GH1 16:9 lenses wider than stated!

[deltoidjohn]

Interesting... I always thought the GH1 sensor was designed to give the exact same diagonal length and angle of view in either 4:3, 16:9 or 3:2, hence the larger than standard micro 4/3rds sensor.

My first impression upon reading this, however, was what Tameside said; The GH1 has the multi-aspect sensor but the 550d/7d do not, meaning that their crop factors will be slightly higher in video mode (16:9 cropped from a 3:2 sensor) than in still mode.

 

[Barry_Green]

The GH1 sensor was indeed designed to give the exact same diagonal length and angle of view in any of its aspect ratios. It accomplishes that by having a sensor that's substantially larger than a "standard" 4/3 sensor.

The 7D/550D/t2i don't. They get their video 16:9 aspect ratio by chopping off the top and bottom of the frame. However, that's not "bad", it still has a 22mm wide sensor, which is still cinema-sized.

The excitement is about that the GH1, when in 16:9 mode, closes the gap substantially from what any other 4/3 camera would have. Instead of being 17.3mm wide, it's actually 18.9mm wide, so the resulting ultimate Cinema Crop Factor is a matter of just 1.18.