Slates: Color or B/W Clappers?
 

Probably a very noob question - why would one select a slate (TC or not) with black and white clappers over one with color clappers? I've looked on a number of sites (Ambient, Denecke, RAMPS, etc) and cannot find an answer. I'm guessing that color clappers allow for a color test or something? Would that mean that B&W clapsticks are outmoded? Thanks...

That's exactly why some slates have colour - to provide a quick colour setup check. But it doesn't substitute for a proper colour card and white-balance target so (some DP might correct me here) I don't see it of much real use. Certainly B&W sticks aren't obsolete by any stretch.

Dear Mark and Steve,

We are currently shooting a movie, and we are using color clappers most of the time.

Our editor found that in very low light situations, the only color that we could actually see was the yellow stripe.

So he put added some white tape so that the clapper arm could actually be seen in the low light.

Steve, I hope you and Helen are doing fine.

Both of us a great - hope you and Norma are the same.

How was your NAB experiences? Wish I could have made it. I recall you saying you were hangin' at the Canon booth. Been meaning to ask you if you had any insights on what they were thinking when they set the line input sensitivity so high (+6dBv~+8dBu) on the XH series?

Dear Steve,

I was working at the Convergent-Design booth, within the Canon booth showing the Flash XDR. I had a wonderful time; it was very nice meeting so many of the DVInfo.net members and other industry professionals. I even had the pleasure of meeting Chris Hurd for the first time!

Sorry, I did not think to ask anyone in Canon about the line input sensitivity of the XH A1.

I did get to work with the Canon XL H1s for three days. We were so busy that I did not get to put it through all of its paces, but the improvements in the camera, especially the feel of the lens, and the new lens features are pretty dramatic.

Having an Iris control on the lens is nice.

One can now Zoom and Focus at the same time with the new lens, and the amount that one has to twist the lens barrel to go from wide to tele is now customizable, a very nice feature.

The audio improvements are substantial also. Each audio section is independent of the other, so one can select the audio source, and all of the settings independently, a nice improvement. The camera now has audio limiters!

Steve, Dan:

Thanks for the information. Guess we'll go with a set of color clappers on our slate. Sounds like they might be more useful than the B&W clapsticks.

Mark
Austin

I think we've suggested the opposite. B&W sticks are more visible in a variety of lighting situations and since the primary purpose is to be able to tell visually the exact frame where they come together, that seems to me to be the deciding factor.

Thanks, Steve - went back and reread the earlier post. Duh. I get it now. So why are color clappers worth dealing with if a color test with them is not sufficient?