Pro Moviemaker Nov/Dec 2016 sampler

GROUP TEST: CINE PRIMES The low-down on essential glass for filmmakers

TRUE FUTURE COLORS OF VR

How to keep colour consistent across clips

Unlock the potential of 360 & VR

The ultimate magazine for next generation filmmakers

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2016 @ProMoviemaker

www.promoviemaker.net

TESTED

RISE OF THE RAVEN

Hands-on with the most affordable RED to date

CINEMATIC

EVOLUTION TODAY’S TECH FOR TOMORROW’S FILMMAKERS BUYERS’ GUIDE

MONITORS Find the ideal model to suit your budget

REVIEWED

CANON EOS 80D

Could this be the perfect backup camera?

PLUS

Gimbals: Insider knowledge VR sound: Understanding immersive audio Running a 4K workflow The headlines from IBC

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2016

CONTENTS

26

NEWS

6 WHAT’S NEW

Find out what’s happening in the industry with the latest news and announcements from around the globe.

FEATURES

20 INTERVIEW: JAY RED

After winning the Judges’ Prize category of the My RØDE Reel competition, Jay Red is now making quite a name for himself.

26 CASE STUDY: NO BUDGET

Filmmaker Tom Getty made his own feature length blockbuster for just $6000!

So how did he manage to pull it off?

ACADEMY

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34 HOW TO: CONTROL COLOUR

Our resident expert Larry Jordan looks at colour correction and shows you the best way to achieve colour consistency across all of your clips.

38 MAKING SENSE OF VR

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Virtual reality and 360° filmmaking are the two most exciting growth areas in filmmaking. We take a look at their huge potential in our new series.

43 THE SOUND OF THE FUTURE

With virtual reality and 360° video you have to record sound in a way that works in harmony with the immersive visuals.

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46 USING A GIMBAL

Three filmmakers share their experiences of using a gimbal, and discuss how it has influenced their approach to shooting.

MOVIE MATTERS

54 ASK THE EXPERTS

Find out what kit you need to become an action sports filmmaker, and do you need a higher education to be a filmmaker?

58 RAISING THE BAR

Dan Chung considers the difficulty faced by many filmmakers today – how to stand out from the crowd?

63 RUNNING A 4K WORKFLOW

Moving up from HD to 4K may not be as drastic as you think, and the benefits are undeniably attractive.

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73 70 THE NEWS FROM ABOVE

Stay up to date with the latest news and product launches from the world of aerial filmmaking.

73 DRONEKHANA

What do you get when the world’s best drone pilots and stunt car drivers meet? High octane excitement captured like never before.

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GEAR

82 RED RAVEN

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Featuring a 4K DRAGON sensor and up to 240fps in 2K, the RED RAVEN looks set to make waves as the most affordable RED.

89 CANON EOS 80D

Canon’s latest consumer DSLR is packed with features aimed at filmmakers. But with a lack of 4K, is it a realistic option?

95 MINI TESTS

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Check out some of the newest and most exciting filmmaking cameras and accessories available right now.

101 GROUP TEST: CINE PRIMES

We test out a selection of dedicated cinema prime lens systems that offer you colour-consistent, high-quality footage.

110 BUYERS’ GUIDE: MONITORS

Extend the capabilities of your camera with a non-recording monitor. We explore eight fantastic options.

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LATEST UPDATES

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LATEST UPDATES

IBC 2016 signs off in style The latest IBC show, which took place in Amsterdam in mid-September, has been declared a huge success, having attracted record numbers of visitors. The headline attendance figure was 55,796 over the six days of the conference and exhibition. This is the number of attendees not registrations – the people who were actually on site, who came from more than 160 countries. The exhibition featured over 1,800 exhibitors, including 249 companies at their first IBC. Pro Moviemaker was yet again a media partner to the event and thousands of copies of the latest issue, plus the first Bright-produced issue of new sister title Definition, were picked up by delegates throughout the course of the show.

