convert to their "normal" and high definition channels. They shoot all the studio stuff in anamorphic 16:9. So I guess I'm gonna be buying myself a lense.
 
If your shooting for a news station I would highly suggest against the anamorphic lens, and just shoot everything in squeeze mode.
Using the ana lens introduces all sorts of hardships when shooting, especially run and gun, as it is more suited to narrrative work in which you can measure and check focus on each shot.
 
I agree. But I'm not shooting for news. This is more documentary style, and not run and gun. But I don't think I have a choice anyway. The EP said it had to be anamorphic.

I'm gonna get the lense a week in advance so I can do some tests.
 
Well that's the thing, besides resolution, shooting in squeeze mode is the same as shooting with the anamorphic lens. I'm guessing that your EP means anamorphic thus using a 1.21 pixel aspect ratio, which is what using squeeze mode does. However, the anamorphic does give you more resolution, but don't say I didn't warn you.
 
Don't get me wrong I'm not saying you can't shoot with it, it just offers up it's own problems when shooting. I would reccomend checking out Barry Green's Anamorphic guide and measuring chart, it will help you get to where you need when using the Anamorphic lens.
 
Yes, couldnt offer better advice than that. Use the charts and take your time to measure focus. You should be right.
 
I think if you're going to film then the anamorphic lens is a good investment. For SD DVD/broadcast it's an expensive wide angle. I bought mine thinking it was an 'essential' but now I would only strap it on if I wanted the extra breadth of shot. Squeeze alone in the DVX is excellent - and my experience was always that it was seriously superior to letterbox and crop in post.
 
I have used the squeeze for the last year and had excellent results. The adaptor ads problems that the squeeze doesn't. I have used it to, and have been more that satisfied with the outcome. But squeeze alone puts out a great product.
 
Just got my adapter in the mail and I'm gonna use it for the first time tomorrow.
My first impression was that it was built fairly cheap.

Question: Does the adapter tend to stay a bit loose when mounted on the camera?

Is it possible to edit squeeze and anamorphic footage in the same project?
 
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I am not a fan of the anamorphic lens, it introduces aberrations and is clunky to work with. The squeeze mode gets pretty soft though as you are effectively losing a decent chunk of resolution. 4:3 mode on the DVX has a whopping 33% more resolution than the 16:9 squeeze. What are the uprezzing with? Most the hardware stuff does a pretty amazing job...


ash =o)
 
Ive heard the ana lense was hard to use so i never bought for my dvc80 but im in the process of buying the 100b and i heard the 100b had modifications that worked better with the ana lense is that true?
 
Personally, I'd just crop a 4:3 image to 16:9.

That anamorphic adapter is a huge pain to work with, and that's why I'm selling it.
 
So I took the adapter out in the field today for the first time...

WHAT A PAIN!

I shot about an hour worth of material and I can say 90% of it came out fine. I shot a lot of still pictures and the biggest problem was getting proper focus at long zoom ranges since I was trying to get in tight. Could anyone help me with this?

The stuff that did come out good looks awesome!
 
Instead of starting a new thread, I'm just going to tag my question to this one:

Is the Panasonic lens the only anamorphic lens available for the DVX? Wasn't Century Optics supposed to have one out a few years back? Are there any other lens options for getting full rez 16:9 out of your DVX?

Thanks.
 
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