I didn’t read all the responses below so my apologies if this was covered.

Why not make an optional breakout box for multi-monitor/full raster playback. IMO people shooting fast pace documentary could care less and actually appreciate the lower power draw and size. On the other hand you have people on set that absolutely NEED up to 4 full raster monitors at all times. Just give them the option in a breakout box.

Just curious, in the short-term, is the 2 and 4x zoom-in modes with the pan-widgets (so you can move around the frame) at least enough to get you by with image inspection?

BTW, I'm not saying that a second monitor is not a "standard" accessory . . . what I'm saying is that we can't ship the camera configured for two monitors . . . the second monitor port is not active until you plug-in the second monitor. And once you plug-in the second monitor, you have to reset the video card settings for the optimal configuration. That's just the way it works. Again, if you are having issues with any equipment, or need an exchange, etc., just talk to Steve or Ari and get it arranged . . . although we are again working on some software improvements that will hopefully alleviate the monitoring situation in the near-term. So please be a bit patient with us as we develop a solution and can give you a definitive answer.

John, that was a very good idea, and we will definitely take it into consideration.

Thanks,

Jason

Sergio-

For what its worth, I completely agree with you about having peace of mind on set. There is no gray area when it comes to art.

I'm really liking this breakout box idea too.
Would it be possible to simply replicate the data packets between the head and the camera onto a port. An external device just 'sniffs' those packets and drives monitors. That external device could be whatever it needs to be and gets all the big issues out of the camera. This seems to open up some interesting possibilities apart from full raster 2K monitoring, like 3D monitoring from two cameras to head mounted displays.

Quick question. How does the Xenarc 705TSV model compair to the 700TSV SI is selling?

It's not as bright as the 700TSV, so you might have problems outside.

We`ve been shooting over a year now and we only use the zoom three or four times. It is a good tool and I think it`s better to have it, you can use it when you`re shooting on a tripod, static shots or on the ocational time the Operator or the DP wants see some specific area of the shot, but I dont it is not very useful when you`re doing shots with complex internal motion, or camera moves, because you get distracted and you risk to waste the shot. In our case we use histogram most of the time, and the focus feature because they can be used while recording, and the camera operator can have a visual reference of the focus in complex shots. It`s like flying with instruments.

Not loosing time repeating shots due to technical glitches is very important above all in very complicated sequences, we`ve found that the focus tool is one of those tools who help you reduce those technical dificulties, operator always knows if the shot is useful or not, and knows preciselly how to correct the problems, or he can simply correct it on the fly with precise visual feedback.

The false exposure its very helpful when lighting a scene, as well as the zoom.

I think most of the toolset the camera has is great, and it is very useful. The tools come really handy at the critical moment, that is when recording the shot. You never have enough time when you`re on the set, so every tool that helps you mantain control of the footage can make a huge difference in the overall quality of the production.

Hi Jason:

I didnt had time to tell you... I´ve been using the last build of the software, I think the ideas you implemented to solve the issues we discussed are great.

The Hexlet preview is a really great idea, and the dinamic encoding, at first i thought otherwise, but after doing some tests its really great.

But it will be good to have the three options, in my opinion, The dynamic, High and Very High, that is for example if youre shooting a scene in wich you cant shoot using the very High encoding, but you need continous recording quality, lets say a shot in wich you will use a difference matte for compositing.

I didnt had time in the past to use the Keyer mode, but playing a little with it and i was amazed by the functionality, I can store the Alpha Matte as a LUT in the matte, right?. Thats awesome, really.

The Player functionality is much better now, I can even use the same toolset to review the material, or change the LUT, thats very useful too.

Ari told me about some other ideas you´re introducing in future revisions. Im always impressed of how the responsiveness of the camera changes with the software optimizations, This is maybe the best one of all i´ve used so far.

You should be happy to know that in the next couple builds we will be breaking out all 4 quality modes . . . so you can run in the "dynamic" (we're actually going to rename it slightly to "adaptive"), or you can lock the camera compression quality to one of the other 4 settings . . . so you'll get the ultimate flexibility. Although again, the "dynamic" or "adaptive" mode is still probably the best-bet for general shooting, especially when RAM-buffering can be an issue with dual-monitors running at HD resolutions and/or darker scenes that have more noise.