One of the most popular sessions at IBC featured celebrated director Ang Lee talking about – and demonstrating – how he has employed remarkable technology to create a strong sense of engagement in his new movie, Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk. Specially created for IBC, the clip from the forthcoming movie was projected at 120 frames-per-second in 4K 3D, using Christie’s 6P laser projection and Dolby Atmos. Lee was also the recipient this year of IBC’s highest award, the International Honour for Excellence.

The audience also saw the most unusual acceptance speech yet at an IBC Awards Ceremony. NASA received the Judges’ Prize, and IBC was thanked in a special message from astronaut Kate Rubins in the International Space Station. On another positive note the conference programme at IBC was reorganised this year to provide a clearer, more easily navigated structure and a focus on the content value chain. Over the five days some 435 speakers presented more than 100 sessions.

Across the assorted exhibition floors there was plenty to see and appreciate and over the next few pages we’ve got reports about some of the new products that were unveiled at the show. We’ve also got a special focus on the VR aspects of the show, something that’s grown hugely since the 2015 event. Lots to talk about then, so read on to find out more about the launches and announcements that helped to create such a buzz around the event.

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TOM GETTY CASE STUDY

MOVIE ON A SHOESTRING BUDGET

NO BUDGET, NO PROBLEM For filmmaker Tom Getty making his own feature film was the Holy Grail. By taking on enough roles to make most people weep, and working with a budget of just £4530/$6000, Tom realised his dream when he made Rising Fear WORDS JAMES ABBOTT

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uccess is difficult to quantify because it means so many things to different people.

But for Tom Getty it’s meant pouring everything into producing his own featurelength action movie. With a story, a bucketload of dedication, skill but no budget to kick things off, Rising Fear has beaten the odds by achieving phenomenal success. Not only did it reach number two on the Amazon new-release bestseller chart, it won two awards: Best Action Feature at the GI Film Festival and Best Feature at the 2016 MCA-TV Film Festival. And this has been alongside receiving top billing at the Action on Film festival in September.

So how did this all come about?

Tom has loved storytelling since childhood, and until he got his first DV camera when he was 14, writing stories was the next best thing to making films. It when his eighth grade teacher let him make a film instead of writing a book report on the story, Flowers for Algernon, that he directed his first successful short film. The reactions to that film were the fuel on the fire that has driven him ever since.

But what motivates someone to make a featurelength film, packed with special effects, with next to no budget?

“Storytelling has always been my main interest, and a short movie only lets you dig so deep. With each short I made I wanted it to be longer and longer so I could unearth greater feelings and emotions,” Tom says. “I was blown away when I saw Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight at the cinema.

After this I watched his first film, Following, which he made for £4530/$6000 dollars. This made me realise there was a bridge between where I was at 20, and then some day making a powerful movie like The Dark Knight. If I wanted to be a movie director, making a feature film was something I had to do.”

After a chance meeting with Tom Cruise while Cruise was filming Jack Reacher in Pittsburgh, Tom knew that he wanted to do more than simply direct his own feature-length movie. He planned to do as much as he could, which meant writing, directing, producing and starring in it. But in the end, he took on even more than he first envisioned.

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ACADEMY MAKING SENSE OF VR

MAKING SENSE OF VR

CONQUERING THE

WORLD

Virtual reality and its close cousin 360° filmmaking are the two most exciting growth areas in the market right now and it’s crucial to understand the potential they have to offer WORDS TERRY HOPE

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MAKING SENSE OF VR

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ou would need to be going around with your eyes tight shut not to have come across virtual reality (VR) and 360° filmmaking by now. Between them they offer an exceptional opportunity for those who are looking to add profitable new lines to their businesses. The only problem is that it’s still such early days that many would-be clients have yet to work out their strategy in this area, while filmmakers themselves don’t as yet know enough about the new technology or how to exploit it in a commercial way to get fully involved.

