Plus: 10 Important Tips to Consider before Buying or Renting HD Monitors
by David Kaminski
Finding the right HD monitor presents a lot of challenges for shooters and editors. Here’s a quick list you might find useful.
First, as always, I’d say you should start window-shopping a year or two ahead of time if you can. You’ll see the progress in the models, and you’ll appreciate the advances the manufacturers have made. There are new materials, new technologies, and new and emerging needs by the people using them.
Let’s start with some anecdotes that will give you real perspective before we move to more serious thoughts. It may be that you harbor some hope you will not have to pay for a real monitor. You have company in that idea.
- I’ve talked to a cinematographer who uses an old 4:3 consumer TV from his house when he shoots HD. (I’ll have to tell you that some of his shots were out of focus when I saw them on a big screen.)
- I’ve talked to an engineer who insists you should use the poorest SD signal coming from the camera to see how good the picture is on your camera. (I didn’t argue at the time. I’m not an engineer. Find an engineer and ask him what he thinks, and let me know.)
6 Serious Sets of Questions to Ask Yourself before Buying or Renting HD Monitors
- How will you use your monitor? Will you be moving it from location to location? Will you put it on a stand, a cart, or will you try to haul it? Will you want to try to mount it to a camera, a jib, a c-stand, or will it need its own stand?
- Will it accept AC and DC power? Do you need that?
- Does it need to be only a “confidence monitor”? Or, will it be for critical viewing and focus during shooting or in post? Keep in mind that your camera will see everything in HD, even though you may not. Better to shoot only what you want the first time. (I have HD footage—shot on a sunny day with the lens wide—that includes the rounded edges from the ring of a name-brand neutral density filter in the corners of the image. Useless footage. Wish I had the HD monitor with me then! )
- Does it allow for a pixel-to-pixel or an HD image? Is the color output 8-bit, 10-bit, or 12-bit? Does that matter to you? Can you select color temperatures? Will it do underscan?
- Will you be using it with a computer and a device or card? With a camera or a deck?
- Will you need more than one monitor to suit all of your needs? This is a question to ask yourself. You may find you need one to shoot, and one for viewing in the studio.
10 Important Tips to Consider before Buying or Renting HD Monitors
- Go to the trade shows, walk the floors, and see a half dozen or more monitor vendors. See the small manufacturers, too. Every screen will look a bit different, and you have to decide some things for yourself.
- Notice that some monitors have different types of glass through which you are looking (neutral density – slightly darkened; clear; a more muted finish to a glossy finish with limitations of the viewing angle, reflection).
- Look at the connectors in the back. Make sure you can use the best signal your camera or deck can output. Do you need Thru-Out capability?
- Look for features like waveform monitors and vectorscope. These and other extras are valuable.
- Talk to the engineer standing at the booth, and ask him if it is really a high-definition screen. You’ll discover that many monitors (even for many thousands of dollars) up-convert. Real HD might cost you twice as much.
- Is it 120Hz? Is that what you want?
- If you need to have multiple monitors (in a studio, for example), look for a brand that allow you to calibrate them to be the same.
- If you need a monitor right away, you’ll probably find the Multi-Format/HD CRTs (cathode ray tube) to be too expensive to buy (an evaluation grade monitor can be purchased for $500-$1,000 an inch of diagonal screen size, so you’ll be likely be happier to rent them, if they are available to you). These monitors feel like an honest image to older shooters who have trusted CRTs for years. They have a resolution of 800 – 900 lines, or so. You can rent a small one fairly cheaply for the day or week, and you will not regret it. See if you can rent it on a weekend or a holiday and get some extra time for free. The small ones are light enough to be taken to a location to shoot; the large ones are heavy and need a cart and a studio.
- Look at the new OLED (organic light emitting diode) displays. They will impress you.
- See the LCD monitors with new backlight LEDs; with that can reach the $20,000 range and rival the best monitors.
Lastly, keep your eyes open, and keep seeing these technologies improve. Remember that the many people who watch your final work will be viewing it on many different types of monitors, screens, and portable devices. You’ll want your final product to look as good as possible, and you can ensure it will look its best only if you have an HD screen to work with during production and post.
David Kaminski teaches TV Production/Media at Clarkstown HS North in New City, NY about 25 miles north of New York City. His students have earned five Telly Awards and over 50 national awards for their work. They also have screened their films more than 200 times in festivals across the country and internationally.
Featured in StudentFilmmakers Magazine, January 2009 Edition.
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