That LCD?????

New_Zealand

New_Zealand

Veteran
I would look at my footage on the 5d mk3 LCD and think WOW that really looks good but that all changes when I download it onto my laptop and look at it and go hmmmmm that doesn't look that great!!!! I wonder if it got to be my laptop screen? Or what you see on the Camera LCD isn't what you are really recording? Any thoughts or feedback?
 
The smaller the image, the better it's going to look. It's going to look like it's in focus when it may not be, it's going to have more contrast and a "richer" feel. But yeah, I've had the same experience. That screen tells some lies. Usually I can fix in color correction.
 
You are right about focus. I have look at a scene and said it look like it is in good focus and after downloading the footage it is out of focus... I'm going to attach a monitor to the rig so hopefully that will help.
 
Here is why is looks better on the Camera LCD:

-Pixel density is more on the LCD than on a standard monitor (usually only 72DPI on a monitor)
-Smaller is more forgiving for focus
-The LCD on canon DSLRs are glass/glossy screens. You monitor might be anti-reflective and matte which causes loss of vibrancy and sharpness
-You cameras LCDs brightness might be set too high. By defualt the brightness on canon DSLRs are usually one notch to high. Reason is because it makes the image look brighter and more impressive. Problem is that when you look at it in post, you realize you were underexposed. Always use the grayscale chart to calibrate the brightness of your camera LCD.
 
I have the LCD set at 4 for brightness. Avatar; This is one of my Zombies. I spent seven weeks in NZ filming a Zombie film and now heading up to Oregon next week to film my second Zombie film. I have one more to go before it is wrap up and I move onto something different.
 
New_Zealand said:
I would look at my footage on the 5d mk3 LCD and think WOW that really looks good but that all changes when I download it onto my laptop and look at it and go hmmmmm that doesn't look that great!!!! I wonder if it got to be my laptop screen? Or what you see on the Camera LCD isn't what you are really recording? Any thoughts or feedback?
Click to expand...

It's kinda like flying by instrumentation or flying by sight. Sometimes the horizon looks upside down. When I shoot videos I turn down the brightness on the LCD to conserve power and also to not be deceived by the the image I see on the LCD. You must get ML and fly by instrumentation, histogram, waveform etc. don't let the monitor and your lying eyes deceive you.
 
Thanks Michael good point. Hey Justin you look great as a Zombie :-) What web series is it?

Here are two of our Zombies from the film;



 
There will always be problems when relying on the dslr lcd screen for shooting video. To fix this, one of my best investments in camera gear has been an lcd viewfinder. The one I have is the swivi for hd dslr. It runs about $100 but you can find much cheaper versions on Amazon and eBay.

Looking through the lcd viewfinder, use your camera's magnification button to zoom in on your subject and get the focus you need. Of course, this also depends on your depth of field, which depends on your f-stop and other things... But that is best saved for another thread.

Anyway, and lcd viewfinder is one of the best (and cheapest) solutions for you when shooting with a DSLR. Your results will improve immensely.
 
David LOL!

And yes the little screen is very high density and small, when downscaling any image to that size it looks great. And of course the near-focus misses appear as perfect-focus ones. High brightness and high-end screen technology (vs Laptops) is a factor too.

Regarding brightness, I leave at the highest setting to be viewable in all conditions easily. I use the waveform/histogram to judge exposure not the LCD brightness.
 
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