The aim of this series will be to dispel a few of the myths and to explain, through the voice of experts, a little more about what’s required to get involved in VR and 360° filmmaking and to look at how the techniques involved might have to be adapted from the conventional approach. Nothing is quite the same once you step into the virtual world, whether it be storyboarding, lighting, audio recording, directing or editing.

However, those brave souls who have already taken that leap into the unknown are proving that it doesn’t need to be a frightening experience, while the advantages of being at the cutting edge of technology can be immense, giving you a head start in a area that could ultimately experience almost limitless growth.

Leading the pack One of those already fully immersed in VR and 360 is Guildford-based marketing technology and content company Phygital who, as the name might suggest, are involved with physical technology as well as digital content and experience.

Along with the filmmaking the company also has skillsets in areas as diverse as game design, programming and 3D animation, and they’ve proved beyond any doubt that the market is now ready for the virtual world. Uses so far include ‘live’ environments such as exhibitions, experiential campaigns and installations, and VR has proved itself to be a natural fit into its offerings.

“We started using the technology right from the first Oculus Kickstarter campaign,”

says Chris Savage, Phygital’s MD, “and we produced our first 360 content back in early 2014. As an early adopter of the technology we introduced it to all our clients as they were all looking for new ways to stand out. Many of them had not experienced this technology before, however, so educating clients on its potential usefulness has been a priority. From there it takes a while for them to work out how it fits within their marketing plans. The market for real-time VR is slow but gaining momentum; however it’s the use of 360 video that we’ve really seen take off over the last year, and it’s led us to form a specialist company to handle this, called 360VR.” Initially Phygital saw both VR and 360 formats as part of the same solution but in Chris’ view the market has now definitely shifted in favour of the latter, following the advent of YouTube

“The market for real-time VR is slow but gaining momentum; however it’s the use of 360 video that we’ve really seen take off” Clients are increasingly asking companies to produce 360 content rather than VR as so few people own a headset.

VR and 360 present unique challenges to filmmakers that can make it tricky to price projects accurately.

and Facebook 360 playback. “More often than not clients just want this rather than it going onto a headset,” says Chris. “With these media they get a wider reach as very few people own a headset through which to experience the content. Full VR productions are put together in a different way to conventional video. Using game engines such as Unreal and Unity has made production straightforward, but it’s still a lot more expensive and time consuming to produce a quality VR product than it is to shoot a straightforward video. So while 360 video is certainly gaining momentum quickly, for us real time VR is still in its infancy and at the moment is really only a good fit for very specific applications.”

Pricing the product One of the key issues with new technology is reaching a price point that balances the inevitable cost of investment and of leading the field with the fact that budgets are always tight and you’re

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MOVIE MATTERS STAND OUT FROM THE CROWD UP YOUR GAME

At a time when competition has never been stronger and the all-round level of excellence in film production never higher, Dan Chung muses on the difficulties facing filmmakers looking to stand out WORDS DAN CHUNG

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STAND OUT FROM THE CROWD

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actual television is looking great these days. Watch almost any recent documentary on the BBC or Netflix and you’ll see well-shot imagery of the kind that was once the sole preserve of well-funded feature films. As a viewer, I love it. Even previously dowdy daytime shows suddenly look a bit more attractive and the same can be said for many commercials and corporate videos.

In fact, it all looks a bit too good – so good in fact that I think it’s much harder these days to make your talent stand out.

Of course, this is partly the result of the seismic shift over to large-sensored cameras offering eye-wateringly high definition. Like many others I was really excited when video-enabled DSLRs finally came of age and allowed me to capture the real world in a cinematic way. The Canon EOS 5D Mark II, RED and ARRI ALEXA models have transformed the industry forever, while operators have upped their game too, honing their craft so that they can really harness the new kit and make good use of it. It’s not that the skills required have got any simpler: mastering shallow depth-of-field and Log and so on remains as complex as ever. But now more filmmakers than ever are knuckling down to make sure they can produce great-looking programmes.

