Calibrate Viewscreen

Moog

Moog

Well-known member
Hi guys,

I did a shoot last week, which yeilded strange fruit. All of my footage was far, far darker than I expected.

It all looked reasonable on the viewscreen at the time, but the outouts are not good.

(i know, i know I should have had an external monitor, but it just wasn't to be :cheesy: )

I've never really noticed that much of a problem on other shoots, but then again, most other shoots have been in brighter situations. This room was very dark, especially the corner I had my cam in. We had a reasonable amount of light on the subjects - or at least that's what i thought from the viewscreen.

SO... my question is this - should I have / Can I calibrate my viewscreen / EVF to give a true display in different shooting situations?

How can I avoid this problem again.
We may be able to salvage enough footage in post - but of course, it's not preferable.

(while I'm here -- anyone know a really good noise reduction technique?? :undecided )


cheers you lovely lot

moog
 
the most standard way is to carry a monitor with a vectorscope and waveform and also to use your in camera zebras. Relying on the LCD or EVF alone to judge exposure is not always accurate enough.

Noah
 
True, that would be ideal, but when shooting lo / no budget, that never really seems to be an option :(
 
I was mailing with Neat Video earlier today - they're working on a mac version at the moment - looks like a nice bit of software, but dosen't help me at the moment.
cheers though
 
Moog said:
True, that would be ideal, but when shooting lo / no budget, that never really seems to be an option :(
Click to expand...

Zebras and three pieces of card cost next to nothing.

You have the Zebras in your camera

White Card - necessary
Grey Card - necessary
Black Card - optional
 
Cheers shooter,
That's stuff I always carry, and had set up my white (and black) ballance and was indeed using my zebras.

The problem I had was that the LCD screen looked good, but the output looked darker than it did at the time.
 
I think you might want to check the setup option in the menu and make sure its set to 0 IRE ? if I remember correctly.

If you check the manuel one of those options actually affects the on board LCD. If you set it to 7.5 IRE it raises the blacks on your LCD, but not to the P2 card.

Also, you might want to shoot with the master ped set to 0 or more and crush the blacks later.
 
Last edited:
Jimmy Moss said:
I think you might want to check the setup option in the menu and make sure its set to 0 IRE ? if I remember correctly.

If you check the manuel one of those options actually affects the on board LCD. If you set it to 7.5 IRE it raises the blacks on your LCD, but not to the P2 card.

Also, you might want to shoot with the master ped set to 0 or more and crush the blacks later.
Click to expand...

exactly, the hvx is set up to send out an analog signal (to the lcd in this case) greater (7.5 IRE) than it is actually recording. Something to do with a broadcast signal standard. you need to turn that off if it is throwing you off, BUT you should be riding your zebras and the market for exposure regardless.
 
You can always color correct your footage in whatever NLE you are editing with.

But then again, you need that pesky HD monitor and HD card to get the image to the HD monitor. Shooting and editing HD ain't cheap.
 
Another way to get a reasonable exposure on a budget with no external monitor is to turn the "Marker" on in the camera. It is like a spot meter that gives you a percentage readout.
 
Make sure you're looking at the LCD straight on. If it's tilted away at the top you'll see a brighter, less contrasty image than you're actually getting. Most LCDs have this issue.

Also, if by any chance you're using FCP, the preview screens in it are notoriously dark - much darker than actual output will be. A monitor solution like the Matrox MXO is the answer there.
 
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