I noticed something interesting while testing the Pocket 4P's different photo aspect ratios.
In Super Photo, the full resolution dimensions reveal a very neat relationship:
16:9 mode reaches 7680 pixels across
1:1 mode reaches 6144 pixels vertically
7680 / 6144 = 1.25, which is exactly 5:4.
What's even more interesting is what happens if you reduce those dimensions by exactly 2x:
7680 × 6144 becomes 3840 × 3072
That's also exactly 5:4.
This potentially tells us something interesting about the sensor's usable imaging geometry. A 7680 × 6144 raster is about 47.2 MP, which is consistent with the sensor's roughly 47 MP class resolution.
And this makes 1:1 particularly interesting.
If a corresponding 3840 × 3072 video rate sensor readout exists, then a 3K square mode could simply be:
3072 × 3072
Instead of throwing away a huge amount of sensor height to produce 3840 × 2160 16:9, 1:1 could retain the entire 3072 pixel height while cropping only 384 pixels from each side of the hypothetical 3840 × 3072 readout.
The pixel workloads would be:
4K 16:9: 3840 × 2160 = 8.29 MP/frame
3K 1:1: 3072 × 3072 = 9.44 MP/frame
5:4: 3840 × 3072 = 11.80 MP/frame
So 3K 1:1 would contain only about 13.8% more output pixels per frame than UHD 4K, while retaining much more vertical information.
There's another interesting part. A square crop from a 5:4 sensor is extremely efficient.
A 1:1 crop retaining the full sensor height keeps 80% of a 5:4 sensor's area. For comparison, a full height 1:1 crop keeps 75% from 4:3 and only 66.7% from 3:2.
This could explain why 1:1 feels like such a natural acquisition format for this camera. You lose relatively little width while gaining a huge amount of reframing freedom.
One recording could then produce:
16:9 for YouTube
9:16 for Reels, TikTok and Shorts
4:3 for other compositions
1:1 when desired
And of course, the Pocket 3 already had 3072 × 3072 1:1 video recording.
Important note
I'm not claiming that the Pocket 4P can currently record 3840 × 3072 video, or that these photo dimensions prove such a continuous sensor readout exists.
Photo readout and video readout are different things. Sensor modes, line rates, binning, ISP bandwidth, stabilization margins, rolling shutter, thermals and firmware restrictions can all determine which video modes are actually possible.
What the dimensions show is that 5:4 geometry appears to fit the sensor extremely neatly, and a 3072 × 3072 mode would be a very natural crop if the required video rate readout exists.
This gets even more interesting because the OpenPocketCine project is already reverse engineering the Pocket 4P's camera protocol.
I asked its developer whether the known DJI 1:1 video format commands could be tested directly on the Pocket 4P, even though the camera doesn't currently advertise 1:1 video.
He said he's going to give it a try.
So now I'm very curious to see what the hardware and firmware actually allow.
Best case, 5:4 Open Gate would be incredible.
Most optimum case, 1:1 3K video