Given this fact I would argue that we’ve reached a plateau, especially in key areas such as wildlife and sport. I suspect we’re now entering an era of relative stability regarding the way that factual programmes look. In many ways that wouldn’t be such a bad thing: the pace of change has been staggering recently, compared to the relatively slow evolution that took place back in the 70s, 80s and 90s. Of course, there were always exceptional programmes that broke with convention, but these tended to prove the rule. Having said that, never discount the possibility that there’s a genius tech developer and camera-wielding prodigy out there somewhere who will prove me wrong by coming up with some radical breakthrough in the near future!

“I would argue that we’ve reached a plateau, especially in key areas such as wildlife and sport” of stunning shots from cameras that had been cleverly placed to deliver different angles, but was the overall result noticeably better than the coverage from London 2012? Short of putting a camera on an athlete’s head – and they’ve already come close to that in the cycling where one of the views was from the rider’s saddle – I think we are probably close to the creative limits of camera placement already.

True, the latest wonder camera or lens might give you a slightly higher definition image – and I’ll still be hankering after the next bit of kit for that very reason – but it will probably be nothing that the average person will notice. I’m not saying it isn’t worth striving for these smaller improvements, rather that they are less of a distinguishing characteristic than before. If your goal is to make it look like film, you can pretty much do that already.

The Canon EOS 5D Mark II, RED and ARRI ALEXA models have changed television filmmaking forever, allowing the real world to be captured in a cinematic way.

Big jump The last big jump was to cinematiclooking television and camera gadgets – gimbals, drones, sliders – that allowed small-budget productions to get bigproduction effects. The shots are just so good now that it’s hard to see how they can get much better, either technically or aesthetically. Improvements – in terms of the kinds of changes that viewers can see and care about – seem to be much more incremental at the moment.

Just look at the recent Olympic coverage from Rio. Yes, there were lots

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GEAR RED RAVEN

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RED RAVEN TESTED SPECIFICATIONS Prices: £4494/$5950 brain only, £7364/$9750 brain/ Jetpack Package, £7515/$9950 brain/Base I/O Package Sensor: 8.8-megapixel RED DRAGON CMOS Pixel array (HxV): 4096x 2160. Effective Pixels 4608 x 2160 Sensor size: 20.4x10.8x 23.2mm/0.8x0.4x0.9in (approx. APS-C equivalent) Dynamic range: 16.5+ stops S/N ratio: 80dB Recording frame rates: 4K (4096x2160) up to 120fps, 3K (3072x1620) up to 160fps, 2K (2048x1080) up to 240fps

There was huge excitement when RED announced the RAVEN, its most approachable camera to date, complete with a DRAGON sensor. Jim Marks takes a closer look to check out its credentials WORDS JIM MARKS

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o you remember the days when Ducati motorcycles were beautiful exotic Italian works of art?

These were the machines that built a reputation for salty electrics, whose sole purpose was to leave you suddenly stranded on the side of road. Now, of course, they use the same Bosch electrics as every other global manufacturer and are owned by that paragon of German efficiency Audi. They are still attractive, design-led machines it’s just now they’re as reliable as a Honda or Yamaha and they start at the push of a button.

RED cameras have enjoyed a similar condition in the minds of the most tribal of beings, the camera connoisseur. To those who haven’t experienced the latest RED cameras they may be thought of as noisy, temperamental, bug-ridden, slow and suffering from an unconventional naming

policy (here they may have a point!). That said, like the bikes, an undeserved reputation based on a camera made well over a decade ago has no relevance now. All cameras have foibles with their respective strengths and weaknesses, but today all of the major players make great cameras. The differences can chiefly be found in usability, colour, codec and how they feel in the hands of the individual.

People do have short memories, because without RED being disruptive, first with Raw recordings and then 4K, the naturally conservative Japanese manufacturers would never have responded as they did. It’s worth remembering that we do, at this moment, live in a golden age of camera development where there is literally an option for every use and size available at increasingly affordable levels. In fact the endless upgrades and choices in

“The introduction of a fresh, smaller, more efficient design with the inclusion of the DRAGON sensor”

FACING At 1588g/3.5lb, RED’s DSMC2 series RAVEN is noticeably more lightweight than cameras in the previous DSMC range.

