To Squeeze or Not to Squeeze?

Article by Salil Sundresh

For a long time now, people have often resorted to shooting in the "squeeze" mode on their professional 4:3 video cameras in order to achieve 16:9 when they are unable to afford an anarmorphic adapter. How much resolution do you actually save through this mode? Below are tests in various modes for achieving 16:9. I used Panasonic's AG-DVX100B in 24p Advanced mode.

Looking closely at the frame grabs you'll noticed that you actually lose a considerable amount of resolution when shooting in squeeze mode as opposed to letterbox or simply cropping a 4:3 source in post. After performing these tests I've decided to always shoot in 4:3 when ever I am shooting with a 4:3 camera. This has the added benefit of allowing you to re-frame in post-production due the additional vertical space. Please see the upcoming article on creating & attaching 16:9 guides for your camera's LCD.

Below I have the full resolution frame grabs in each mode for download. (right click, save target as)