My Method For Native Anamorphic 2:35 Recording on the XL2

[Michael Krumlauf]

I just recently got the Panasonic Anamorphic Adapter as a gift. As most of you know that lens was made for the DVX cameras to let the DVX100 shoot was the Xl2 already shoots natively, but in my experimenting and research i found that if you attach the anamorphic lens on a native 16:9 camera of any kind, you can get the aspect ratio of 2:35:1. Here is my method for shooting and editing it.

1.) When filming you will see that ur image is anamorphicly squeezed into the 16:9 frame so focusing may be a problem in some tight shots. Also note that you can only zoom in about half way then after that the focal lengths are just blurred.

*I USE FINAL CUT PRO 5 FOR EDITING!!!*
1.) Import the clip as u would a 16:9 image

2.) Depending on what frame rate you shot it at, drop the footage in the --fps timeline which should be set for 16:9. Now in the motion tab, go to distort, aspect ratio, and set that to -36, and there you go, proper 2:35:1!!!! Now because say on a DVD it cant properly show 2:35, i just export the clip as i would a 16:9 file! Looks great and is amazing.

Best of luck,
Mike

[Boyd Ostroff]

If you want to retain the full quality when going to DVD, save it as "squashed" 2.3:1 and then view it with a projector and a lens like this: http://www.panamorph.com/

However you will still get much higher resolution to shoot as letterboxed HD using a camera like the Z1, Z1, HD-100, etc.

[Michael Krumlauf]

actually, if you put the anamorphic lens on a FX1 or Z1u, i think the results would be amazing. True 1080i 2:35:1! or better yet an HVX which i have seen before!

[Cole McDonald]

that adaptor seems that it would fit any 72mm threaded lens. The focus issues you showed in your youtube video looked like auto focus fishing. If you were to switch off of auto for focus, you could do zoomed in shots with more DoF control and have tight focus as well.

[Michael Krumlauf]

Hey,

yes the lens works with any 72mm lens! Also, that was not auto focus, that was me moving the focus, i never shoot auto focus. its the lens, even on the DVX the focus dies zoomed in.

[Stephan Loehr]

hi i can confirm your procedure!
i bought the pansonic adapter a year ago and used it on my canon xl2. i had to squeeze down the image in after effects and the result was cinemascope...

but i came to the conclusion that i cant project the video unstretched because there are only 16:9 projectors for DV video existing.
so you could also record in 16:9 and do letterbox without the adapter to get cinemascope 2:35.then the advantage of the anamorphic adapter would only be the more widescreen of 0.3x.
it would make sense using the anamorphic adapter if you would like to upconvert to 720p to get more pixels.... (but correct me if im wrong)
i think the better solution is using the 3x lense.

greets,

stephan

[Michael Krumlauf]

No, thats just cropping, its not true anamorphic capture!

[Ben Winter]

okay, say you plop an anamorphic adapter on an already 16:9 camera. How in the world do you properly monitor that on a screen while shooting?! If you expect anyone half-serious about video to monitor a squished image, think again. Framing would be impossible.

[Stephan Loehr]

so why should that not be a true anamorphic capture?

[Ben Winter]

Originally Posted by Stephan Loehr

so why should that not be a true anamorphic capture?

His method compresses the full image onto the 16:9 sensor. Yours simply crops some of the image out completely to make it a 2.35:1 mask.

[Michael Krumlauf]

http://youtube.com/watch?v=iB7Vnd7C2sA

Watch this video i uploaded, this should explain stuff to you better then what i am doing.

[Cole McDonald]

You should see if there's someone in your town with an HD XL series or a HVX . I'd love to see what that bad boy looks like in HD 2.35:1.