Nope on letterbox or pillarbox. Full-rez HDMI output is one of the features that everyone who uses these cameras are eager to see (and by eager I mean rabid!)

The AF box can't be removed during preview, but it goes away when you hit record. Most of the time I move it down to the bottom of the screen where it isn't in the way (it's almost completely out of the picture area).

I believe if you have an auto focus lens attached, and auto focus is set ON, then the box will stay there.

Gotcha--I generally shoot with the ZE's. That does ring a bell with the Canon zooms. However, since AF doesn't work during video shooting anyway, then just leave the lens on manual focus...?

Definitely. Sometimes I'll use the auto focus to pull a focus a static item, then turn it to manual. However, sometimes I'll forget to turn it back and will wonder why the box is still there...

Thanks, Charles, for the lowdown on the pillar/letterboxing. Perhaps a firmware upgrade in the future will kill this problem. I'd like to see the entire underscan on my VX7.

About the AF point box. I also use Zeiss ZE lenses, so turning off the auto-focus is not an option. I will use your suggestion and just move it as far down as it will go.

You should be fine Gabe--with the ZE's the box just disappears when you roll (there's no autofocus to turn on or off!)

Right, Charles, with the ZE's there's no auto-focus option. Just for composition purposes pre-roll, that damn white box annoys me.

This colorist makes the point :)

Sort of interesting but it feels like the gains are minimal. Would be worth investigating for a 2:40 project, where the red dot would be eliminated above the frame.