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SmallHD Focus Question


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Hey Guys,

 

Question for you all since SmallHD's support part of their website is no help -

 

I just got a SmallHD focus and while I love the UI and the form factor I noticed an issue. Whenever I send 1080p 23.98 footage to it it always shows at 1080i/59.58 and seems have movement artifacts/aliasing.

 

Just to verify that this is an issue I sent 720p footage to it and it was fine. I am using a canon c300 MKI. Does anyone else have a similar issue with it? Should I return it?

 

Thanks for an advice you can give!

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You may not have it set up right.. very commonly used monitor .. you can use your fingers to quickly expand the frame too.. handy function for focus..

yes i know i used monitors of that kind. it has handy tools, but the screen does not help. i would say never trust the monitor, is only for other people to see. use the viewfinder for better focus pulling.

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yes i know i used monitors of that kind. it has handy tools, but the screen does not help. i would say never trust the monitor, is only for other people to see. use the viewfinder for better focus pulling.

 

 

But sometimes there's no time to get marks.. some dir/DP,s don't work that way anymore .. I would say 99% of FP have monitors now.. wish they had them when I was a focus puller !!

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But sometimes there's no time to get marks.. some dir/DP,s don't work that way anymore .. I would say 99% of FP have monitors now.. wish they had them when I was a focus puller !!

Me too, Thats an excuse it takes 3 seconds to do that, you can do it sloppy or you can do it correctly, is not reliable to measure according to lying monitor, thanks to that monitor i got lots of out of focus shots. but when i used the measuring tape omg no out of focus shots i wonder why ? cinema lenses have measurements for a reason.

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Me too, Thats an excuse it takes 3 seconds to do that, you can do it sloppy or you can do it correctly, is not reliable to measure according to lying monitor, thanks to that monitor i got lots of out of focus shots. but when i used the measuring tape omg no out of focus shots i wonder why ? cinema lenses have measurements for a reason.

 

 

No its not sloppy .. its how some films are shot.. even big budget.. depending on the Dp or the Dir.. a lot of FP can work off monitors and their experience .. keep practicing ..you will get the hang of it..

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  • 5 months later...
On 1/21/2019 at 6:45 PM, Robin R Probyn said:

 

 

No its not sloppy .. its how some films are shot.. even big budget.. depending on the Dp or the Dir.. a lot of FP can work off monitors and their experience .. keep practicing ..you will get the hang of it..

Still is not recommended, we can talk in circles all you want but the reality is that the focus range has a sweet spot especially in a narrow depth of field, if you dont measure it you run the risk of getting it on the soft part of the focus no matter how much practice you might have, you are not a robot to preform the same all the time. monitors are a great tool but  they are not to be trusted with focus even if they have focus assist tools, people that use measuring tape and lasers have consistently preform better focus pulls then monitor watchers.  monitor watcher take so many tries and they take valuable time that could be spent in other shots but for some reason they think is faster just doing it like that instead of spending 5 secs to get the right measurements in the first place.  the numbers on the lens are there for a reason use it !!!!

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As to focus, use the ENG trick; rock through and find it then note where it is if you have time. That's faster than getting the tape out and probably as accurate done carefully.

I'm not an expert on the C300 Mk. I. However, perusing the manual online, I notice that on page 127, in section 6 "External Connections" under the heading "Video Output Configuration by Terminal" there's a table which shows what type of signal the camera will output when set for various recording frame rates. When recording any of the NTSC-centric frame rates, including the mentioned 23.98fps at 1080-line resolution, the camera will always output 1080i59.94. Presumably it is using something equivalent to 3:2 pulldown (a pattern of field duplication) to achieve this and that is the artifact you are seeing. The behaviour of the C300 Mk. I is a little odd. The manual suggests it always outputs 60, 50 or 59.94i video, regardless of the recording frame rate.

The C300 Mk. 2 has more options in this regard but you can at least be reasonably sure that the problems you are seeing are monitoring artifacts, not some sort of problem in the recorded image (but test, anyway!)

And no, the problem posted originally is nothing to do with cables. Cable problems will cause HDMI not to work at all, or to work intermittently, or even, in extremely rare cases, scatter sparkling patterns across the screen. The chances of it magically causing one display mode to be detected as another are microscopic. Anyone prescribing a replacement cable for the described symptoms is probably following some sort of customer service script and has no idea what the actual problem is.

Short version: It's a quirk of the original C300, live with it unless there's a firmware upgrade which gives you more output options. I had a quick look and I don't think there is, but it might be worth checking.

 

P

 

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Hey guys,

A while ago I wound up just replacing the monitor as it was under warranty. It worked fine after the replacement. It was something internal with the unit I had.

Thanks your your help!

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Yeah your right on that, and I've noticed it on all the monitor's I've ever used with that camera. People would ask about the frame rate on the monitor and I would constantly have to tell them it was just what it outputted and they were welcome to check the frame rate on the camera. It was annoying but not a deal breaker. 

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3 hours ago, Ricardo Garza said:

Still is not recommended, we can talk in circles all you want but the reality is that the focus range has a sweet spot especially in a narrow depth of field, if you dont measure it you run the risk of getting it on the soft part of the focus no matter how much practice you might have, you are not a robot to preform the same all the time. monitors are a great tool but  they are not to be trusted with focus even if they have focus assist tools, people that use measuring tape and lasers have consistently preform better focus pulls then monitor watchers.  monitor watcher take so many tries and they take valuable time that could be spent in other shots but for some reason they think is faster just doing it like that instead of spending 5 secs to get the right measurements in the first place.  the numbers on the lens are there for a reason use it !!!!

Sure .. but there are some films or scenes that are say hand held and running around and there is no way to measure everything.. a lot of directors don't like to spend time getting tons of focus marks .. Im not saying that's good .. but thats when the good FP earn their pay .. they can pull focus on the fly .. even before there were small monitors for them.. and actually in action stuff I think its better to have some finding focus and not everything pin sharp the whole way .. within reason of course !

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