On Tue, 15 Feb 2000 10:11:28 -0900, "mr.art" <mr.### [at] gcinet> wrote:

>1) it is the letterbox ratio used in movies.

Just for trivia's sake, I thought I would mention a few things I
learned while researching film formats for the IMP:

Most new movies are actually filmed in "Academy Format" which has an
aspect ratio of about 1.37:1 Movies made on 16mm film also share this
aspect ratio. There are also some movies being filmed in Panavision,
which has an aspect ratio of about 2.35:1 I won't even get into the
various IMAX formats, as most people consider those special cases.

The 16x9 letterbox format was chosen as a compromise format for wide
screen TV's. Movies aren't really shot in this format, they just get
cropped to it.

Personally, I render many of my images with a 3:2 aspect ratio, which
is the same aspect ratio used in 35mm film, for still photography. I
also use other ratios, including various vertical formats, square
images, and different horizontal formats. The POV-Ray default ratio of
4:3 happens to be one of my least favorite ratios to work with.

for what it's worth...
Glen Berry

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