What do you set your LCD screen to?
 

I was trying to calibrate the brightness and contrast of my LCD screen to what I see on my laptop, via firewire, on playback of recorded video.

Guess what? if you lower the brightness of the lcd screen, the contrast AND CHROMA of the picture there will go up.

It's very hard to get the two views to match. I had my LCD set low, so that I wouldn't get any suprises when using the custom presets out in the field and them putting it on my hard drive, but now I think it should be a bit higher, like right below the end of the "D".

What do you guys set it on and do you change it?

I do pretty much what you described, but I try to make the ambient lighting in my room similar to the shooting conditions I expect. In other words, if I'm shooting in a dark theatre then I calibrate in a dark room. I put the NTSC bars into my NLE and send it to the camera, and pay special attention to the PLUGE bars. It's also important to force yourself to view the LCD panel from a fixed position since contrast can vary a lot as you move your head.

With the LCD Issue I've been wondering about making a "homebrew" hood/shade, (current location precludes purchasing a "made for"), and I was wondering if:
1 Would a LCD hood truely help?
2 has anyone tried before and are there pitfalls found? i.e. over heating the screen, or weight stressing the hinge, etc
Any comments, or experiances appreciated.
cheers

Hi

The LCD hood is awesome, you can use it all the time even. No worry about over heating.

I got a Petro hood.

Thanks Ronald
Just what I've been waiting to hear, My plan to make one may not be needed now as I seem to be going to Australia for Xmas so should be able to pick one up there, if not I'll order one at least
Thanks again
nig

If you make a longer LCD hood, it will sort of force you to have your eyes in the same position each time you look at the screen. That will help keep you from looking at it off-center and having different levels each time you see it.

I suppose the narrower the opening tohrough the hood, the more centered you can keep your eyes too. This blows Boyds setting it up to the same ambient conditions as you will shoot in but helps keep it the same anyway as it will always be darker inside the LCD hood.

I didn't say that well but I thik you know what I am saying?

Sean McHenry

Thanks Sean
 

Sorry been away busy with large amounts of moving water!

Great tip and I have actually made a cardboard template now. I will use it to cut an Soft(ish) plastic or hard(ish) rubberhood. If it works I'll post info, pics and a link to the template.

Chheers all