Color Bar
 

I know I am spewing out the questions today, but I am really trying to avoid the "auto everything" on my camera, and trying not to rely on all the default settings.

So my question is this... what do I need to use the color bar for? It's there for some reason, and I want to make use of it.

I shoot a few (10-20) of color bars on each tape so first I'm not right at the beginning of the tape (goes back to the old days) and 2nd you have a reference to make sure your NTSC monitor (if you use one) is set correctly so when you look at the colors you know that red is red and green is green.
Can't hurt to run a few seconds but for the moment I don't know that you really need it.

Don

The other thing you can use the bars for is to properly set up your LCD and any attached displays. Works for a viewfinder too.

Actually, Linda, the horrible truth is, there isn't any REALLy good purpose for the color bars. They would be handy for setting up an external monitor, but they have no "pluge" (don't ask) which guides you in setting up brightness on NTSC monitors. Without the pluge you really can't tell if your monitor is accurate. Also, SMPTE split field bars would have been much better to use for this purpose. Don is a veteran like myself, from the days when we used to include color bars at the top of the tape to allow the editor to adjust the output from the tapes properly. But today, with everything digital, that is pretty much a wank. But Don brings up a great point of laying down something at the top of your tape for about 30 seconds to get past the beginning of the tape where you are most likely to have a problem with the tape.

Mike has a really trained eye, so he may get a little use out of the bars when tweaking his lcd, but for most of us, setting the screen to the middle positions will give adequate results. And have you noticed that everything looks GREAT on the lcd? Then when you play the tapes at home and view on a big tv screen, they just don't look as teriffic. Those damn lcd's seem to make everything look good, so don't put too much faith in them. They are especially deceiving for setting exposure. So take care.

Now my question. Are you related to "Big Chuck"? Actually, his name may have been "Sadowsky". Worked at WJW-tv many years ago.

Wayne Orr, SOC

Thanks for all the help! All of the suggestions are good and I will put them to use!

To answer your question, Wayne... "Big Chuck" Schodowsky is a distant cousin of my husbands dad. Put it this way, he did not attend my husbands dad's funeral!

Big Chuck is still around, with "Lil John". Were you here when he was with Hoolihan?

"Big Chuck is still around, with "Lil John". Were you here when he was with Hoolihan?"

Yup. I started my career at WEWS and used to play softball with those guys and "Goohlardi," who we all know is the father of Paul Thomas Anderson.
(Fire up the polka band)

My dad sold "Houlihans" (Bob Wells?) house when he moved to Florida. I'm 44 by the way! Old enough to know "Ghoulardi" too!