Canon GL2 Widescreen question?

[thecoalman]

I haven't recived it yet bu it should be here M or T. Looking at some of the specs I came across two options for widscreen shots. First there's option for using 4:3 where the widescreen viewable area is imposed over the viewfinder. So you can shoot in 4:3 but still keep your subject matter within the 16:9 field of view if you want to later crop.

The second option is to shoot in anamorphic which will create a 16:9 only video.

My question is this, when shooting the anmorphic does it use the full resolution of the cam or is it simply cropping the video? I prefer 16:9 but if it is only cropping video it would make sense to me to just shoot in 4:3 and crop the video myself, I could then have either 4:3 or 16:9.

[hexxisoft]

the 16x9 on that will make the video stretched, possibly adding resolution on the sides. after you letterbox it, it'll look good. it makes it anamorphic (i think) because it looks better when you squeeze it into the boxes. I know that when I do that, it looks better than if I just crop off the top and bottom of the video. It does it in a way that you won't lose resolution.

[triphop]

It does not crop - It electronically compresses the width to fit the 4:3 frame and marks the video as 16:9. Then when the video is transferred to PC, the AVI looks perfect. Its not as good (they say) as optical compression but those lenses costs $$$ and you need to change the aspect bit on the video to 16:9.

[thecoalman]

I've worked with 16:9 before just wondering how it worked as it pertains to the camera. Thanks for the replies.