BTW, did you play around with the new focus-index tool in the spot-meter? It's a great way to know you're in-focus on a specific spot with no guessing required. You simply dial in the highest index number (the index is not normalized from 0-100, it's simply a measure of sharpness . . . higher numbers are sharper than lower numbers . . . which is nice, for instance, you can focus on a specific spot, change a lens, and see if one lens is sharper than the other . . . I'm not sure if the granularity is that good, but you get the drift, it's an index, not a percent). It's not necessarily a replacement for the edge-detection mode, but it can definitely replace that pesky tape measure ;)

Thanks,

Jason

SPeaking of pesky tape measures, where is the optical plane in the block.
Maybe an engraved mark would be a good idea.

The optical plane is right in-front of the first 1/4-20 hole (the one closest to the lens mount) on the top of the camera head.

Is the new focus feature available for the Mini
 

Hi Jason.
Just wondering about all these new features that Sergio is talking about, specially the new focus aid.
Are these only available for the SI2K or are they part of a new DVR release ?

And for those of us eagerly awaiting the SI2K....plese...when is it going to be available ?

Hey Sergio, how are you doing the monitoring now ?

Pedro

Hi Pedro,

The new features will be in an installer that we should hopefully have out this week on the support site.

You can also subscribe to the RSS feed to get the news when it's ready. Simply go to our website, and hit the "subscribe" button the front page.

Thanks,

Jason

We´ve been playing with the features, the spot focus is nice too.

Pedro:

Im monitoring the same way I was doing it before, 720p on LCD flat panels. Im shooting using Hex display quality so resolution is not as important as before. I prefer stability, until a better output is available.

Maybe one of you knowledgeable gentlemen can help me out here.

We're looking at getting the Dell M6300 to use with the MINI.
I see that the Dell has two video output connectors.
Can we run two monitors at different res from those two ports, one for a 24" 1080 monitor from the DVI port and the Xenarc at 720 from the VGA port. I can't find anything on the Dell website that gives any information about this.

Unfortunately this is not possible. Only one of the connections can be active at any given time.

You *can* split the DVI-I connection from the Dell into an analog and digital signal, but they will have-to-have the same resolution.

Thanks,

Jason

Monitoring setup
 

So Sergio, are you still using the 7" Xenarc off the vga or did you switch to the 8.4" 4:3 one?

Are you using the evf ? I did not see it on the Tequila website photos, which btw are great, thanks for sharing.


Pedro

No Pedro, I didnt replace the Xenarc, with the optimizations Jason did in the camera i can use a better resolution with the correct aspect ratio for previewing in both monitors. Maybe i´ll go with the 4:3 Xenarc for the second camera.

Im not using the EVF, the D.P likes the touchscreen interface very much, he can get to the tools faster. To be more confortable we´ve got a Hood for the Xenarc, so you dont have the problems with reflections on the display, It´s like working with a 7" toucscreen viewfinder.

We are upgrading the webpage this weekend, I will ask them to upload new photos. Thanks for your comment.

Thanks for the compliments Sergio . . . the honors for those "optimizations" though will have to go to our brilliant programming team :)

Hi Jason:

I found in the ATI website about a new graphics embedded solution, ATI Radeon E2400. They claim they are shipping parts since january. It comes in two flavors.

The ATI Radeon E2400 Discrete GPU has a compact 31mm x 31mm package design, with 128MB of on-package GDDR3 memory. This product is ideal for space constrained designs helps eliminate the need for potentially complicated on-PCB memory layout.
The ATI Radeon E2400 MXM-II module has 256MB of GDDR3 memory and is based on the open standard MXM-II module specifications, which is ideal for low profile, space constrained environments, while providing the flexibility for an upgrade path.


Maybe a solution like this can work as an upgrade to the SI2K DVR graphics, and bring more display output options.