Monitoring the HVX

[sodotoguwangus]

Yesterday, I went out in the woods with my HVX to do some test shots for an ucoming feature I'm gonna shoot this summer. It was late in the evening, and the whole time I was shooting all I could think was "man this footage is gonna turn out dark and grainy"....

Couple hours later I get home and view the footage on my TV. Surprise, surprise! The footage wasn't dark and grainy. It was the complete opposite. It was actually a little over-exposed.

Hmmm...

And the colors where way off.

I'm completely baffled!

Which brings me to my question:

How the hell do you accurately moniter what you are shooting with the HVX? The viewfinder and LCD just don't cut it. In fact, they are so innacurate that it hurts.

I've read about external field monitors, but I thought those were primarily for focusing. I can focus just fine. No problems there. It's the exposure and color that I'm having issues with. Anyone else have this problem?

Are monitors such as the marshall good for color and exposure?

Any suggestions?

 

[nsoltz]

I guess in part the question is how portable a field monitor you want. The Panasonic LH1700 isn't all that cumbersome and with its built-in waveform monitor, it definitely has the ability to set exposure. I know someone with a Varicam who packs up his LH1700 for field use and then brings it back to the studio to monitor while editing.

Ned Soltz

 

[taubkin]

People usually use propperly calibrated field monitors and/or field waveform monitors, that displays a graphical representation of your luminance values of your scene, showing what is under/over exposed, and by how much. Without spending all the money and carring around heavy and cumbersome equipment, you should set your exposure using your zebras and the marker. That would be "viewfinder proof", although a little more limited, comparing with the waveform.

Another thing that is nice to do is to calibrate your LCD and EVF to a corrected monitor. You can do that going to a rental shop, or anywhere you could have acess to one. My DVX is callibrated to a CRT monitor, and although the color of those LCDs is hard to change, I have a contrast/brightness situation, that is very close to the true.

Also, make sure your TV is callibrated to your color bars, before saying the colors are way off, it may be the TVs fault. (There are several guides on the internet, and probably around the forum as well...)

 

[Barry_Green]

If you don't have a monitor, the first thing to do is calibrate your LCD (as best as possible) to the color bar generator. That'll get you in the ballpark (although it really depends on your viewing angle to the LCD too... so calibrate the VF as well, there's a lot more limited viewing angle to the LCD).

Then use your zebras and your marker. That's what they're there for -- to tell you the exposure values of your footage.

 

[Green Hornet]

Untill I got my LCD set up properly, my footage was dark and ugly with noise.

Now it isn't. For me, that made all the difference in the world.
I adjusted my LCD to look like the footage on the crt.

From the factory, my LDC looked beautiful, but the footage looked grainy, dark and noisy. I made my LCD look like the footage, and now i expose to just below the zebras, and bring in my shadows to be no more than 3 stops below my camera exposure when possible.

 

[sodotoguwangus]

If you don't have a monitor, the first thing to do is calibrate your LCD (as best as possible) to the color bar generator. That'll get you in the ballpark (although it really depends on your viewing angle to the LCD too... so calibrate the VF as well, there's a lot more limited viewing angle to the LCD)..

How do you calibrate the LCD to a color bar generator? Can you give me specific steps to take?

Then use your zebras and your marker. That's what they're there for -- to tell you the exposure values of your footage.

I know what zebras are, but what is a marker?

 

[Barry_Green]

How do you calibrate the LCD to a color bar generator? Can you give me specific steps to take?

http://www.videouniversity.com/tvbars2.shtml is one sample article that explains the process.

I know what zebras are, but what is a marker?

The marker is a built-in spotmeter, sort of a spot-waveform monitor. It tells you the brightness level of whatever's in the small box in the middle of the screen.