Playback frame rates: 23.98, 24, 25, 29.97, 47.96, 48, 50, 59.94fps, all resolutions REDCODE compression: 3:1 maximum available REDCODE for 4K at 24fps, 7:1 maximum available REDCODE for 4K at 60fps, 13:1 max available REDCODE for 4K at 120fps Typical max recording time using RED MINI-MAG 129GB: 4K and 24fps at 11:1 REDCODE: 64mins, 4K and 60fps at 14:1 REDCODE: 33mins, 4K and 120fps at 14:1 REDCODE: 16mins Apple ProRes: 422, 422 HQ and 422 LT up to 2K and up to 60fps Monitor outputs: 3G-SDI (HD-SDI) and HDMI with expander modules, 1080p RGB or 4:2:2, 720p RGB or 4:2:2, 480p RGB or 4:2:2 (HDMI Only), SMPTE Timecode, HANC Metadata, 24-bit 48kHz Audio Audio: Integrated dual channel digital stereo microphones, uncompressed, 24-bit 48kHz. Optional 2 additional channels with Expander Module Remote control: Built-in wireless/Ethernet, RS232 and GPI Trigger functionality with expander modules Weight: 1588g/3.5lb brain (with Media Bay and Canon lens mount) Dimensions: 144 x 90mm

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GEAR MINI TESTS

MANFROTTO LYKOS DAYLIGHT Price: £300/$450

www.manfrotto.com

SPECIFICATION Brightness dial: 100-0% flicker-free Remote operation: Bluetooth dongle Array: 48 SMT (Surface Mount Technology) LEDs CRI index: >93 Output: Offers 1600 lux max at one metre/3.3 ft Colour temperature: 5600K PRO MOVIEMAKER RATING 8.5/10 Highly transportable and with excellent quality light output Pros: Small, lightweight and powerful light Cons: Could break if you don’t take good care of it

Filmmakers, even those of the run-and-gun variety who like to work with the circumstances they find, have a requirement for supplementary lighting at times.

What’s ideally required is something compact, portable and powerful that can tuck into the side of a case and be ready at a moment’s notice.

Fitting the bill admirably is the Lykos Daylight unit from Manfrotto, which features a lightweight, slim design, a handle on the side to enable ease of use in the field, 48 Surface Mount Technology (SMT) LEDs that have been designed to deliver improved optical efficiency and a CRI of >93% to ensure high colour accuracy along with 1600 lux max brightness at 1m/3.3ft.

The colour temperature of the Daylight unit is a constant 5600K

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and its brightness is adjustable flicker-free by a 100-0% dimmer.

Usefully the knob for this is positioned next to the handle on the side of the light, so it’s in exactly the right place for you to carry out your adjustments. There’s also an LCD on the rear of the unit to let you know at what intensity the light is at and how much battery power you have left.

This is illuminated so that you can carry out careful adjustments even when you’re working in the dark.

While the unit I had to test came with just a mains cable, there is a recessed L-Series battery mount on the rear that supports all Sony and third-party L-Series batteries, meaning that you can use it in the field wherever you may be. There’s also a set of diffusion gels included and an optional Lykos LED Softbox – which I didn’t have – is also available to enable more effective diffusion.

Two ¼in-20 mounting threads are also included: one on top and one on the bottom.

Another plus point for the Daylight is that is can also accept an optional Lykos Bluetooth dongle, meaning that you can operate the unit remotely via an iPhone app. If

PRO MOVIEMAKER NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2016

LEFT The Lykos Daylight is compatible with an optional Lykos Bluetooth dongle, which allows you to operate the unit remotely.

you’re working as a run-and-gun filmmaker on your own it means that you can position your light remotely and still operate it from your chosen shooting position.

