C100: Limitations With External Display (DP4).

E

Erick Stoll

Member
I just purchased a smallHD DP4 for use on top of my Canon C100. I'm mostly a run and gun hand-held doc shooter, and with the c100s built-in display on the back of the camera, I wasn't able to brace the camera against my body and the resulting footage was sloppier and shakier than I'd like. My hope was that with the monitor at the front of the camera, I could just shut the back display and brace the camera against my body. But I'm running into some problems that might render the DP4 useless for me.

- I can't figure out how to display the camera's waveform monitor on the DP4. All of the other displays show up, but when I toggle the waveform monitor, the bottom right of the display just goes blank (like when using the EVF). Unfortunately, the DP4 doesn't have a waveform monitor either, only false color, which really isn't useful for the way I shoot.

- Focus magnification doesn't appear to work.

- My final problem is that I often like to toggle off and on the on-screen displays; when I'm really into a scene or a shot it's nice to get all that junk out of the way with the touch of a button. Unfortunately, when the built-in display is closed, it blocks the button that allows you to toggle the display. As far as I can tell, there is no way to remap this function to the other buttons.

Anyone have any suggestions for these three issues? Thanks.
 
I have a C300 and the camera's internally generated waveform, focus mag and I believe peaking are NOT output to external displays, they are only visible on the camera VF and LCD. I would assume the C100 is exactly the same.
 
Unfortunately all the issues you have aren't fixable. If you need those tools than you will have to get a monitor that will give you them independently from the C100. I too wish the waveform and magnification would pass through with HDMI.
 
I run an Alphatron EVF on my C300 most of the time. It will give you pretty much everything you want and more. Waveform(displayed multiple ways), vectorscope, peaking/"focus-in-red(selectable colors, actually), selectable/adjustable safety lines, B&W, blue only, etc. And the eyepiece/diopter flips up so you can view the 3.5" panel directly if you need to.

http://www.alphatron.tv/evf.html
 
Thanks for your responses... this is pretty disappointing, I think I'm gonna return the display and replace it with nothing. The Alphatron looks great, but I really can't justify the cost, I'm gonna just have to live with the built in display and EVF.

Can anyone propose a reason for these limitations? Is this just a stupid oversight on Canon's behalf, or do they have a motivation for excluding these functions through the HDMI? Firmware update please!
 
If you're looking for a little more stability and a better view of what you're shooting, have you considered a loupe for the LCD screen? I picked up the LCDVF-BM and have really been liking it. Zacuto also makes one.
Tip for the LCDVF…to keep from having to hold the camera all the way up at eye level you can make a wedge that you can velcro to the back of the LCD. This will keep the screen at a slight angle while allowing you to apply a little bit of pressure without it closing back up. I made mine out of some cardboard and gaffers tape.
 
I have a Zacuto Target Shooter for the C100. I did not buy it at retail price. I find it very useful for bracing the C100 against the body and still using the screen. I used to have a DP4 and sold it because of all of the issues you mentioned. The DP4, however, does have false color and peaking.
 
Erick Stoll said:
this is pretty disappointing, I think I'm gonna return the display and replace it with nothing.
Click to expand...

On the other hand... Ninja Blade: 1280x720 400nit monitor, can be calibrated, shows WFM and vectorscope in different ways (full screen, bottom, corner) along with peaking (optionally in mono), false colour, etc. Small, lightweight, runs all day on an NP-F970, or just use a couple of little flatties (NP-F570) that one seems to collect.

For that, it goes in my C100 kit bag - but it turns out that it's also a very useful recorder that creates very useful metadata that (egad!) survives the trop into FCPX!

I bought mine only last week, and it's already saved quite a bit of bacon. My AC7 will become more of a 'Director's monitor'.
 
Matt, I know it's early days, but is the new Ninja a worthy alternative to the AC7? Can you judge focus quickly and easily? Can you see yourself ever needing the AC7 in place of the Ninja when shooting?

I'm considering both of these units. I don't work with other directors, but do need one monitor that will give me a bigger picture of what I'm recording - and near-as-dammit colour accurate if poss. ProRes recorder's a bonus, but not absolutely necessary - in other words, I'd rather get the right monitor, over external recording function.

Cheers,

Ben.
 
Ben, the one thing I've learned about buying kit is that it's not just about specifications - it's about whether it's going to be with you when you need it.

For me, I positively absolutely MUST have something with me that lets me know what the picture is going to look like in FCPX. The LCD panel is just too frightening to rely on and silly stuff like white-set is such a bloody pain if you can't do it properly (Sonys have a sort of environmental white set thing, Canons need to be lead by the nose to where your subject is, and then the frame filled with a white or grey card, and no - dialling in Kelvin is risky if you use the internal LCD, so that's why a Ninja Blade is really useful).

I would not want to lose my AC7 - it tells me what I will see in the edit, and I can righteously hand it over to someone and say 'how do you love my picture?' - unless, of course, I'm shooting C-Log. When I'm doing long days of conference record, my AC7 will sit by the camera and allow me to check focus as some guy wanders up and down a stage and I fret over tweaking the focus 5 degrees that way, 5 degrees this way.

But I wanted it on all my shoots and quite frankly it's a big sucker. It's like attaching a tea tray to your travel kettle. And it doesn't take Sony batts kindly (small gripe, SmallHD don't like NP-Fs prefer Canons and offer a twiddly B&H DIY solution that involves drilling, but just irritates me having invested so much in NP-F batts).

So.. yes... sorry. It is simply gorgeous to have both. If I didn't have the AC7, if I had not experienced the AC7, the Ninja Blade would be sliced bread. I have an AC7, you know what it looks like, it is a lovely thing to own. Personally, I would go for the Ninja Blade first, accepting the inevitability of owning an AC7 or similar. The AC7 punches in for focus, the Blade does not. But I'm rapidly finding out that it's lovely to drive the C100 internal screen in mono+peaking in magnify mode, whilst the Ninja tells me what it looks like plus adding metadata. That's kinda compelling for me.

FWIW, if Kickstarter announced somebody making a sort of loupe for a Ninja Blade (and a clip on plastic guard for that matter), I'd sign up in a heartbeat.
 
Thanks Matt.

I'm often fighting the urge to buy more gear. You know how it is - agility vs robust redundancy etc. But I've had a couple of moments recently - interviews on tight schedules - after which I thought a larger screen might have helped me in a hurry, especially with getting the camera height/eyeline just right.

Did you consider a TV Logic with a 1080 resolution? The thing that most puts me off about Small HD is the lack of UK support - especially in light of Erik's recent post about his DP6 and the subsequent replies.

Ben.
 
Using the C100 LCD in magnification and the Ninja Blade as your main monitor works brilliantly when shooting on sticks. I'm really enjoying the IQ on the Ninja Blade. I just left it in magnified and used the mini joy stick to see around the frame checking focus.
 
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