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Any use for a Samsung tablet while shooting/editing/in the field?
With my current phone plan I can get a Samsung Galaxy tablet for a monthly payment plan. I’m not really inclined to get what as I don’t know what I’d use it for that I can’t do on a smart phone, and I have a laptop with a docking station that I can use, but is there any use for a tablet? I can already do so much with a phone that I’m not sure what I’d use it for except in exceptional circumstances. It would still be $300 or something total.
Do any of you guys find tablets useful?
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20 Replies
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If you don’t know what you would use it for, then you don’t have
use for such a device.Steve Rhoden
(Cow Leader)
Film Editor & Compositor.
Filmex Creative Media.
https://www.facebook.com/FilmexCreativeMedia
1-876-461-9019 -
I have used a tablet via HDMI as a director monitor. Not calibrated, so was only good for showing how shot was framed. There are some cool ipad apps that show things like timecode, color bars, storyboards, shotlists,etc. With all the iphone filmmakers around I guess there is more demand then with android for the time being. We probably use it most to show demos at client meetings.
Colin Mendez Morris
ArsMusica
http://www.arsmusica.ca -
[Steve Rhoden] “If you don’t know what you would use it for, then you don’t have
use for such a device.”I don’t think that’s true at all. I use my laptop in ways I didn’t plan on, being able to burn DVDs and transfer data away from home. I know filmmakers use tablets and that they’re probably a lot of fun, but I don’t know how much they’d help me.
For one thing, when I’m out meeting people, it would be cool to have something portable that’s not a laptop to show them videos. It’s definitely a big improvement over showing them video on a phone. If I’ve got to get them to read or see something, anything, a tablet would help. I use lots of movies as references or influences on short films and music videos I shoot, so it might be helpful in that regard to show actors what I’m looking for.
It would make things more convenient, but there’s not necessarily anything I can’t do without it. It just makes it easier to do things like pull up video or do research.
But it is going to be $300 or $400 that I could use on other equipment over a two year (or so) payment plan…but, I was in a situation yesterday where, had I had it, it would have proven very useful. I was interviewing at a place that holds events that they’ll want a videographer for, and a tablet would have been way more useful to show them a video or two of mine than a phone. Sure, I don’t do that often (I can’t remember the last time I interviewed like that, actually), and the potential client could just look up my videos later, but if he could see one or two of them and ask me about them in person, it may have given him ideas on what he could use me for.
I’m actually leaning more towards doing it now. Not right away, anyways, but maybe in a few weeks.
Googling “how business owners use tablets” yields a lot of links that show useful info. So I’ll consider it more seriously since I can pay for it monthly. There’s no way I would pay for it up front.
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Well then, if you can easily afford it, you have already made your
decision.
I was only pointing to the fact that if you don’t see the immediate
use of a product that fits into your workflow, then that $300 could
go towards something else you really need.Steve Rhoden
(Cow Leader)
Film Editor & Compositor.
Filmex Creative Media.
https://www.facebook.com/FilmexCreativeMedia
1-876-461-9019 -
[Steve Rhoden] “Well then, if you can easily afford it, you have already made your
decision.
I was only pointing to the fact that if you don’t see the immediate
use of a product that fits into your workflow, then that $300 could
go towards something else you really need.”But I want you guys to decide for me so I don’t feel responsible in case I don’t end up using it much.
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Yep! This works particularly well if you use the DSLR Controller app. That is, if you can get past the 15fps frame rate during live view.
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[Rick Shorrock] “Yep! This works particularly well if you use the DSLR Controller app. That is, if you can get past the 15fps frame rate during live view.”
This could be useful. Could I use this if my camera was on a crane and I was operating it from the base?
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Yes…but only if you can find a long enough mini USB cable! However, the newest version of DSLR controller lets you use two tablets. If you have one hooked up to the camera via the miniUSB cable and there’s WiFi available where you’re shooting, a second tablet running the DSLR Controller app can be used wirelessly while tethered through WiFi to the tablet that’s connected to the camera!
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Tablets are great for reviewing footage with a customer, or just keeping your demo reel handy to show prospective customers. There are also apps to keep track of your hours on a job for invoicing. You can even use a tablet for rough cut editing in the field.
A tablet is one of those things you didn’t think you need before you bought it, and can’t figure out how you ever lived without it after you do buy it. I use my iPad all the time but I could have never told you how I would have used it before I bought it. Whether a Samsung with have the breadth or quality of Apps that an iPad does I do not know.
~jr
http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com -
I agree. When I bought mine earlier this year, I initially had the idea of using it in conjunction with my wife’s pet sitting business, which I help her with when she’s out of the house. Both of us are self-employed, and the times that I have to get out of the home office, which also houses my edit suite, because I have to sit with dogs that need nurturing, I can take the tablet out and still be creative, checking for answers to editing problems here or elsewhere, or sending and answering e-mails and such other creative tasks. I also put my demo reel of recent projects on the MicroSD card that’s in the tablet. I’m pretty much constantly updating the reel when new projects are completed.
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