monitor and recorder? When is it appropriate to use monitors and recorders?
camera manufacturers will make many compromises for the power consumption and cost of mirrorless cameras . For example, the size and quality of the display screen on the back of the camera can be used for ordinary monitoring and material playback, but It is impossible to accurately control the exposure, accurately confirm the focus, and accurately control the color of the video material. The display screen on the back of the camera and the electronic viewfinder cannot be compared with professional monitors in terms of size, brightness, resolution and color space. A small monitor can be paired with a mirrorless camera to get a very good shooting experience.
For ordinary shooting, a professional monitor is not a necessary accessory, but in many cases, the display screen of the camera body is not easy to use. For example, when shooting under the scorching sun, you may not be able to see clearly the parameter information on the camera screen, and you cannot confirm whether the focus is in focus or whether the exposure is normal; many cameras do not have flip-up screens, and you cannot see your position in the picture when taking selfies. , it is also impossible to judge whether the focus is in focus and the exposure.
1. Why use a monitor? What is the role of a monitor?
Let’s take Atomos’ 5.2-inch monitor Shinobi as an example to introduce the role of a monitor. This size is one of the smallest sizes among current camera monitors. The front projection size and screen size are similar to iPhone When displaying 16:9 video, the upper and lower sides of the display will be cropped, so the area that can actually display video is only about 1/3 of the Atomos Shinobi monitor.
If you just want a larger monitor when shooting videos, your mobile phone can actually do the job. Open the Imaging Edge Mobile App on your mobile phone, turn on "Use Smartphone Control" in the camera, and then you can use your mobile phone to control it. View the screen as a remote monitor. However, a mobile phone is an intelligent communication tool, not a professional video monitor. Taking the iPhone XS Max as an example, the maximum brightness is 625nits, which is still far behind the Atomos Shinobi’s 1000nits. Professional monitors have more advantages when taking pictures under the scorching sun. The color gamut and color accuracy of mobile phone screens are also far behind professional monitors. In addition to the brighter screen and more accurate colors of the
professional monitor, the built-in tools are also its most valuable core functions. Through the Atomos Shinobi monitor, you can easily view waveform oscilloscopes, RGB oscilloscopes, vector oscilloscopes, histograms, peak focus , zebra patterns, false colors, and zoom in at a 4:1/2:1/1:1 ratio. Frame lines, anamorphic widescreen stretching and restoration, using Atomos Analysis analysis tools, using mainstream camera gamma display assistance, and loading 8 custom 3D LUT files. The orientation of the screen display can also be mirrored and flipped up and down to facilitate monitoring in a variety of mounting positions.
For mirrorless camera users, several functions of the Atomos Shinobi monitor need to be highlighted. The first is 3D LUT loading. This function is very important for users who need to perform post-color correction on their video works. Photographers can use log curves to shoot videos, load their own 3 OLUT files on the monitor, and get a rough idea of the video color after post-production color grading while shooting. Importing 3D LUT files is also very simple, just import it directly from the SD card slot on the side of the fuselage.
starts the Atomos Analysis analysis tool. The monitor screen can simultaneously accommodate video images and tools such as oscilloscope , vector oscilloscope, histogram, volume level, etc., and these tools will not block the shooting screen, so the photographer can change the shooting screen. Focus on video creation.
Atomos Shinobi monitor provides two tools for judging video focus. One is the screen magnification tool, which can enlarge any position on the screen at a ratio of 4:1, 2:1, 1:1. After enlarging, you can drag it by hand. Magnify the position to further confirm the focus of the picture. In addition to the conventional "peak color", Atomos Shinobi's peak focus tool also includes a three-level image sharpening function, which can more intuitively check whether the focus of the video image is in focus.
Most video shooters can use the built-in recording function of the camera to complete the shooting. If they want to further improve the image quality and bring more space for post-production color correction, a recorder with an external recording function is more suitable. Atomos Ninja is a compact video recorder that is ideal for compact shooting equipment. The Atomos NinjaV recorder has all the features of an Atomos Shinobi monitor, while also providing external recording capabilities. Through the HDMI 2.0 interface, the Atomos Ninja V recorder can record 4K60p10bit video, encoded as ProRes and DNxHR. The recording medium is a hard disk. The usual option is SSD or the AtomX mini SSD specially designed for this recorder.
2. Why use a recorder to record videos instead of using the camera itself?
Camera manufacturers consider the size and power consumption when designing the camera body. They want the camera to be powerful, but also compact and power-saving. The final volume The products produced are often the product of multiple trade-offs. In order to achieve higher-quality recording and higher-quality display effects, the power consumption of the camera will be greater, the volume will be larger, and the heat dissipation system of the camera will be larger. The recorder brings these functions to the camera. Done from outside.
goes on to explain the camera's ability to record video. A camera's video performance includes its ability to record video using the camera and its ability to output video through an interface such as HDMI, and there is often a difference between the two. When the camera directly records video, it will sharpen and reduce noise on the video to make the directly recorded video look more beautiful. A recorder is a professional film and television equipment. Recording with a recorder does not process the video material in any way. It can be understood that what the recorder records is the most realistic video material recorded by the camera sensor. The video material recorded by the
recorder may appear to be somewhat different from that recorded by the camera in terms of noise and picture clarity. According to the film and television industry process, the degree of noise reduction and sharpening should be controlled by the post-processing personnel. It's not determined by the camera. The difference between using a camera to record video directly and outputting video through an interface such as HDMI is not only reflected in the above aspects, but also the video quality between the two. Taking Sony a7II as an example, the camera directly records 8bit4:2:0 video, and the output through HDMI is 8bit4:2:2 video. The unified recording format of Atomos NinjaV recorder is 10bit4:2:2 video, Sony The a7Ⅲ outputs 8bit4:2:2 through HDMI. After the video is packaged into 10bit4:2:2 video by the Atomos Ninja V recorder, it is cleaner than the 8bit4:2:0 video recorded directly by the camera after keying or color correction. Of course, this gap is not as big as the difference between the direct recording of Canon EOS R and Nikon Z6 and Z7 cameras and the recording of Atomos Ninja V recorder. The videos recorded by these three camera bodies are all 8bit 4:2:0 videos. HDMI output can reach 10bit4:2:2 video level, and video quality can be greatly improved through recorder recording.
3. What host is suitable for shooting Vlog?
Everyone has different requirements for shooting Vlog, and has different financial strength and physical strength, so the shooting host chosen is also different. A creator may use several hosts at the same time when shooting Vlog. Choosing a shooting host doesn’t just mean choosing a camera, it also means choosing a series of processes such as lens combination, recording solution, tripod and stabilizer solution, and post-processing solution. This chapter introduces the mainstream Vlog shooting host selection and host setup plans. Later, we will continue to introduce how to build your own Vlog equipment.
