View Full Version : de-anamorphized monitoring on Red
Simon Smith
10-10-2007, 11:39 PM
How can we have de-anamorphized monitoring from 2:1 anamorphics?
Craig W. Bickerstaff
10-11-2007, 06:24 AM
I'm confused, I thought that anamorphic lenses resulted in a cinemascope image.
David Mullen ASC
10-11-2007, 07:05 AM
Anamorphic lenses have a 2X horizontal squeeze and, on 35mm, put a 2.40 image onto a 1.20 area of the negative & print. The projector uses an anamorphic lens with a 2X horizontal un-squeeze to stretch the image back out from 1.20 to 2.40 (I'm rounding 2.39 to 2.40 to make the math easier.)
So when shooting with anamorphic lenses, you need to find some way of unsqueezing the image from the lens by 2X for on-set viewing purposes (in the viewfinder, on monitors, etc.) Many videotap monitors have a way of doing this, creating a letterboxed image.
In the old days of CinemaScope, camera operators just got used to framing & shooting while looking at a skinny image in the viewfinder.
How anamorphic photography looks on film:
http://www.davidmullenasc.com/innocents8.jpg
How it looks projected with an anamorphic lens:
http://www.davidmullenasc.com/innocents7.jpg
Simon Smith
10-11-2007, 07:20 AM
Exactly Mr. Mullen.
The idea would be to add this in-camera.
In the meantime, I'm asking for any monitor with such capability.
Kevin Halverson
10-11-2007, 08:59 AM
If you don't mind making your monitor dedicated to anamorphic situations, its really easy, at least with an analog monitor. I changed the vertical/horizontal scale in a 14" Panny field monitor to accommodate an anamorphic "unsqueeze" by adjusting the deflection gain controls.
So, if you have an old analog monitor sitting around and you don't mind it being dedicated to a specific application, you can make the adjustments and you will at least have something that works for framing purposes.
Robert Sanders
10-11-2007, 12:43 PM
If Jim is considering adding anamorphic features into future builds I'm sure they're considering offering a de-anamorphized HD-SDI output (I would hope).
It also would be nice of Blackmagic offered a feature like this in their HDLink product (or AJA's).
Robert Sanders
10-11-2007, 12:45 PM
Also, I wonder how Soderbergh is doing this currently?
And speaking of anamorphic, did Soderbergh have a custom PV mount machined? I was under the impression RED would offer no Panavision solutions for their cameras.
doondoon
10-11-2007, 01:04 PM
Exactly Mr. Mullen.
The idea would be to add this in-camera.
In the meantime, I'm asking for any monitor with such capability.
The Panasonic 26" does this.
Simon Smith
10-11-2007, 01:17 PM
Any field monitor?
Small ones?
dalemccready
10-11-2007, 01:53 PM
The Tiffen Ultrabrite monitors that ship with Steadicam Ultras and are also available separately have an anamorphic unsqueeze option.
Kevin Halverson
10-11-2007, 02:12 PM
Any field monitor?
Small ones?
Nearly any analog (read CRT) monitor will have provisions for effecting the horizontal and vertical analog deflection gain. It might be an internal calibration, it might be external, but it will be present in nearly all as it is needed to compensate for different CRT characteristics. Monitor size (within practical limits) should matter.