Best way to get true LCD?

Jay Rodriguez

Jay Rodriguez

Coffee Member
I noticed that after reviewing my footage that my footage is different then what it looked like in the LCD. It's mostly over exposed and the colors aren't as vibrant as what they looked like on set.

What have you guys done to correct this?
 
Yea, the LCD on the A1 sucks, actually all LCD on camera in this price range sucks, but the A1 is among the worst. It makes the scene looks brighter than it is and muted the color greatly.

I would recommend getting a Marshall or DVrack.
 
Hi Jay. It's not a good idea to rely totally on the LCD for setting the exposure. However, it is still a useful guide, provided you set it up beforehand. A simple way is to hook the camera's video output up to a calibrated monitor, and adjust the LCD brightness and contrast settings so that the LCD image matches the monitor as closely as possible. This does not produce perfect settings but it will get you close.

When you shoot with the camera, you have the choice of manual or various auto settings. If you are using one of the AE modes (Tv or Av) and find that the image is consistently overexposed you can use the exposure compensation to prevent it.

Best is to use manual and zebras and adjust to avoid the highlights getting blown out. If this makes the blacks too black you can adjust the black stretch/level/pedestal to compensate. Note that this might not produce a very impressive image when you capture it, but as long as the video information is captured without clipping, you should be able to apply an S-curve in post and get very nice results.
 
Last edited:
Is there one what? An eye piece? There is an eye piece on the A1 but it's pretty dark in my opinion.

I'm going to hook up my field monitor to see if it's any closer to what's actually being recorded.
 
Jay Rodriguez said:
Is there one what? An eye piece? There is an eye piece on the A1 but it's pretty dark in my opinion.

I'm going to hook up my field monitor to see if it's any closer to what's actually being recorded.
Click to expand...

Oh okay. thought the eyepiece might've been a bit more accurate. Maybeh not.
 
If the footage on the LCD comes out brighter than its supposed to, you can't just dim the image on the LCD or something? If you have a hard time with the cam, that means another 500 questions from me if I ever get my hands on this baby... ahhh

But hows the cam overall? Is it worth staying up all night and looking at it in the B&H mag?
 
Definitely need to take the brightness down on the LCD, but zebras are your friend and never trust exposure without them.

Just hook up to a calibrated monitor and try to eyeball the brightness of the LCD enough to roughly match it. Adjust saturation and sharpness too.

The LCD is far from perfect, but there are lots of ways to make it at least reasonably useful.
 
Jay Rodriguez said:
ugh, I'm shooting tomorrow and I'm so freaking nervous about using this camera. I love the A1 but I miss my DVX.
Click to expand...

i feel the same way..
 
If you're not using the zebras, there's NO WAY to know whether you're exposing properly. As Barlow said, zebras are your friend. I'd go so far as to say they're mandatory. You cannot trust an on-camera LCD to deliver accurate exposure information, you have to learn how to use the zebras and always use the zebras.
 
One note on zebras: popular thinking is use 70 for skin tone...unless you're shooting a very light skinned individual, this will usually end up a half stop or more overexposed...I use a setting of 55 on my big camera for using flesh tones, but Canon didn't give us that option so I'll use 100 and use something white to set exposure.
 
Agree with Geoffs point. But, the A1 has an exposure level metre. I find this useful for good overall image results. For example with zebras on the lowes t setting you see that the face is exposing over so you set your iris down a stop, the look of the overall image still may not be good. I usually zoom in on the critical area, set my fstop so the exposure metre is about centre, then zoom back out. Now when I zoom out if I am severely under exposed in the rest of the frame for the image I want, Ill cut down the light in the critical area, then on the opposite side if I zoom out and have parts of the frame over exposed for the type of shot I want Ill get more light on that critical area, and repeat the process over again. This is more an issue on exterior shots I find. Sometimes its just better to move to a better spot thats a little easier to control.

When shooting Indie - even with a calibrated monitor on a very sunny day, with the monitor under a sunshade, you can still have light bouncing around making the monitor difficult to asses. You look out into the sunshine then your eyes are screwed and cant see the monitor well. Im not a huge fan of being tethered, but at the start of the day I usually hookup the macbook pro, adjust exposure to the look I want - eyeballing the zebras and exposure metre, capture 20 seconds then get it inside to have a really close look at the results using FCPs built in scopes. That gives me a fairly solid guide to move quickly for the rest of the day. But generally speaking using the method I first mentioned I have had solid results.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top