I think Hugh's talking about calibrating an external monitor to use instead of an on-camera LCD.

Alex
There is no on camera LCD just the 180k viewfinder. There's only so much that you can expect from a .7 inch LCD viewfinder , that's why people use a production monitor.

Alex, you cannot calibrate the LCD flipout monitor on prosumer cameras, and LCD monitors have different gamma than a real CRT monitor. You should not make critical lighting judgments based on a flip-out LCD.

Actually, though the procedure described in Graff's article is the correct procedure, it doesn't QUITE work for prosumer cameras, which do not add setup. The SMPTE bars are intended to work with setup (pedestal) added. The XL1s, GL2, etc. do not add setup to the output signal and display black as 0 IRE rather than 7.5 IRE. A wrist slap all round. To make matters worse, Sony added a setup control on the VX2000, but did it the wrong way -- recording the setup to tape rather than adding it to analog otuput. Haven't ahd a chance to see if they fixed this on the new version.

A "fudge" for calibrating monitors with non-setup camcorders is at:

http://www.greatdv.com/video/smptebars2.htm

Hugh, I don't understand why you don't calibrate the color. It ain't that hard and you can run into silly problems if it's off to far.

Nice site John. Loads of good reading.
I've bookmarked it and included it in my sites for newbies file.

I didn't think you could (with accuracy), that's why I asked for clarification. The attachable 4 inch LCDs seem to be growing in popularity, I thought maybe this is what he was using. I made a big assumption, oops!

Well, you guys convinced me to buy a pro monitor and not rely on my lcd. There goes another $1500 ... for a Sony PVM-8045Q.

<<<-- Originally posted by Marc Young : Well, you guys convinced me to buy a pro monitor and not rely on my lcd. There goes another $1500 ... for a Sony PVM-8045Q. -->>>

Great little monitor. You'll be happy with it.

Is it safe to by an 8045 now? Don't you need an 8045QD with SDI? And will these work with the rumored HDV mini-cams (XL2 elsewhere on this site).

I recently shot with an SDX900 and the video viewed as SDI was different than the video viewed through the monitor port.

Hi Chris,

I agree with the consensus that a monitor is the best referance for video lighting. But, I use a Sekonic L-398M Studio Deluxe II - Analog Incident and Reflected Light Meter to check for drops in level on large sets.

I'll use it as a final confirmation to check where levels change on a set.

Camera zebra pattens are useful for judging exposure on a given frame, but when a large area must be set checked, and you have talent working a stage where the director wants a uniform light over a large area, a meter is the best choice for the final check imho.

Best,

John Hartney
werks.tv
Elgin, Illinois
847.608.1357

<<<-- Originally posted by David Ziegelheim : I recently shot with an SDX900 and the video viewed as SDI was different than the video viewed through the monitor port. -->>>

No setup.

LCD question
 

When I look through my LCD color viewfinders I always get at least some zebra lines, specially if the actor is waring a white shirt. Should I try to underexpose these areas or zebra on some bright areas should be acceptable?

You are better off underexposing slightly.

I'll go for the FT 5.6 and try to level the light accordingly.

I'm new at this so bear with me.

Wouldn't it make sense for a DV to be able to use color correction from your NLE, for example Adobe rbg? Plug your monitor into your NLE and get it corrected to something standardized.

This is a big stretch. How about connecting the monitor to a pc/mac and have some software look at your monitor while you are viewing footage. It would show color bars, right?

This might be the case of a newbie stretching too far for a solution that can be handled easier somehow.

I'm not sure what you're trying to solve. There are hardware calibrators for monitors. They are fairly expensive, so most editors use SMPTE color bars to calibrate NTSC monitors.