Random (and non urgent) questions about video assist monitors

[Karim D. Ghantous]

So there's a wide variety of external camera monitors available. Blackmagic makes them, Sony makes them, lots of people make them. I do not own one. So here are my questions:

- Can you customise the information displayed on them? Can they just show the image and not the settings?

- Can you customise false colour? Like, can shadows be black and highlights white, and all other tones shades of grey? Can you reverse that (for the sake of understanding how customisable they are)?

- How easy is it to create or customise basic LUTs and also basic false colour profiles?

- Can you combine zebra stripes with false colour?

- Can you assign false colour to activate only when under/over exposed, leaving the rest of the image untouched?

- Do they have HDMI out as well as HDMI in?

- Can you mount them hanging off the rails, or are they just supposed to hang off the camera?

- I assume you can swing them around the face away from the lens, so the talent can check how they are framed?

- Do they have controls like brightness, contrast, saturation, that are independent of colour profiles and LUTs?

- Do they need calibration from time to time?

 

[M Harvey]

There aren’t universal answers to your questions—they’ll typically depend on the operating system/firmware of the monitor as well as it’s design.

Briefly:
-it’s very common for smaller (5”, 7”, etc.) monitors to have threaded mounting points (e.g. 1/4-20” holes). The ability to rotate a monitor or attach to rods, etc., are typically functions of the hardware you attach to those rigging points. Such hardware often provides abilities like these.
-most monitors do feature the ability to adjust brightness and contrast independent of LUTs, etc. Depends on software. And most or all do periodically need calibration, though not all can be calibrated by a user.
-typically the choice to display camera information or not is made in camera, not the external monitor. (A monitor may allow access to the relevant camera menu, of course.)
-HDMI in & out is a common feature, as is SDI in and out.
-many monitors allow easy loading of externally created LUTs.
-I’m not aware of the existence of customization features for false color you’ve asked after, but perhaps other people will know. Some systems do allow you to switch between multiple types of false color.

 

[Phil Holland]

So there's a wide variety of external camera monitors available. Blackmagic makes them, Sony makes them, lots of people make them. I do not own one. So here are my questions:

1 Can you customise the information displayed on them? Can they just show the image and not the settings?

2 Can you customise false colour? Like, can shadows be black and highlights white, and all other tones shades of grey? Can you reverse that (for the sake of understanding how customisable they are)?

3 How easy is it to create or customise basic LUTs and also basic false colour profiles?

4 Can you combine zebra stripes with false colour?

5 Can you assign false colour to activate only when under/over exposed, leaving the rest of the image untouched?

6 Do they have HDMI out as well as HDMI in?

7 Can you mount them hanging off the rails, or are they just supposed to hang off the camera?

8 I assume you can swing them around the face away from the lens, so the talent can check how they are framed?

9 Do they have controls like brightness, contrast, saturation, that are independent of colour profiles and LUTs?

10 Do they need calibration from time to time?

I'll begin by saying different monitors have different features, but....

1 - Yes. Via camera or the monitor itself.

2 - Yes, if the monitor supports it and supports customizing it or loading a specific camera's false color. You can also create false color LUTs even.

3 - I would say easy is the wrong word. For the experienced it's something that can be done quickly.

4 - Yes, but depends on the monitor or even camera.

5 - Somewhat as that is essentially doable with Zebras or you can do a top/bottom false color profile.

6 - Depends on the model.

7 - Most smaller field monitors can be mounted anywhere you can find a way to mount them.

8 - Generally not something that happens on set much, but some on camera monitors certainly swivel better than arm or clamped field monitors.

9 - Yes mostly.

10 - Generally that's a good idea. Though many, many, many people never calibrate.