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MillimeterSoftware Field Monitors, Part 1
May 12, 2008 12:00 PM, By Jan Ozer
Figure 4. ScopeBox's preview and overlay controls.
Click here for a larger image
Enhanced Monitoring Functions
Beyond the video and audio scopes, having a big screen preview available during the shoot provides several key benefits, some of which you can see in Figure 4, which shows ScopeBox's preview monitor and all available overlays and adjustments to that monitor on the right. I'm a big rule-of-thirds guy, and I mourn the loss of the tic tac toe overlay in most modern camcorders (including the XH A1).
In an interview setting where the subject will be relatively still, you can use these guides to help align your framing, and the larger preview window to fine tune your focus. On the other hand, when shooting in HDV on even a powerful desktop such as the dual-processor, dual-core Intel Xeon Mac Pro I work on, there's a noticeable delay between when you position the camera and when the computer LCD panel updates. This latency will prevent you from using the monitor to frame or focus on fast-moving subjects—say, in a concert or other live-performance environment.
As you can see on the bottom right of ScopeBox's overlay control panel, you can also display Luma and Chroma Zebra stripes, which mimic your camcorder's display and provide a nice adjunct to the data coming in from the scopes. With ScopeBox, you can also add a graphic in the preview—say, to simulate the appearance of a lower-third title.
If you compare the Cambelles in Figure 4 with those in Figure 2, you'll notice that the contrast is much greater. Unfortunately, this doesn't relate to my black stretch, knee, and pedestal adjustments—it was more the adjustments to saturation, brightness, and contrast in the Monitor Calibration controls shown on the right (note to self; ask Canon why they don't just use saturation, brightness, and contrast controls in their camcorders rather than knee, black stretch, and pedestal).
If I captured the video using the current settings, the captured video would obviously still look faded. Obtaining an accurate preview is a challenge with any preview monitor, so you should calibrate your video monitor beforehand to make sure it's accurate. It's also valuable to check the actual captured video against a screenshot of the preview video to make sure that they're close in brightness and color.
Digital Video Recorder Functionality
The final major benefit these products deliver is the ability to record directly to your computer while shooting. Not only does this allow immediate playback of the file while on location, it also speeds editing since your clips are already digitized.
OK, that's the general functionality of these classes of products; in the next issue of HDV@Work, I'll detail the workflow and features of OnLocation and ScopeBox.
