starcentral
Veteran
Testing my new BlackMagic Video Assist 5" HD 1920x1080 monitor / recorder with the F55. So far so good! Wanted it for the monitor but also a great way to get ProRes super duper cheap.
Quick super fast Review: The BMVA is an absolutely excellent buy at only $495. It's razor sharp. I could easily work off it to pull focus and it has a 1:1 zoom which is great. I couldn't find any way to "pan around" and not sure if you can. I need to read the manual.
Some users reported a tint on their monitor, ie. green. I had absolutely no coloured tint on my image compared to Sony OLED VF or playing back the ProRes file later on my computer. T/C Run trigger works flawlessly. I recorded ProRes 422 HQ to a 64GB SanDisk 95/Mbs Class 3 card.
The monitor does tends to be a little on the "hot" side of things. To match my OLED and the BMVA monitor I used the following monitor settings on the BMVA: Brightness 50%, Contrast 10%, Saturation 50%. If you don't lower your contrast the monitor blows highlights really early and fast!
Between my monitor zebra stripes and my F55 zebra stripes there was a discrepancy between 6-10% IRE. I matched the stripes on both by setting the camera to stripe at 90% IRE, and the BMVA to stripe at 80%. This essentially means that if you used the BMVA stripes to set your exposure, your actual recording will be about 1 stop brighter. When I brought the footage into Davinci Resolve, my white target was in fact hitting 90% IRE on the waveform monitor. This is something you should test in advance of using this unit.
Overall real happy and impressed.
Pros: price, high definition screen resolution, ProRes HD recorder, can be powered with Canon E6 batteries so less cabling required.
Cons: only has histogram and zebras as exposure tools, zebras are not accurate, image is hot by default and may show highlights as blown.
Quick super fast Review: The BMVA is an absolutely excellent buy at only $495. It's razor sharp. I could easily work off it to pull focus and it has a 1:1 zoom which is great. I couldn't find any way to "pan around" and not sure if you can. I need to read the manual.
Some users reported a tint on their monitor, ie. green. I had absolutely no coloured tint on my image compared to Sony OLED VF or playing back the ProRes file later on my computer. T/C Run trigger works flawlessly. I recorded ProRes 422 HQ to a 64GB SanDisk 95/Mbs Class 3 card.
The monitor does tends to be a little on the "hot" side of things. To match my OLED and the BMVA monitor I used the following monitor settings on the BMVA: Brightness 50%, Contrast 10%, Saturation 50%. If you don't lower your contrast the monitor blows highlights really early and fast!
Between my monitor zebra stripes and my F55 zebra stripes there was a discrepancy between 6-10% IRE. I matched the stripes on both by setting the camera to stripe at 90% IRE, and the BMVA to stripe at 80%. This essentially means that if you used the BMVA stripes to set your exposure, your actual recording will be about 1 stop brighter. When I brought the footage into Davinci Resolve, my white target was in fact hitting 90% IRE on the waveform monitor. This is something you should test in advance of using this unit.
Overall real happy and impressed.
Pros: price, high definition screen resolution, ProRes HD recorder, can be powered with Canon E6 batteries so less cabling required.
Cons: only has histogram and zebras as exposure tools, zebras are not accurate, image is hot by default and may show highlights as blown.
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