Opinions of BT-LH900A?

O

Overlook

Active member
I want a portable field monitor that tells me exactly what I'm getting. I want to see how sharp and how focused my image is or isn't. Color and exposure are important too but secondary for me because I am happy with the exposure tools and white balancing tools in the camera. I am shooting a documentary, not products.

I want to monitor in the field and I want something to look at my images later from FCP on my Powerbook in a motel room and know exactly what I have or don't have.

I want to eliminate issues of resampling. I want to know what I have, or don't have.

What do people think about the 8.4" Panasonic BT-LH900A?

One issue I don't understand well is that it seems that any and all monitors are going to resample. The BT-LH900 has 1024 x 768 dots (pixels?). This does not match 720 or 1080. So, to what degree does resampling and uncertainty about exactly what I have on my P2 card re-enter the monitoring process.

I'm shooting a doc so I don't have to prove to a nervous client exactly how the water beads on a cold beer bottle look, but I have to prove to a nervous doc cameraman, me, as best as I can in the field what I'm getting.

Also, once I have a reliable monitor to use in the motel room, I will gain understanding of what I'm getting with the in camera tools. I just need something portable to check the process at some point.

There are cheaper ways to go, like the Marshall, I'm sure but I don't think they are much better than the on camera screen. Is the BT-LH900 much better than the Marshall for questions of focus and sharpness. I know the BT-LH900 has a waveform monitor but that is secondary to me.

Thank you.
 
You have probably said why and maybe I missed it, but at those numbers why aren't you looking at the BT-LH1700W?
 
Overlook said:
. . . Also, once I have a reliable monitor to use in the motel room, I will gain understanding of what I'm getting with the in camera tools. I just need something portable to check the process at some point.
Click to expand...

Motel room huh?

Mmmmmm . . . just what kind of doc is it you are shooting anyway?

;-)
 
I've used both the 8.4" and 17".
My opinion is to stick with the 17". It's alot brighter (at least the one I used)
and alot easier to judge color and focus.
 
I just ordered the 900a, esperman is right, it's not as bright but it is plenty high def, much more than the Marshal. Scaling is not an issue with a monitor at this price. and the waveform makes it an ideal tool for acurate exposure determination as well. As far as the brighness issue you have to give up something for size and quality and a good hoodman will make this a non issue.

The only issue I can see is playing back off a laptop, you'll need either a Matrox MXO or similar device to get HD-SDI from the DVI port to the monitor. The hvx will not pass HD through firewire. There is a small adapter from DVI to component HD made by ATI but you would have to test it to see if it f&%$ed up the image too much to be useable.
 
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