HDV monitors 101
 

Questions about using field monitors with HDV: I'm shooting Sony HDV, and am consistently encountering exposure issues. The flip out LCD seems bright. By the time it hits Final Cut Pro, it seems consistently to lose a stop or two of light, and is consequently underexposed.

1. Which is the more accurate representation, the Sony LCD or the mac computer monitor?

2. If using a non-HD monitor to set exposure (because of the expense of an HD monitor) what are the critical issues regarding exposure? I.e., can a NTSC monitor accurately represent exposure of an HD signal?

Your camera LCD is likely more accurate, you need to calibrate it just like you would a field monitor. Same though, for your computer monitor. Both need to be calibrated or you're going nowhere fast in terms of color.

You *can* use an SD monitor to get close to color on the set, but it's not accurate. If it's critical color, no....you can't use SD. If it's not critical color and you're mostly using the monitor for lighting and composition, you will be fine.

It's a drag that DVRack won't play on a Mac. If you've got an Intel-powerbook, DVRack works with BootCamp.

i see that dvrack has a $200 HDV add on. What's so useful about DVRack?

Is it hard to use? Hard to learn to use? Hard to learn about the issues that are relevant to using it?

useful overview:
http://www.seriousmagic.com/dvrinterface.cfm

my question stands.