Thats Okay Kevin, as for wide screen I only shoot standard 4:3 DV but use the 16:9 frame in the camera viewfinder so when it comes to letterboxing overy thing fits.

The reason I do not shoot in wide screen is very simple, the Canon XM2 widescreen mode is shown in the viewfinder as a squahed up image, very unsettling when trying to concentrate on framing, and second I am not geared up yet to monitor the video when I am editing.

Believe it or not most of my customers are very happy with the letterboxed 4:3 video.

Thanks again, Cliff Elliott

That's interesting. What 16:9 frame do you use in your camera viewfinder?

In a project I am involved in, which I have been shooting for more than two months now, I used three different cameras: a PDX10 and PD150, shooting 16:9; and a PD170, shooting 4:3 but framing for 16:9.

The decision to shoot on the latter was to be able to make two different versions if necessary of those specific sequences. For the 16:9 version I will have to add a letter-box matte during editing, or perhaps before to freely edit it with the other stuff.

What I did for the dual-framing shooting was sticking semi-transparent strips of tape on the LCD screen, shaping the 16:9 space with it.

But I am not sure if it's not better to actually block the frame-space you will not use, because of a tendency, in camera or character movements, not to follow the action or the actual faces because you still "saw" it. If you know what I mean.


Carlos

Hi Carlos, the Canon XM2 camera I use have a feature where you can switch on two white lines in the viewfinder that represent the 16:9 border to keep your subject framed in when shooting in normal 4:3 mode.

It works very well, and gives me the ability to letterbox later in post production.

Reagards, Cliff Elliott

I am glad it works for you. It's quite likely that intense use of such "subliminal" lines might become a "limiting frontier" in the user's mind, but I'm afraid it may not be working too much for me yet.

This week I was viewing some of the stuff I recorded using 4:3 screen with the "safe zone" I had marked with translucid tape, and in most cases I had to slightly correct the frame for the 16:9 border. Even if I did this correction smoothly to be almost invisible, I would have preferred to frame it rightly from the start.

As this was not the case when I shot using full 16:9 framing, on my PDX10 or on a PD150 set for 16:9, I can only infer that the translucid tapes are not working as they should. Would a white line better on that?


Carlos

Carlos, I find the white lines to be very easy to use, but can unerstand if it is not for you, when I first started using them It took a few days to train myself to ignor anything outside of the lines, but now it is second nature.

Regards, Cliff Elliott

I think that's what I mean.