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Interviewing with HDSLRs - Part 3, Viewfinders
It might seem curious to focus on just one HDSLR accessory, but you’d be surprised how many times we get asked about optical viewfinders. There are two important points to consider for this discussion:
1. Adding a viewfinder to an HDLSR is a game-changer. It adds a new level of stability, control & capability that cannot be duplicated without a viewfinder.
However,
2. Generally speaking, you don’t need a viewfinder to conduct interviews. In fact, if you’re doing a “slow entry” into the world of HDSLR shooting, then do yourself a favor & save your money to buy the RIGHT viewfinder for when you REALLY need it.
The tweeting/blogging/review community is pushing all kinds of cheap viewfinders. In talking with people who have tried out some of these in an attempt to save money, I remain confident that our investment in the Zacuto Z-Finder was money well-spent. It’s no secret that this is the best-constructed option with all the features we need. And if construction isn’t as important as saving money, consider this: many of the lower-cost viewfinders use plastic optics, which means that it can’t be treated with anti-fog spray or wipes, which creates all kinds of “amateur-night” issues on a shoot that you might not realize when you’re just doing some backyard tests.
I continue to believe that you get what you pay for with viewfinders.
I really like a viewfinder as a stabilization device. When rehearsing a complicated scene, I use it in conjunction with the camera’s “magnify” feature, a follow focus & sharpie to make my pull marks. But the camera’s low-resolution LCD screen itself isn’t going to help you focus that well no matter how close you are to it or how much it’s enlarged. (If you haven’t shot on a DSLR, it’s important to note that once you hit the record button, you can’t use the magnify feature to check focus. That function is unavailable.)
Back to the original question—for interviews, I set my ISO, shutter speed & f-stop, magnify the eyes, focus, un-magnify, re-frame & start rolling. (Which is why I don’t shoot with a very aggressive f-stop during interviews, because the viewfinder isn’t going to show you if your subject is drifting a bit out of focus anyway, and it would be very difficult to try to track with them to keep them in.) I’d rather comfortably watch the LCD monitor than lean into viewfinder if the end result is going to be the same anyway . . .
If you were interviewing a terminator cyborg, or someone with chain mail instead of skin, the LCD screen would do okay showing you if the focus was off. But the current generation of DSLR LCD screens isn’t helping us ensure that people stay in focused. In fact, we ask subjects not to wear pin stripes & to remove their glasses . . . the types of things that would actually HELP us stay in focus if we wanted to shoot shallow & track focus using the on-board LCD monitor.
Of course, this is where a monitor like the Marshall V-LCD70XP-HDMI comes in particularly handy. If you want to shoot an interview with an aggressive f-stop, you’ll want a higher resolution monitor to do it.
And beyond the challenges that the low-resolution LCD screen create for focusing, because the LCD viewfinder is so small, objects look more in focus than they really are. (This is the other edge of the sword.) The temptation is to constantly try to create a more shallow focus field, because the background objects appear to be more in-focus that we want them to be. But that’s an illusion. Once you get the footage (even at f/4.0) onto a monitor, you’ll see that the background was a LOT softer than it looked like on the camera’s LCD screen. (Oh, and this is where you’ll notice if your subject wasn’t in focus, or where they drifted out if you were shooting at a particularly fast f-stop.)
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Comments
Spending a week and a half in Kenya shooting on both a 5D and 7D, I was so wishing I had Z-Finder or the Marshall! The rental that I traveled with came with the Hoodman HoodLoupe and proved to be really cumbersome, barely connected with cheap straps. All that to say I was still really had “a” viewfinder. At least they make catchy promo videos: http://bit.ly/uaMvf
By Randy Warren on Feb 27, 2010 - 8:55pm
I have a 15” monitor (cheap LCD with HDMI in) that I have found is useless as a monitor for my 7D.
The HVX200 and it go hand in hand, but as it shrinks the resolution with the 7D, and it just looks dreadful…I don’t know. I just don’t like it. Is the 7D just inherently bad at using an external monitor? Technically, it’s not a real function for it…live monitoring.
Not sure.
By Brandon Christensen on Feb 27, 2010 - 9:57pm
I’ve heard that when you hit record on all the Canon camera’s the monitor output on the HDMI out switcher to SD. Is that true for other ports as well?
By Mike Jones on Mar 1, 2010 - 1:21am
For me, the main challenge with HDSLR rigs is accurately judging focus and lighting. Here’s how I’ve solved it for our needs:
A year ago we shot a trio of spots for a brokerage client on a 5D MkII. The main technical problem that had to be solved was how to get picture out of the camera and routed to reliable professional monitors. I’ve tried out HDMI monitors made by Marshall, Videologic (or some brand that sounds like that) and a couple of other cheaper brands, and while some have enough resolution for focusing, they’re all completely worthless for making critical judgements about lighting, loss of detail in highlights, etc. In our case, I needed to drive an 8.4” Panasonic which was on the dolly with the camera, and a c-stand mounted 17” Panasonic for lighting, art department, client, etc. Both monitors have scopes and pretty good colorimetry, so they are reliable enough to light off of.
