Options for Native 2.39:1 Recording on the 550D

[nateo200]

Hey so I was curious could you guys theoretically get into the system that scales down the image from the 5k sensor all the way down to 1920x1080p or whatever and get it to produce maybe a 2.39:1 image in a 1920x1080p .MOV H.264 wrapper BUT it would be anamorphic ally squeezed? I mean it seams as though if part of the sensor was cropped you could create a 2.39:1 video image instead of a 16x9 one! Not asking for everything that comes with anamorphic like the cool flares, curved horizontal lines, etc. but Native 2.39:1 support would be very nice! 2048x853 is essentially the same amount of pixels as 1920x1080 just distributed differently...2560x1080 would be even BETTER but that seams like a tall order given the processor inside the 550D and other DSLR's.

-Maybe some options to shoot at 1440x1080p @ 4:3 or 1280x1080 @ 1.18 so if someone wanted to shoot with anamorphic lenses originally intended for the 35mm motion film format they could, currently 1.33 squeeze anamorphics are hard to come by these days but 2x anamorphics have been around forever and Ive seen people with money use special mounts to use Panavision anamorphics on Canon DSLR's...

I know H.264 can record at pretty much any resolution you want...but I obviously don't know what Canons encoder is a capable of. Regardless I'd kill for more 2.39:1 video support!

Thanks for taking the time to read and possibly consider this....I love composing in the 2.39 wide screen format...I feel more comfortable shooting in that format over 16x9 and am simply looking for a way to not throw 240 pixels away off the top and bottom. Very grateful for Magic Lantern! You guys have made allot of shooting SOOO much easier and nicer. Cheers

-Nate

[nateo200]

Hmm some of my post didn't copy over from my text editor...but I also was wondering about recording 3:2 HD at like 1920x1280? You know to get the full sensor instead of just the 16:9 crop of it?

[drapeama]

I don't think it would save a lot to have "native" 2.40:1 (cropped video) in the end. One thing I like working with 16x9 video is that when you mask or crop the video to 2.40:1, you still have a safe margin (up and bottom) to adjust the framing in case there was something wrong. With cropped video, once it's framed, you have to live with it. See here:

And can always be helpful like that, with a little cropping: