4:3 Anamorphic Mode

Hi there, I am writer/director currently in development of my first feature film. I want to shoot the film in 4:3 aspect ratio. I see that both the Black Magic Ursa Mini and Pro versions allow a 3K Anamorphic mode. Does this mean that if I don't use Anamorphic lenses I'll get a 4:3 image ? I'm a little confused. Please help.

Does this mean that if I don't use Anamorphic lenses I'll get a 4:3 image?

That's correct.

The 3K mode, although labelled "anamorphic" due to its expected use, is simply a 4:3 crop in the middle of the sensor to 3072 x 2560 pixels. Spherical lenses would create a normal 4:3 image without any squeezing.

There is a related setting for monitoring/viewfinder called Anamorphic Desqueeze. You would simply leave that OFF to see the normal image.

Earl, Thanks for clearing out my confusion. This means that I'll consider both the URSA Mini versions for my film. One more question though ... Have you come across any examples of the URSA cameras being used for 4:3 filming ? I've searched for 4:3 test footage shot on these cameras but I have found none so far !

Have you come across any examples of the URSA cameras being used for 4:3 filming ?

I haven't. That said, I'm certain they wouldn't look any different than a 16:9 sample cropped to 4:3. Try finding some sample footage and cropping it in post. That will show you what to expect.

Except the image you capture is 6:5, not 4:3. 3072 / 2560 = 1.2 ergo 6:5. Of course in post you can crop that to get 4:3. 3072x2304 gives you a 4:3 aspect ratio by taking 128 lines off each of the top and bottom of the frame.


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Except the image you capture is 6:5, not 4:3. 3072 / 2560 = 1.2 ergo 6:5.

Good point. I hadn't noticed that myself. It's not a true 4:3 ratio as one would have expected.

I don't shoot anything anamorphic myself, so do you know why they chose such a ratio?

Yes, the 3072x2560 format is designed to be shot with a 2x anamorphic lens resulting in a desqueezed image 6144x2560 which has a 2.4:1 ratio, very close to the roughly 2.39:1 aspect ratio most often associated with anamorphic movies.

An aside: the 16:9 ratio that defines the native sensor and several other frame resolutions is perfect with a 1.33x anamorphic lens as that also desqueezes in post to the 2.37:1 aspect ratio, again very close to traditional widescreen.

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