HPX171 PAL - 2.39:1 Aspect ratio

K

KevinP

Well-known member
Any ideas how would this camera be used to shoot footage in the 2.39:1 aspect ratio? Ideally without just cropping in post?

If you did resort to cropping what native mode would provide the best results?

Is there a lens that would give this result without cropping?
 
You'd need a 1.33x anamorphic adapter, such as the Panasonic LA-7200G. And the anamorphic adapter is a pain in the patootie to shoot with.

Using that adapter, you won't have to crop, but you will have to unsqueeze. So the question becomes -- what do you intend to do with the footage? Because if you're distributing on blu-ray or broadcast or whatever, you're going to have to unsqueeze and crop for delivery, so you might as well shoot normal and crop in the first place.
 
Oh the Panasonic LA-7200G - I have that for my DVX100A - didn't realise it would work with the HPX so that's very interesting. But doesn't that lens convert the image down to 4:3?

Is that what you mean by unsqueeze? I'd have to stretch it out from 4:3 to fill the frame?

Basically I just wanted the ability to shoot footage that looks as much like cinema style as possible for certain work and I thought 2.39:1 rather than 16:9 was a step closer.

But I agree it sounds a lot simpler to shoot a native mode and crop in post.
 
The lens squeezes the image horizontally by 1.33x.

So it takes 4:3 (1.333:1) to 16:9 (1.78:1).

It'd take 16:9 (1.78:1) to 2.37:1.

The footage will be recorded as 16:9, but vertically stretched. You'd have to unsqueeze it in post to get the proper aspect ratio.

And I don't know how well a 7200 would do with an HD camera in the first place...
 
Why don't you want to crop in post in the first place ?
just make your aspect ratio test (don't know the official name of the test in english, the one which consist in filming an image of your frame with arrows on the side to see if it matches your viewfinder and the post production frame) and you're good to go.
 
Cheers Phenixsone - I will do that.

It's just that method will lose me some resolution and I wondered if there was another way.

I had realised (via Barry's first book on DVX) the Anamorphic lens on the DVX in squeeze mode would yield the result - hadn't realised it could work the same on the HPX - but agree I'm just making a rod for my own back going that way.

Thanks.
 
I would do test shots with the 7200 if I were you...I'm not saying you should, or shouldn't use it....but trying it out won't hurt anything, and you just might like the look:
http://vimeo.com/1262051

Everyone agrees that the 7200 softens things....it isn't a perfect adapter for hi-def.
 
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Good suggestion - yes as I have it sitting here now I know more about it I will give it a try.
 
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