I’ve recently made my first proper movie in 16:9, on my Sony VX2100, which meant simply setting the menu just to record in 16:9.
Now the Sony VX2100 is a well respected standard definition cam, with a proven reputation for amongst other things its image quality, reliability, and low-light performance.
When my movie was edited and shown on a widescreen tv, I was extremely disappointed with the image quality – the pictures were so soft, especially the wider angle shots, and looked more like VHS without colour bleed. I’ve since found that it turns out that most, if not all, standard definition cams just throw away 25% of their image chips’ pixels when 16:9 recording is used. So the pictures, with less resolution in them than when the cam is set to 4:3, are then blown up to fill a much bigger widescreen. And so I found on my made wedding DVD, that low res pictures were the order of the day. So much of a smooth transition to widescreen!
I asked some friends who have made some impressive 16:9 movies of how they get their movies to look so good. I was given some useful tips, such as:
• Skilled use of framing
• Using extreme telephoto with big close-ups
• Big apertures which throw the background out of focus.
• Where possible close the manual exposure a stop or two...the difference can be seen in the Lcd Viewfinder - the colours and shadows are enriched and red faces can be adjusted easily in post.
• With a multi-cam shoot, try to stick with one brand – to save some colour correcting in post
• Aim to capture in high definition, then edit in either SD or HD before exporting to now great-looking SD
How cameras can handle various resolutions, see an illustration :-
The navy box is the native image size of 1080i high definition that is on the original tape, though stretched to 16:9.
The green almost hidden box with thick black border is the amount of pixels in a standard definition 4:3 image - what we're all used to.
The orange box inside it shows the smaller amount of information standard definition cameras use when an SD camera is set to 16:9. They actually waste 25% of their image chips; then the projector or TV blows up what's left of the smaller image. So the picture will look 16:9 but softer – a bit like how VHS looks. And from personal experience on my last wedding movie, its not that good on the discerning eye!
So for making full resolution (1024 x 576) standard def 16:9 movies, they're needed to be filmed with cams that have native 16:9 image chips. So to avoid soft-looking images from a standard def camera used for 16:9, a camera upgrade may be needed. That really means getting a high def cam, then shooting in either standard or high def, then finally making a standard def tape or DVD from the source camera SD/HD tape.
Today's HDV camera technology is not as expensive as I would have thought, and what you can get from reasonably priced modern HDV cams does allow for stunning visuals in films. When true HD movies can be widely shown on tapes or disks, then the image quality may be even better, though some eminent film-makers have claimed that standard def movies (though shot in HD) viewed with a DVD player with an upscaler built in, then the difference may be very slight indeed. In other words standard definition video may have a much longer life than what some of us were thinking.
All that's needed after applying any of the above tips is subject material worth watching...
