Optura 40/30: Letterbox video to 4:3 TV?
 

Do the new Opturas also output letterboxed video to a 4:3 TV?

On Chris Hurd's comparison review, he noted that the LCD shows 16:9 video with letterboxing so it's not squished anymore!

Hi Michael,

I can confirm for you that the 16:9 output of the Optura Xi, 300, 40 & 30, and Elura 70 & 65 (all of which are the new "high resolution" 16:9 output) definitely send the wide screen video straight out, without letterboxing. The deal is that they're anticipating this feature to be used most often by owners of native 16:9 HDTV sets. So your analog input to a normal 4:3 TV or monitor is a "spaghetti western." The camcorder can't tell what kind of monitor it's hooked up to, so it has no way of switching a letterbox matte on or off over the analog outputs.

Also, even though the flip-out LCD display is letterboxed, the other LCD in the small viewfinder is not letterboxed.

Hope this helps -- see you again at DV Expo in July?

Yup! I'll see you at DV Expo NY! See you there.

The "spaghetti western" look is quite fashionable nowadays here in New York ... :-)

DVD fixes widescreen problems
 

I use an Optura 30, and when hooked directly up to a normal 4:3 TV with the A/V cables the anamorphic image (I only ever use the widescreen mode, which is a true anamorphic widescreen mode rather than simply black bars) appears squished. However, whenever I burn Optura 30 widescreen footage onto a DVD using the "Widescreen NTSC" setting in DVD Architect on my PC, the DVD will play back with black bars at the top and bottom on my 4:3 TV and look like any standard widescreen DVD.

I'm a college student without much money, and that's why I made my first feature film using my handy Canon Optura 30. It works so well that I even had the characters in my movie using the same camcorder (I have two). If you're interested in seeing Optura 30 footage and screen grabs (most of which are unadjusted), then check out this page on my indie filmmaking web site. The image size is reduced from the original 873 pixels wide to 600 wide:

http://murrayfilms.net/page/primary/...matography.htm

For optura footage, check the Watch Movies page for the trailer for my movie, I Love Ashley Bailey, but keep in mind the trailer is compressed and that I've since learned to get even more out of the Optura 30. I highly, highly recommend this camcorder.