The problem is that the camera switches from 1080i to 480P (as Mike mentioned above) when you’re actually rolling. The fact that it output 480P instead of 480i meant that adaptors by AJA (at the time) and others did not work, since 480P is not a standard ATSC resolution, so the picture would go dead. After much hair pulling, at the last minute I found a Gefen HDMI to HDSDI converter box which seems to be aimed at the AV projector installation market. It was the only box that (at the time, anyway) could handle the 480P input off of the camera during recording. I have it set up to transcode everything into 1080i, which the Panasonics handle nicely. When lighting and framing between shots, the camera spits out 1080P and its transcoded to 1080i. As soon as you hit record, the box takes a couple of seconds to relock, then transcodes the 480P output into 1080i.
I just shot another trio of spots for the same brokerage last week, and pushed the setup one step further by looping HD-SDI through the Panasonics and feeding a big plasma for the client’s video village. As you might imagine, it’s a lot easier to run 100 feet of BNC cable than HDMI. Ironically, at the end of the line (client video village) I had to use an AJA HD-SDI to HDMI adaptor to convert the signal back into HDMI to feed the plasma.
It all looked stunningly good, and because so many people (gaffer, art dept., clients) were able to keep their eyes on the image, we had great results. I told a number of people on the crew to be sure to speak up if they noticed anything problematic with focus, framing, etc. These little cameras *can* produce amazing pictures, but to guarantee every shot matches the masters and reverses and to get the lighting to look its best, you need to expend a lot of effort. There’s very little margin of error.
A few other comments: My whole approach to this camera is based on the fact that I came up through video, so unlike film people or RED people I’m happy to lock in choices in the field about exposure and lighting. You really can’t do a lot to change the look in post, due to the compression and color depth. You’ve got to get it 80%+ of the way there when you’re in the field. (Hence the need for accurate monitoring.)
Also, I don’t attempt to hand-hold these cameras. They’re just too small.
By Martin Baumgaertner on Mar 1, 2010 - 4:19pm
When I demoed the Zacuto Sharp Shooter rig, I really liked having that extra point of contact with the eyepiece. It made a huge difference for me as an operator. I like to use my whole body to steady and control moves.
By Matthew Orchowski on Mar 2, 2010 - 12:58am
Matthew, I tried one of those, too, when they were designing them, and you’re right, the ergonomics are a lot better. For me the issue remains that in most situations that little LCD is not enough to judge critical focus, even with their viewfinder.
Plus, I’m usually trying to capture audio in situations like that, and the audio on the 5D is not usable without doing 2-piece recording.
By Martin Baumgaertner on Mar 2, 2010 - 8:21am
We’ve just got our Z-Finder a few weeks ago and it’s a night and day difference. Without it I found myself practically shooting blind in the noon-day sun.
An unexpected benefit is how much more intent I am on the recorded image when using the Z-Finder. It’s like it drains out all the distractions in the periphery and makes it all about what’s happening on camera.
I too ditch it during interviews. We use MacBook Pros as preview monitors in that instance.
By Justin Jackson on Mar 2, 2010 - 3:49pm
I wonder why it took technology to “show us what we see”. Even though I don’t have the skill or the gear, I get the benefit of seeing it over and over again. WIth this new technology and high skill of guys like Dave and Nick, they make it possible for me to “stare”. Stareing (sp?) is like hearing a wonderful melody over and over again. It allows me to “meditate visually”.
I don’t understand a whole lot about it. But now, any place I go, the video guys are the hippest guys I room. I guess I should have taken up photography instead of music. But seldom, these days, is visual and music seperated. Even if a picture has no music the “silence sings”.
I’m so glad to be alive!
I am among the easily impressed
By Stan Endicott on Mar 7, 2010 - 11:08am
What I meant to say earlier was that video guys are the hippest guys in the room. check out eyesconference.com
By Stan Endicott on Mar 8, 2010 - 12:01am
hey guys, so great to see so many people sharing their knowledge here!
What I do for monitoring is use the $800 SmallHD DP1 - it’s a 9 inch 1280x768 resolution monitor and it handles anything my 5dmkII as well as my Red One. It’s kind of fiddly sometimes, but it’s a pretty good price point.
Since the 5dmkII switches to SD when it’s recording, to judge focus and lighting, after the take, I check playback on a samsung 23 inch 1080p lcd I picked up for under $300. Being a consumer tv it’s not accurate color wise but some hand calibration gets me closeish. I can definitely judge if the take is in focus or not. It works for what we do, but I don’t shoot a lot of documentary… I did try just using a spare monitor I had lying around with an HDMI to DVI converter cable but unless the monitor has a scaler, the 5dmkII will default the output to 480. At least it did with the one monitor I tried, leading me to buy that TV instead.
By maxwax11 on Mar 15, 2010 - 11:25am
Hey great info, after following this information it has realy helped, so thanks for posting.
By Guy on Aug 27, 2010 - 5:37am
I traveled with came with the Hoodman HoodLoupe and proved to be really cumbersome, barely connected with cheap straps. All that to say I was still really had “a” viewfinder. At least they make catchy promo videos
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By shimulh on Sep 3, 2010 - 1:11pm
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