Help with aspect ratios

4:3 is the new standard. If you shoot in Raw, then the aspect ration will look like 3:2 on the screen for example. The raw image will still be in 4:3. That's full sensor.

 

yeah keep in mind 4:3 is the only true aspec ratio the (current) olympus's support. All other ratios are just crops off the 4:3 image. I believe, for the best quality, you should always just shoot 4:3, if you want another ratio then just crop it afterwards to fit what ever you want.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspect_ratio_(image)

explains it all, along with good examples of how things would 'look'.

The 'native' mode of all 4/3 cameras, is 4:3.....funny that...

 

Historically there have been several formats like 35mm format, medium format and large format to mention the most important ones. 35mm format has always had the aspect ratio 3:2, while for medium format and large format aspect ratios such as 4:3, 5:4, 6:7 and 1:1 are very common. The native aspect ratio of the Olympus E-PL1 is 4:3.

Today we can choose the aspect ratio on some cameras, which can be very interesting, because there is no single aspect ratio which is best for all subjects we want to photograph.

 

generally there is no single match to 'standard sized printing papers' because there are so many sizes!

4:3 is a match to 8x6, 12x9, 16x12 20x15

none of the 'supported' aspect ratios is a match for 10x8 which was common to MF in the 'old days'!

the advice to just shoot in 43 and take it from there is certainly the most sound - unless you just want to print loads of 6x4s...in which case 3:2 is your friend.

one of the biggest drives to this option is for TV or LCD display purposes - when you just want to plug the camera into a display and show the output direct. Hence 16-9. This falls over a bit if you turn the camera to shoot in portrait !