Best Monitor for Focus?

[Bérenger Brillante]

I find that takings marks with the monitor helps a lot.

It's just that you still have to write distance down in case you switch lenses, so you don't have to do the whole thing again. If you don't, yes you slow things down, if you do, it is way faster. Especially with a monitor with a focus in Red feature... and your eyes and brain.

The smallHDs are great, small and rocksolid.
The TV logics have great functionnalities but are a bit heavy.
Panny are industry standards, but ... well... it's a matter of taste.
Marshall... hem, I don't like them... but they are quite cheap.

The best monitors are Astro's but darn pricey (and are more DP's monitor)

 

[Tim Sutherland]

You don't pull focus from the monitor, you use the monitor as one of your tools while pulling focus. I just finished a movie that was all handheld and run and gun, with trade offs between multiple actors, and marks were pretty much useless. The 1st AC, who is one of the best in the business, from good AC blood, used a tvlogic 7" attached to his preston hand unit. A loomed cable of power and bnc made setup super quick and made focusing wide open possible on the movie.

Just because we didn't always have them doesn't mean we shouldn't use them now. On the RED, it's also much more difficult to see focus from the EVF than from a film ground glass, so on those close tight shots with .124" DOF, the operator can't tell you if you got it as easily as with film.

I'm not an advocate for focusing by the monitor as a rule, but there are definitely situations where it is one of the best tools you will have. Crucifying someone for using a monitor for focus seems a little extreme to me. When you need one, a Panasonic 7.9 or tvlogic 7" are the best options in my opinion.

Tim