New multi-monitors from Leader Instruments
/New multi-monitors from Leader Instruments
Let me preface this post by saying that I'm a huge fan of Leader's products. The LV 5750 has been an indispensable tool on many of my engineering gigs and I'm really excited about the next evolution in the product line, the LV 5330 and LV 5380. While I think both these new scopes are very good, for me the price is finally right at around 6000 for the 5330. The 5380 which is a bit bigger and has a few more bells and whistles retails at around 10,000. I have a 5330 on order and should be getting it in the next few weeks. Once I have it, I'm going to do a post on how to correctly read waveforms and vectorscopes and how to identify skin tones on them. There are a few pages out there on this but nothing too meaty:
http://www.videoproductions.com.au/html/waveform-vectorscope.html
http://www.larryjordan.biz/articles/lj_scopes.html
Helpful but not terribly in depth.
back to the scopes..
When I first saw these new highly portable Multi SDI Monitors at HD Expo here in NY, they seemed a bit like Astro clones but after delving in a bit I found that wasn't the case at all. On the outside, they look similar to the Astro - very sleek and light with well placed controls. The major difference being the Astro is an excellent monitor with SOME engineering features whereas the Leader is an engineering tool that also is an excellent monitor. With the launch of these new products, it seems Leader is intentionally trying to get their gear out of engineering bays and monitor tents and on top of people's cameras. The 5750 was a pretty good start but at 5.5 lbs, it was a bit too beefy for on-board use.
A very cool new software has been developed by Leader called CineLite / CineZone and it comes bundled with the 5330 and is optionally available for the 5380. "CineLite" basically converts signal luminance to assigned f-stop values so if you like thinking about your images in terms of stops, this is a very helpful tool. Or if you're working with a DP who prefers communicating in stops, again this is a great feature. "CineZone" is very similar to the "Predator Vision" False Color viewing mode on the RED camera. Warm colors represent values approaching over exposure with white representing signal clip. On the other side, cool colors represent values approaching underexposure with black representing clip . Green is right in the middle representing zone 5, 18% reflectance gray. It's similar but a little more intuitive than Predator Vision which is a little confusing with how it uses varying shades of gray to represent middle of the range values.
This is kind of a crappy representation of it. When I get my scope, I'll post some better images.
a little sidenote: If you don't have this, it's a very handy thing to have. It approximately equates RED False Color to IRE values. I don't think it's completely accurate but it's still pretty helpful even if only to remind you where the gray values reside on the scale.
Here's a nice PDF of it for printing >>>
The LV 5330 and 5380 while sharing many of the same feature set are quite a bit different - the emphasis being on the portability of the 2.9 lbs 5330 vs. the versatility of the 5380. At 4.5 lbs, the 5380 isn't much smaller than the 5750 but in terms of what it can do, it's a pretty big advancement. The 5380 looks and feels more like a conventional LCD monitor to me than the 5330 with its relatively small 6.5" screen surrounded by engineering controls. The big 8.4" LCD on the 5380 can be laid out in any number of ways, displaying 1,2, 3, or 4 scopes/meters at a time. Despite it's larger physical size, it's actually the exact same screen in terms of resolution as the the 5330, a XGA TFT LCD 1024x768. Compared to the 800x480 resolution of a Marshall or Panasonic 7", there's a noticeably sharper and richer picture display. Both models also display highly accurate waveform (parade, Y Cb Cr, RGB, and pseudo composite), vectorscope (75% and 100% saturation), 8 channels of audio levels, 5 bar display for color gamut, and can screen capture to a USB drive. In addition they can both select and display a single line from the video signal and have comprehensive error detection, event logs, and data dumps. As I've emphasized before, scopes don't lie and there is no aspect of the video signal that can hide from these mofo's.
The key differences between the products are that the 5380 can be outfitted with a dual link HD-SDI board whereas the 5330 cannot. The 5380 can also display two SDI signals simultaneously. The 5330 comes with CineLite/CineZone installed whereas the 5380 strangely does not. Still scratching my head on that one... Also the picture display controls on the 5330 are somewhat limited with only the brightness, contrast, and saturation adjustable. There isn't even a "blue only" feature which I find really disappointing. I asked the guys at Leader about that and they said that the display doesn't need to be adjusted or calibrated because it displays the precise SDI signal. Well if that's the case, then why does the 5380 have total control over the display? Color Temperature, Brightness, Contrast, Gain, Bias, Selective Color Channels, etc... Obviously displays need to be tweaked all the time to account for varying degrees of ambient light. Color is equally critical and it would be nice if there was a way to quickly make sure they're accurate, ala' BLUE ONLY.
Leader LV 5330
-B&H Price 6,394.95
-6.5" XGA TFT LCD 1024x768 pixels
-8.5" W x 5" H x 2.5" D
-2.9 lbs.
-2 SDI inputs that can be switched live
-1 SDI output
-1 External REF input (tri-level sync or NTSC/PAL black burst)
-Waveform, Vectorscope, 5 Bar Display, Line Selector, Audio Level Meter
-Extensive Analysis Features (error detection, SDI signal event log, Digital data dump)
-Comes bundled with CineLite / CineZone
-1 Screen, 2 Screen, and 4 Screen Dsiplays
-Picture Display controls limited to Brightness, Contrast, Saturation, and Peaking. Controls for Aspect Ratio, safe action and safe title markers
-Scope can be controlled by a PC over an ethernet network
-Anton Bauer Gold Mount Battery or Sony V Mount Battery option
-Stereo Headphone output
-Screen Capture to USB drive
-Can be used as a viewfinder by displaying camera's composite video output
Leader LV 5380
-B&H Price 9.199.95
-8.4" XGA TFT LCD 1024x768 pixels
-8.5" W x 7" H x 3.5" D
-4.5 lbs
-2 SDI inputs that can be switched live or displayed simultaneously
-Dual Link SDI Option
-1 SDI output
-1 External REF input (tri-level sync or NTSC/PAL black burst)
-Waveform, Vectorscope, 5 Bar Display, Line Selector, Audio Level Meter
-Extensive Analysis Features (error detection, SDI signal event log, Digital data dump)
-Versatile multi-screen display: can be arranged any number of ways (see tech paper for details)
-Multi Function Picture Display: Adjustable brightness, contrast, gain, bias, color temperature, monochrome, chroma up, on image gamut error, R, G, and B can be switched on and off, etc.
-CineLite/CineZone Option
-Anton Bauer Gold Mount Battery or Sony V Mount Battery option
-Stereo Headphone output
-Screen Capture to USB drive
-30 Presets for Front Panel Controls
© 2021 Bennett Cain / All Rights Reserved /