ben jones Posted March 27, 2006 Share Posted March 27, 2006 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bernhard Zitz Posted March 27, 2006 Share Posted March 27, 2006 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 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ben jones Posted March 28, 2006 Author Share Posted March 28, 2006 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 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member Hal Smith Posted March 28, 2006 Premium Member Share Posted March 28, 2006 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ben jones Posted March 29, 2006 Author Share Posted March 29, 2006 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member John Pytlak RIP Posted March 29, 2006 Premium Member Share Posted March 29, 2006 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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