Canon anamorphic converter helps digital filmmaker achieve wide aspect ratio

To capture the images for his new Brazilian movie, “Riding High” (“Alucinados”), director Roberto Santucci relied on Canon 2/3in HD-EC (HD electronic cinematography) prime lenses, the wide-angle HJ11ex4.7B IRSE portable zoom lens and the ACV-235 anamorphic converter, which provides a unique optical solution for wide aspect ratio (2.35:1) image capture.

To take full advantage of the digital 24p format, Santucci used the Canon ACV-235 anamorphic converter, which allowed him “to take everything you’ve shot in HD and project it beautifully on a wide screen,” he said.

By shooting with Canon’s ACV-235 anamorphic converter, Santucci was able to bring his HD production to CinemaScope-sized (2.35:1 aspect ratio) screens.

For “Riding High, Santucci mounted Canon’s ACV-235 anamorphic converter between Canon’s prime lenses and the 2/3in HD lens mount on his 24p camera. The ACV-235 allowed Santucci to squeeze the picture horizontally to include all of the 2.2 million pixels in the 1080 imager and then unsqueeze the images in post, something that “is analogous to anamorphic capture for film,” Santucci said. The advantage is complete coverage with all pixels spread across the image, unlike solutions that require cropping the top and bottom of the frame to achieve the 2:35:1 aspect ratio, he said.

Besides the Canon ACV-235 and HD-EC primes, Santucci shot much of his movie with the Canon HJ11ex4.7B IRSE eHDxs portable zoom lens. The widest HD EFP lens offered by Canon, the HJ11ex4.7B IRSE is designed to produce minimal chromatic aberration and geometric distortion (at the widest angle). The lens also features Canon’s eDrive technology, which enables users to program zoom and focus settings.

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