I have a Canon XL2 and was shooting some footage over the weekend which I thought would be in 16:9 ratio, after all, that was what the format selector switch was set to.

After down loading the footage it's clear it has captured in 4:3. So I ran a little test, shooting more footage in the 4:3 ratio then clicking the selector round to 16:9.

On down loading this footage, I can clearly see both formats recorded as per the switch selector.

So why would it capture 4:3 when I have my camera always set on 16:9?

As an addition to my problem, checking the playback through the viewfinder, the original footage does indeed look to be 16:9, am I making some stupid error in transfering this over to my editing system?

I'm using Premier Elements 3.0

I'm very frustrated by this, please help.

Your NLE must be set to 4:3 just check the properities.

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Wil Chapman Jr.
Oly, Washington
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What causes you to think the captured footage was actually 4:3? The pixel ratio? If so then this is the mistake. The dimensions will always be in the ratio 4:3. It;s the 'shape' of the pixels that change fro 16:9 HDV.

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I'm not young enough to know everything!

I have checked my import media settings and the default was set to 4:3. Now swapped over to 16:9. Sorted.