HDSLR and Waveforms - overview

HDSLR and Waveforms - overview

I have a much larger project related to this in the works but I just wanted to quickly show you a little tidbit. 

Using a HDMI to SDI Mini Converter from either Blackmagic Designs or AJA Video, you can send a quality video signal to your SDI based video engineering equipment such as Waveform / Vectorscope from Leader. I've used both and I think that they're pretty much the same. Abel's version that's powered with Canon batteries uses the Blackmagic version I believe. 

For these little tests, I used the AJA. From the 7D, using the proprietary mini HDMI to full size, I hit the mini converter, from there I sent 1080 60i video from the box to my scope via SDI. 

This is a frame capture from the live video raster. For ease of illustration, the scene is a simple Kodak Gray Card in my living room. The raster captures from the Leader are always a little darker and a little warmer than what you see on the actual video. 

As you well know, there's no way to output clean, display free video from Canon SLR cameras. Let's hope they fix this in the near future. 

This is the waveform of the scene. The semi-opaque 16:9 matting and the white center marker are outlined with in red below. That is not part of the raster that's being recorded to card so if you use this method, you need to know what to look for on the waveform so that you can disregard it. 

Here is the scene on the vectorscope. Though the screen captures always look a little warm, we know our white balance is set correctly because our picture information is centered on the scope. 

Now let's have a look at the actual raster that was recorded to the CF card. 

And the accompanying waveform:

And side by side:

Quite close but let's have a look when they're on top of each other. The blue waveform is from the field and the red waveform is from the CF card:

Interesting eh? The codec seems to be compressing it a bit compared to the live video. It's very close though and if anything, it's better that your files are a little clamped down from the monitor rather than expanded. These cameras pretty much shoot WYSIWYG and with their reduced latitude and thin codec, all the more reason to use the right tools in my opinion. That is if you have access to them. If not, I've found that if I depress the shutter a little bit while shooting vid and call up the camera's built in light meter, that setting it right in the middle like you're supposed to results in pretty nice looking video. Pretty convenient actually.. Less stuff to carry and the results are just as good. Nice when that works out. There are plenty of situations where you're going to want a proper monitoring setup but for the average run and gunner, I think the built in light meter gets the job done. 

Next time there will be some much prettier examples but that's all for now ;)

The Data Wrangler

The Data Wrangler

No not the peson you hired to download your compact flash cards. There's a robot that will do that for you now. Well not exactly a robot but it is quite large and could possibly be sentient. More on that in a bit. First, I'm going to use this opportunity to address a bit of nomenclature.

What would you call the person you hire to download and manage your production's digital media? These days there are a lot of people out there who would call this person a "DIT". Maybe that's an accurate description by some accounts but in my opinion this position should really be called "Digital Loader" or "Digital Asset Manager".

Prior to the widespread use of the RED One, DIT's were, and still are in my opinion, video engineers who primarily deal with images. Hence the job title, Digital Imaging Technician. Not Digital Compact Flash Card Technician. If I'm not working closely with the DP to craft the digital image and help them get the most out of the camera, I don't feel like I'm doing my job as a DIT. Not to say that I don't have the utmost respect for RED Tech's and what they do. On some shoots, the RED Tech is making enormous visual contributions. But sometimes they're just downloading compact flash cards. There in lies the ambiguity - is a RED Tech a Loader or an Engineer or Both? Either way It's a crucial position within the camera department even if the job description is hard to pin down. I guess by own criteria, if the technician is involved with the creation of the images, they are a DIT. If all they're doing is downloading and backing up data, they're a Loader. 

My own experiences working as a RED Tech have varied wildly. On some jobs I've done nothing but sit at the cart and download cards all day. Very boring. Other times I've worked closely with the DP, ensuring a color and exposure baseline throughout the scene, creating and managing custom looks, doing sample grades to identify problematic exposures, etc. I've found working as a RED Tech in this way, where I'm actually contributing to the image, to be far more enjoyable. Occasionally I've been asked to pull focus and/or perform the duties of the 2nd AC in addition to managing the workflow. This is truly ridiculous and I have no desire to work with any production that would deny colleagues work or run someone ragged just to save a little money. There's obviously a lot of confusion these days regarding the DIT's job description, but we are not camera assistants. That is someone else's job and a completely separate skill set. If this is the trend, then it needs to stop.

Another issue I have with all of this regards rates. It seems a lot of productions have gotten used to paying someone, often times someone with little training or qualifications, a couple hundred bucks a day to download and manage their media. They call this person a "DIT". This then sets a precedent for such unacceptably low rates. When these same productions call me to DIT on something that actually requires some video engineering, I tell them my rate and they're often very surprised. I often don't hear from them again. What's happening right now isn't good for anyone. More on this later..

Now meet another Data Wrangler. A new product from 1 Beyond that is designed to streamline and take some of the variables out of the tapeless workflow. And yes it wants your job ;)

It's a great idea. It looks expensive though and I didn't see any prices anywhere. This would be fantastic on a Phantom shoot with its 10GB Ethernet connection. No more overnight downloads from the CineMag. Seems like it would be good for multi-cam too where you had lots of different formats to deal with. One box to take care of it all. I like the sound of that.

I'd love to try out The Data Wrangler. If anyone in NY has it and would be so kind as to show it to me, let me know.

Phantom announces Remote Control Unit

Phantom announces Remote Control Unit

From the VRI website: "Our new Phantom Remote Control Unit is a 5" life saver!  This small, lightweight, hand-held device controls your Phantom digital high-speed cameras as well as a providing a video monitor all in one package.

The RCU supports the entire high-speed imaging workflow. Set up the camera, trigger the shot, view the cine on the LCD screen, trim to the frames of interest, and save the result to a CineMag. Without ever touching the camera!

The 5" TFT touch screen technologyallows you to control a camera with just the tap of your finger. A scroll/jog dial gives you an alternate (and fast!) way to change many settings or to scrub through a recorded cine."

Hmmm.. seems like they've been inspired by the Weisscam ;) Seriously though, interfacing wirelessly for high speed recording makes a lot of sense and it's one the most useful features of the Weisscam. I've never been a huge fan of the Phantom control software and this to me seems like it will make the workflow faster and more intuitive. The unit will probably be expensive too and I don't predict it will be something thrown in with the package for nothing. It's not really a necessary accessory and "operator comfort" isn't production's highest priority so this may be a hard sell from a rental perspective. I REALLY hope to find one in the case on my next Phantom job though. Less cable. Less laptops. Less headaches. Sign me up. 

http://focus.visionresearch.com/?p=186

http://www.visionresearch.com/index.cfm?sector=htm/files&page=Remote_Control_Unit