Overall I was very impressed with this piece of kit. Its output is 5600K daylight balanced only, but you can adapt to shoot in tungsten conditions in a matter of moments by using a gel. Without a battery it weighs very little, meaning that it’s easy to carry around, but it did feel a little flimsy – I could see that handle snapping if you were to drop the unit for example – and I’m not sure how long it would stand up to life on the road.

That said it’s well priced, features admirable colour accuracy and will doubtless add an extra string to the bow of filmmakers of all kinds.

What’s not to like? TH

GEAR

CINE LENSES

PRIME TIME

PRIME CINEMA LENSES Many filmmakers now opt for dedicated cinema lenses rather than compromising by working with photographic optics. We test out a selection of those dedicated cinema primes with potential WORDS PHIL RHODES

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ver the past few decades electronic devices such as cameras have collapsed in value to the point where, now, they are almost a commodity. Cameras capable of making pictures that could unblinkingly be used on a major motion picture are available at prices that make them almost an impulse buy.

The things that have kept their value, though, are those that interface our technology to the world it’s intended to record, namely image sensors, microphones and, particularly, lenses.

The best optics are often assembled and adjusted precisely by hand, and the work involved can be enormous.

Calculating the vital statistics of a lens is quite complicated: some have fantastic sharpness, but lower contrast, while others have high contrast, but are softer, for instance, in the corners as opposed to the centre of the frame; and some do

well in all of the aforementioned areas, but flare more than others, or suffer from veiling, where the entire frame is washed out with light. Every lens has an essential character to it, with variation in the shape and colour of flares and out-of-focus artefacts, but some sets of lenses are far better matched than others in terms of these characteristics.

So, this is a round-up of the current state-of-the-art lens technology, a discussion of what the options are and what benefits and caveats exist at various price points. This time, we’re concentrating on prime lenses suitable for single-camera work on drama, commercials, music videos and other, similar, productions. Next issue, we’ll consider zooms suited to documentary and even news production. In both cases our purpose is to avoid the purgatory of stills lenses, with their flimsy build and awkward focusing.

In general, lenses are a vastly longerterm investment than a camera, which is why mount compatibility, coverage, size and weight is key. Regarding optical performance, as we’ve noted there are many metrics to consider and no absolute answers. Opinion is cheap, but lenses often aren’t, and the ones we’re looking at range from the high end to the most affordable options. They vary in price hugely, and were designed for very different goals.

This is, therefore, not an attempt to rank lenses in any order and nor is it a review or a test. Instead it’s a round-up of features and a discussion of the alternatives. The explosion of big-chip camera availability has created an appetite for lenses that seems unquenchable, with more companies releasing ranges every year, so examining the options is a big enough job in itself.

With that in mind, on with the show.

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GEAR BUYERS’ GUIDE SEVEN-INCH SAVIOURS

If you’re serious about filmmaking an external monitor of seven-inch will not only help you to produce better quality footage, it’ll make life a whole lot easier. With fantastic options for all budgets, it’s time to invest…

WORDS JAMES ABBOTT

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ll filmmakers want to produce the best possible footage for their clients, and, of course, themselves. And while many cameras include a small screen that’s adequate for shooting, nothing compares to a larger external monitor with additional features not offered by your camera.

The advantage of using an external monitor with a DSLR or mirrorless camera first and foremost comes down to size and visibility. That way you can frame shots more easily, and assess exposure with a greater degree of accuracy. But that’s not all: one of the most important uses of any screen is to focus, which is easier on a bigger screen. With an external monitor there will often be focus assisting features that will help you easily achieve sharper shots.

You may be thinking that the larger the screen the better, and although this is true, you have to balance size against logistics –

while a ten-inch screen is more comfortable to view, its size may outweigh its usefulness. So somewhere between here and the size of a standard camera screen is the optimal option.

An external monitor can also be angled to the best viewing position for shooting at a range of angles; high with the screen tilted back, or angled forwards for shooting low down, for instance. Plus other team members can view the screen during filming without the need for a pair of binoculars.

