the worst thing about the A1

t-h-e-w-h-o

t-h-e-w-h-o

Well-known member
I know some have said this before, but i feel i must rant because the A1's LCD is a pile of garbage. (the viewfinder is great) but the lcd lacks in all ways possible, because the finished product looks NOTHING like it. But i still love the cam. :) Just wondering what everyone else thinks about it aswell.
 
It's certainly one of the weakest points of the design, but consider that you have this and a VF, which the XL-H1 only has a sorta combo unit, which is considerably worse with things like motion smear and actually less sharp...yet I manage with it ok.

Just tweak the LCD settings until you get something that looks approximately like what you see on a calibrated monitor.

As far as I can tell, the only camcorder in this range with a good LCD is the FX1/Z1U, but believe me, the A1's LCD is a big improvement over the H1's EVF/Flip LCD.
 
One benefit of the LCD is that if you turn it around and slightly downward, if you are standing slightly above the camera, you can use it to monitor footage if a 35mm adapter is on the camera.
 
I thought I heard somewhere that you can also follow a 2:35:1 crop with the A1? I read it on another forum I believe, not sure...
 
Tibby said:
One benefit of the LCD is that if you turn it around and slightly downward, if you are standing slightly above the camera, you can use it to monitor footage if a 35mm adapter is on the camera.
Click to expand...
The footage will be right side up (with an adapter) but horizontal orientation will still be reversed.

And yes, the LCD does does display aspect guides if you want to crop in 1:85:1 or 2:35:1
 
FutureDVXUser said:
I thought I heard somewhere that you can also follow a 2:35:1 crop with the A1? I read it on another forum I believe, not sure...
Click to expand...


This is true. I shot my short with 2:35:1 on.
 
the worse thing about the A1 is its underscan image. ( or overscan )

something that rocked about the dvx100b
 
I'm not sure what you mean there - it displays the whole frame, which to me is much better. I used a PD170 in the past and was so frustrated at not seeing the whole picture. When videoing for distribution on computer you see the whole image. And I've found that many LCD projectors are the same nowadays, they show the whole image not a 'cropped' one.

So perhaps you can explain more?
 
The A1 LCD overscans, which means it cuts off a few percent of the image being captured when displayed. You probably didn't notice because the difference is so slight. Normally it's not a problem but you might end up with the tip of a boom mic that you didn't notice. If you have an external monitor that underscans (shows the whole image) you can see how much it cuts off by putting a piece of paper or something at the very edge of the frame and compare the monitor vs the on board LCD.
 
I kinda know what you mean by overscan, but I just wanna see:

So when you shoot your image in 2:35:1... It records the whole thing... But when you get the final result... If you don't crop to 2:35:1... You may get things in the frame you didn't want shown?
 
The LCD must be pretty close, considering that it clearly displays the 1.85 guide lines within the 1.78 screen.
 
Simes, the A1 does not display the entire frame, it cuts off the sides and top and bottom.
 
FutureDVXUser said:
I kinda know what you mean by overscan, but I just wanna see:

So when you shoot your image in 2:35:1... It records the whole thing... But when you get the final result... If you don't crop to 2:35:1... You may get things in the frame you didn't want shown?
Click to expand...

Yea. The A1 actually doesn't shoot 2:35:1. It only gives you an aspect guide overlay over the LCD so that you can frame accordingly. You'll still have to crop out what you want in post.
 
The LCD that comes with any camera is not intended to be dead accurate to what is recorded. That is why people use products like DVrack or Console to really see what is going on to tape or the hard drive. In addition, No LCD that comes stock is color correct either. It is best to get external LCD like a Marshall to really see what is going on or use the above programs mentioned.
 
Oh rats! I hadn't noticed (The top and bottom hardly do, but the sides!). This is now the no. 1 problem for me too.

The really 'funny' thing is that when you put the 'Safe Zone' markers on 90% they basically don't show on the LCD! Can't believe I didn't notice.

Soooo. Will an external monitor show it all? Does it have to be off the component or composite? I'm not keen on DV solutions because of the delay...

Man, I hate being wrong.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top