48mp images only available in 4:3 ratio?

[Nonprophet]

Any idea why we're only allowed to take 48mp images in 4:3 while we can take 12mp images in the far more popular 16:9 ratio?

 

[sar104]

It's 4:3 sensor - there are not 48 MP available if you only use 16:9 of the sensor area. In any case, if you shoot 4:3 it is trivial to crop to 16:9.

 

[mavicn00b]

16:9 reduces 12MP to 8MP