Difficult DP question

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someday

Well-known member
Let's start from the beginning:
Every camera has a latitude, a white do black ratiom (i don't know what's the latitude of the HVX200)
So, i suppose that you can get the best from the camera if your set has the same dynamic range as the camera, because if the white to black ratio of the set is lower than the camera,'s latitude you will use fewer bits than the camera is able to capture, and if you stretch them in post, the dynamic range is just stretched, making the picture even worse.
Again if the set dynamic range is larger than the camera is able to capture, you will lose image details.

So the question is:
How the he..aven can i calculate the wattage needed to have a set latitude that is similar to the camera latitude???

Thank you very much guys!



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Huh ?

The first thing that comes to my mind is having enough light on set for your camera to pick-up. Right ?

Give the camera enough sensor information and then bring the levels down in post.
 
I'm just guessing here... but I'm not sure that you can create in life what the camera "sees" on the sensor. Well, maybe you can, but it doesn't seem that it would be worth it. The wattage wouldn't seem to matter so much though. With a large or small amount of light, the human eye will still have a very large dynamic range. My point is that the range of light on the set will always be larger.

The "guide" for this would be zebra bars and a good monitor that can display a dynamic range that is similar to or better than the camera.
 
You're asking how to light the scene to take maximum advantage of your camera's latitude capabilities? That's what you'd use a waveform monitor for -- so you can get an instant image of how bright is bright, and how dark is dark, related to how your particular camera is rendering the image.

The way to do it on a film set would be to use a light meter, but with video it's insanely faster and more accurate to just look at the waveform monitor. If you know the basic latitude of your camera you can have the gaffer rough together the scene with a light meter, but nothing beats looking at a waveform monitor to know what you're actually getting.
 
Barry_Green said:
You're asking how to light the scene to take maximum advantage of your camera's latitude capabilities? That's what you'd use a waveform monitor for -- so you can get an instant image of how bright is bright, and how dark is dark, related to how your particular camera is rendering the image.

The way to do it on a film set would be to use a light meter, but with video it's insanely faster and more accurate to just look at the waveform monitor. If you know the basic latitude of your camera you can have the gaffer rough together the scene with a light meter, but nothing beats looking at a waveform monitor to know what you're actually getting.
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Thanks Barry,
you always have the solving answer. Great idea!


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Panny's BTLH80W has waveform built into its features at $2200. I don't know of any other HD monitors that have it at a lower price point.

Though I'm not sure it can take the place of a dedicated waveform/vectorscope monitor.
 
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someday said:
Is it possible directly in FCP or another OS X software?

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Avid Media Composer has a waveform monitor and vectorscope built into it's video input tool.
I don't use FCP, so I don't know about that, but I would have thought it somewhat likely.
 
yes, you can use fcp on a laptop as a waveform monitor or you could use DV Rack (or whatever adobe is calling it now). There's also scopebox which is incredibly cheap.

If you're going to drop cash on one, i feel the best use off the money is to pick up a Panasonic HD monitor, which has scopesbuilt into it for around the same price as a standalone waveform monitor.
 
DV Rack/OnLocation has a waveform monitor that's a very good match for a dedicated waveform. I'm sure there are others like ScopeBox. The Panasonic line of monitors and the P2 Gear all have waveforms built into them too; I think the DV Rack waveform is a lot better than the built-in one in the monitors, but hey, the monitor one is far better than none.

The ultimate no-budget solution is to get aggressive with the "marker" function in the DVX/HVX/HPX500. The marker is a sort of does-the-same-job type of thing as the waveform monitor, in that you can point the marker at any section of the frame and get a brightness readout from 0 to 99. It's nowhere near as convenient as having a real waveform monitor (or accurate simulation of a waveform monitor!) but hey, it's free...
 
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