cheap 16:9 FHA solution
 

I use the Optex FHA, but I found myself in a pickle when a 2 cam shoot was required in 16:9

So I came up with a solution for my second cam which I would like to share.

You will need the following

1) a wide angle adapter of 0.75x or less (I use a 0.6x) to get the extra perspective.

2) a cam with the 'slim' digital effect (Sony cams have this)

Using the 16:9 letterbox mode has the disadvantage of not being FHA and you will lose 25% of the image in the vertical direction.

To counteract this - fit the wide angle adapter and then shoot video with the 'slim' effect on

This will give an image in the viewfinder identical to that when using a true FHA adapter since the wide angle adapter pulls the vertical part of the image into view which is normally lost and the slim effect produces the right amount of horizontal squeeze (a true FHA gives 0.75x in the horizontal) Dont forget to label your footage as anamorphic for your NLE.

Comparing footage with this method to that using my Optex shows a slight loss in vertical resolution but it appears to be cleaner than using 16:9 mode possibly because the full bandwidth of DV compression is applied to the squeezed image and is therefore less demanding.

It certainly helped me out.

I have a few questions:

1) what is FHA?

2) Can you do the "slim" effect on the Panasonic DVX100?

3) Could you post some images to show the results of your tests?

It would be of great help if you could provide more info on this, since we're all trying to get decent 16:9 for cheap.

Thanks!

Jaime

Why use the WA adapter except for full wide angle shots?

Once you are zoomed out a bit from full wide I don't see what the WA adapter is buying you except a degraded image.