DVX100A or anamorphic on DVX for best quality?

[dhffhd]

For best noticable quality, am I better off getting DVX100A and shooting in squeeze mode, or getting anamorphic for my plain old DVX 100, or will shooting DVX in letterbox mode give good results, say, if transferred to VHS and projected on big screen. Trying to get most bang for buck here, and while I recognize that the more lines of resolution you keep, the better off the image is, I gotta balance that with costs. If one or the other of the above really jumps off the screen at you, then I guess that's the way to go, but don't have ya'll's experience on this. Thanks.

Dave Findley

 

[Barry_Green]

Re: DVX100A or anamorphic on DVX for best quality?

The best quality is dependent on what you're going to play it on. If you're displaying it on a 4:3 TV, just shoot letterbox (or letterbox in post).

If you're displaying it on a 16:9 TV or transferring up to film, the anamorphic adapter provides for a big potential jump in image quality, depending on how much care you exercise when shooting with it. But for "bang for the buck" it's hard to beat squeeze mode, which is free.

The anamorphic gives you about 35% more resolution, but limits your ability to get shallow-DOF shots, your ability to use filters, and your ability to use matteboxes and the telephoto lens adapter. Squeeze mode lets you use all those things, but results in a resolution *loss* rather than a resolution gain.

 

[andy_starbuck]

Re: DVX100A or anamorphic on DVX for best quality?

Here are some test shots for your enjoyment.

Lens coverage:

The border of the image is the Panasonic Anamorphic adapter (AG-LA7200), shot in normal mode. The red line shows the Wide Angle lens (AG-LW7208G) shot in squeeze mode. The green line shows the normal lens in squeeze mode. And the blue line shows the Telephoto adapter (Century Optics 1.6x Teleconverter) in squeeze mode. All shots were at 00 zoom. The camera was locked down and I just replaced the lenses and changed modes.

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The top images were shot at 00 zoom, the bottom images at 30 zoom. The left images were shot with the Anamorphic adapter in normal mode, and the right images were shot with the Wide Angle lens in squeeze mode. You can see at 00 zoom that the Anamorphic distorts the column significantly. In the bottom row, if you look at the brickwork towards the end of the building you might be able to see the difference between the increased resolution of the Anamorphic over the Wide lens with squeeze. It is hard to tell on these small images.

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These are 8x blowups showing details from the 30 zoom images above. The left is the anamorphic and the right is the wide angle. Look at the grout lines and you can see the difference.

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These images were all shot at 99 zoom. The top left is the Anamorphic in normal mode. The top right is the Wide Angle in squeeze mode. The lower left is the normal lens in squeeze mode. And the lower right is the Telephoto converter in squeeze mode.

Hope these are of some value.

 

[Policar]

Re: DVX100A or anamorphic on DVX for best quality?

What I'd recommend is using squeeze mode for talking heads since low res talking heads hold up really well and you can get shallow DOF this way too. Then I'd use the anamorphic adapter for the establishing shots and any wide-to-mid shots that aren't dependant on DOF.

In City of God they used 16mm for talking head shots and 35mm for establishing shots. That movie was gorgeous.