If squinting at a three-inch screen is giving you a headache, or if your camera doesn’t even have one, a small monitor is absolutely essential. If you’re happy with the way your camera records footage, a recording model would be unnecessary and these are often smaller than nonrecording models. So here are eight seven-inch non-recording monitors with features and prices to suit your budget and needs.

MONITORS JARGON BUSTER BRIGHTNESS: Also referred to as luminance, brightness is measured in nits or candelas per square metre (cd/m2). A higher number means a brighter screen.

CONTRAST RATIO: This refers to how deep blacks and bright whites can be displayed

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on the monitor. The higher the ratio the more ‘punchy’ and clearer the on-screen image will look.

DIRECT ACCESS CONTROLS: These are buttons, switches or dials offering access to settings without the need to use menus.

VIDEO INPUTS: All monitors come with a range of both video and audio inputs.

HDMI and SDI are the main types of connections carrying both video and audio, and SDI is the professional standard with several types and speeds available: SD, HD, 3G and 6G.

BUYERS’ GUIDE

Highly Recommended ★★★★★

TV LOGIC LVM-075A Price: £1688/$2205 Luminance: 600cd/m2 Resolution: 1920x1080 Inputs: HDMI, 3G-SDI Dimensions: 203x131x34.6mm/ 7.9x5.2x1.43in Weight: 1.04kg/2.29lb www.tvlogic.tv The TV Logic LVM-075A is packed with professional features designed to provide broadcast functionality. Picture quality is high thanks to Full HD resolution of 1920x1080 on the seven-inch screen.

The monitor also offers support for a diverse number of Log files for cameras and the Rec.709 colour space.

Other features include waveform and vectorscope monitoring, an audio level meter, focus assist and temperature adaptive colour. The latter is where the colour temperature is measured, and the unit automatically compensates the white-balance drift caused by weather conditions. For those who need them, closed captions are also supported.

The monitor isn’t the smallest or thinnest, and at 1.04kg/2.29 it’s double the weight of some of the others. While this won’t be a deal breaker for some because of the features on offer, the additional weight may be less attractive for those with larger, heavier cameras.

On the front of the screen you’ll find direct access controls allowing you to change settings fast and smoothly.

The brightness and contrast dials could prove particularly useful when shooting in bright conditions, although the optional sun hood would be worthwhile for keeping direct light away from the screen for more comfortable viewing.

Other optional extras that are worth considering at the point of purchase include the camera mount ball head for securely positioning the monitor, and the carrying case for transportation.

Pro: Professional features Con: Heavy

CINEMARTIN LOYAL 7 Price: £379/ $495 Luminance: 500-600cd/m2 Resolution: 1920x1080 Contrast ratio: 1000:1 Inputs: HDMI, HD-SDI Dimensions: 189x124x22mm/ 7.4x4.0x0.9in Weight: 422g/14.9oz (without battery plate) www.cinemartin.com If looks were enough to win over filmmakers, the Loyal 7 would have you drooling with its sleek design alone. But fear not, behind this elegant exterior there are a host of features that will make this monitor an attractive option.

With a Full HD 1920x1080 resolution alongside 16.7 million colours and a 1000:1 contrast ratio, the Loyal produces impressive image quality.

The Loyal 7 benefits from features called assist tools which control focusing and exposure. These include false colour, histogram, peaking, waveform and zoom. There are audio tools including audio meters and audio gain alongside standard settings to control the appearance of the on-screen image.

The lightweight and compact size make the Loyal perfect for DSLRs and CSCs, but it would be equally at home paired with larger camcorders. At just 422g/14.9oz it’s so light you’d barely notice the monitor on your camera or rig.

The control layout for the Loyal 7 is simple, with buttons found on the top of the monitor. This means you may not be able to access them as quickly as frontmounted controls, but you can focus on only the screen and what’s happening in front of the camera. A built-in speaker is useful for playback, but for sound monitoring there is a headphone socket.

All connections can be found on the bottom of the unit, adding to the clean appearance of the unit.

Pro: Fantastic value Con: Limited direct access controls

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