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Shooting Anamorphic Guide on the Canon C700 FF

Everybody and their mother is interested in shooting anamorphic these days. Filters, adapters, after-effects presets, and even just more affordable lenses are making the anamorphic look achievable and popular. Full-Frame cinema cameras are giving anamorphic lenses an exciting upgrade.

The tall and boxy “squeezed” image created by anamorphic lenses fits very nicely onto a Full-Frame sensor.  Not only that, but full frame sensors are almost definitionally higher resolution than their Super 35 cousins, simply because of their larger dimensions. All of this and more make full frame anamorphic filmmaking an exciting new world to explore. And what better tool to explore it with than the Canon C700 FF?

Atlas Lens Co. 40mm Orion Series anamorphic lens on a Canon C700 FF
Atlas Lens Co. 40mm Orion Series anamorphic lens on a Canon C700 FF

1 - Monitoring - The Most Important Step

There are all sorts of guides and tips for anamorphic cinematography, so we won’t got into that here. But before you can engage with that, you have to be able to properly see what you are doing. 

Some monitors can desqueeze anamorphic images on the other end, but most times it is easier to send a desqueezed signal out to begin with. 

The Canon C700 FF shouldered up with anamorphic glass.
The Canon C700 FF shouldered up with anamorphic glass.

To access the standard Anamorphic formats, go to Menu> Monitoring Setup> Anamorphic. This will automatically desqueeze the image in your monitor. 

2 - Desqueeze Ratios - How Much is Too Much?

You must also select the right squeeze ratio for your lens. Most anamorphic lenses are 2x, so the camera will default to that. But some more modern lenses were designed with a 1.3x squeeze to better fit 16x9 digital sensors. If that’s your lens, then simply go to Menu> Monitoring Setup> Desqueeze ratio

Squeezed image captured in camera via a 2x squeezed anamorphic lens.
Squeezed image captured in camera via a 2x squeezed anamorphic lens.

3 - One Last Warning

There are a few situations where the image coming from the camera cannot be desqueezed. In these cases you will definitively need a monitor capable of handling it. When outputting 4K video from the HDMI connector, the C700 FF will not desqueeze for you. Same thing happens during photo playback or when viewing the live image from the camera within the Browser Remote application. The last two are fairly easy to avoid, but definitely beware of the limitations of HDMI monitoring. 


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