Panasonic Anamorphic Adapter
 

I’m hearing mixed things about the Panasonic Anamorphic Adapter. But since it has been out for so long, I figured I would inquire about the adapter again. So what are the pros and cons of the adapter? And does the adapter maintain straight vertical angles at all (through any part of the zoom range?) Thanks.

OK,

well i have played with it for all of 2 minutes at a store, i was watching it on a 800 line tv monitor.

It maintains focus all through it's zoom, hence fully zoom through, and it didn't display any line distortion, at full zoom or through it, from what i could see of the vertical lines it was pointing at in the fake set (shelves and things).

At full wide it displayed a light barrell distortion which is intrinsic to the underlying lens.

Zac

Thanks Zac

Can someone explain the process of how to use the anamorphic adaptor on the DVX100?

I assume you shoot in standard 4:3 aspect ratio with the adaptor on, and then capture normally (DV, 4:3). Then do you just stretch the 720x480 captured footage to 960x480 in your compositing or editing program? (I'm using After Effects and/or FCP.) What does that do to the rectangular pixels, if anything?

Any information would be greatly appreciated.

Russell

Nahh, it is still 720x480 (576 for pal)

It is basically used for dvd delivery, and/or for tv's that can handle 16x9 signals, they will squeeze the image down. So bacically it is using all your lines for the part of the image that constitues action picture, and not wasting lines on the black bars.

Without some kind of processing on the tv's part, or using a 16x9 project in your editor, everything will look streched vertically, kinda like when you see real old movies on tv, and it hits the credits and suddenly everyone is really tall and thin.

Going by raw numbers, if you want a widescreen presentation in the standard 16x9 ratio (1.78:1) you gain 25% resolution, when displayed on a 16x9 capable device.

Zac

<<<-- Originally posted by Zac Stein : NGoing by raw numbers, if you want a widescreen presentation in the standard 16x9 ratio (1.78:1) you gain 25% resolution, when displayed on a 16x9 capable device. Zac -->>>

I think you need to qualify that. There is no gain in resolution when using the anamorphic lens, as you note it's still 480x720. However using the built-in 16:9 feature on most camcorders merely crops the image down to 720x360, resulting in a 25% LOSS of vertical resolution as compared to using the adaptor.

As far as capturing video in FCP that was shot with the adaptor, in your sequence and capture presets just be sure to check the "anamorphic 16:9" box and everything will display properly on the canvas and viewer. However when you output via firewire it will look "squished" unless you view on a widescreen-capable TV or monitor.

Some other considerations:

If you use the adapter there is no way of incorporating filters, nor is there any way to mount a matte box if you already have one short of creating a custom rig. There are rumors that Century may be devising a special matte box to use with Panasonic's adapter, which will accept filters but if true this will prove to be another added cost for 16:9.

Personally, I'm a bit disappointed that I won't be able to use the matte box I already have since the adapter comes with a hood and small shade.