Mirrorless Alternative Format

[EinstStein]

With the mirrorless digital camera, two natural alternative formats come to my mind:
The 16:9 movie format and the square 3D format.

The 16:9 format is not new, but where is the square format?

[Johnny_Johnson]

If I understand your question (and I probably don't) - the Panasonic m4/3s offer a square format option.

Cya,
Johnny

[JimAscher]

Excuse my ignorance, but why not just get the maximum image the sensor will allow, then crop to the proportions desired?  Of course, that's assuming you want to end up with a print.  But then, what else would you end up with?   

[Johnny_Johnson]

Hi Jim,

If the sensor is designed such that it can utilize the full image projected by the lens then a square format capture can be larger in the vertical dimension than a crop from a 3x2 capture.  At least one newly announced camera was designed with that in mind but the model escapes me right now.

Later,
Johnny

[JimAscher]

Johnny:  Thanks for the quick response.  What you say, of course, make sense, if the sensor is a square (or even a circle, which I guess is never the case).  In my medium format film days, the 6x6 format was my format of choice, both aesthetically in itself as well as its infinite cropping potential.  Is there really such a digital camera these days with a square sensor?  You seem to have heard of one.  I'd be interested in hearing more.  Thanks again.  Jim (in Seattle)

[Robert Roaldi]

One advantage of a 16x9 format that I have not seen mentioned is that using it to shoot timelapse images gives you footage that's easier to integrate with other HD video content. It saves you the bother of having to figure out at the time of shooting what will need to be cropped later. I wish I had that in my old digicam that I use for the purpose.

[EinstStein]

If my memory is right, Rollei TLR is the first camera using square format. It's probably a result of the difficulty to rotate, ... hence make it square so that you can crop it to portraiture or landscape.
But then many found the beauty of the square format itself. I'm one of them. This is perhaps purely subjective. But once tuned into square format, it's hard to pull out.
So, many that addicted to the square format constantly come to yell for the square format digital camera, native square format, not cropped.

There were much hope for that, since the 35mm format and the derived are limited by the flange distance, which was targetting for 24mm in the short side.   But now, the mirrorless camera does shed some light to it.

[JimAscher]

Another advantage of the square (6x6) Rollei format was that you would get more pictures on a roll of 120 film.  No problem, of course, with digital.