budget monitor solutions.

[ben jones]

Hey all.

 

Im shooting an extreemly short film this weekend which involves candle light and maybe some practical flouros. I am using a canon XM2 wide open at 1/50 with 0db gain.

 

Its extremely difficult to see anything both through the colour viewfinder anf the flip out TFT when conducting tests using similar lighting conditions, however I found that using a standard cheap tube television provided a truer image. Infact I was quite suprised to see how much detail the onboard monitors seem to ignore!

 

Is this my best option? (the production has no budget) If I do use this monitoring method, then should there be any setup considerations? I had the brighness and contrast set at 0 or 50% if anyone is interested.

 

thankyee

 

Ben.

[Bernhard Zitz]

I found that no TV-set looks like another, some do weird stuff in the dynamic, others even distort the picture around bright spots. If your TV provides a better picture than the display on the cam why not...if you hardly can see anything trough the viewfinder, either it's not calibrated properly or you're underexposing.

 

If you have a portable computer with FCP you can plug the cam via firewire and use the Video Scopes in FCP to see what really happens...

 

regards, Bernhard

[ben jones]

Im not sure that you can calibrate the monitor to any degree on the XM2. I'll drag myself through the menus.

Thanks for the advice,

 

regards, Benjamin

[Hal Smith]

Is this my best option? (the production has no budget) If I do use this monitoring method, then should there be any setup considerations? I had the brighness and contrast set at 0 or 50% if anyone is interested.

 

thankyee

 

Ben.

 

Standard definition waveform monitors and vectorscopes have got pretty cheap ( I scored a good working Tektronix 520A vectorscope for $50). Look up a video engineer and ask their opinion. With that type of gear on hand you can really stay between the ditches when shooting video.

 

I've started to use a waveform monitor on the occasional theatrical production archival tape I shoot with my Sony TRV-30. I no longer have to worry if I've got detail in the blacks or whether or not my monitor(s) are lying to me with respect to blowing out the highlights. It becomes a film shooting environment that way, my on-board monitor is for framing only and my waveform monitor is for judging my exposure.

[ben jones]

thanks for the advise Hal.

 

Ill look into it - hopefully in time for a short im photographing in may! in the mean time, a t.v I shall use!

 

regards, benjamin.

[John Pytlak RIP]

A calibrated waveform monitor is certainly the most objective way to judge your video signal so you can see if you are losing any detail and getting crushed blacks or clipped whites. Very difficult to maintain a controlled viewing environment on location, so even a high-end calibrated picture monitor may lead you astray.