Viewfinder aspect ratio locked in 16:9 HD??

N

newsbykko

Active member
When I was shooting DV I had the viewfinder set to 4:3 while shooting in 16:9 making the picture distort but fill the whole viewfinder. This made focusing much easier.

I just got my P2 cards and switched to HD for the first time and the display option is locked in 4:3 but the viewfinder is 16:9 and in over scan. Basically the viewfinder picture is TINNY.

Please tell me this is not how it's going to be...
 
HD is always 16:9. The camera displays all non-applicable/non-available menu options in blue, the fact that it shows 4:3 means nothing, you are still recording and displaying 16:9.
 
I'm talking about the viewfinder not the recording footage.

I want to make the picture in the viewfinder bigger.

When the camera is in DV I set the viewfinder to 4:3 and the viewfinder image gets streched to fill the complete viewfinder. But when the camera is in HD the viewfinder is locked in 16:9 mode.
 
You can't do that, HD is always 16:9. The only thing you can do is activate the FOCUS ASSIST feature to temporarily enlarge the display.
 
Do you mean that the LCD has letterboxing? slightly larger in the bottom than the top? if so that is the only option to view the HD footage. You cannot stretch the image to fill the viewfinder the way you could if shooting Squeeze mode and setting the LCD aspect to 4:3.

In HD the LCD is always 16:9 since you are always recording 16:9
 
That is what I was afraid of. Makes life for a news/doc shooter much, much harder.

Oh well, can't have everything.....

K
 
How so?
It's not like you are decreasing the viewable area by 50% or something like that, and you have the focus assist which only works on P2 mode...which is great for quick focus.
 
Actually, FOCUS ASSIST only works in HD -- it won't even work if you record DV25 or DVCPRO50 in P2 mode.
 
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