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WARNING: Teleprompter Causes Soft Focus in 720/60P HPX2700
Here’s a Heads Up: Shot an executive talking head with the HPX 2700, set at factory defaults, nice glass, around f4, 720/60P. On my 7″ Panasonic HD monitor it looked fine, as in the viewfinder. Not as crisp as 60i of course since it was progressive.
But…upon ingestion and inspection on a 27″ Panasonic LH 1760 it looked SOFT! Like crap! Took it into the rental company and it looked bad there. We have traced it to only the shots through the prompter, which was provided by Chicago best company which I have used many times before, the owner claims it’s titanium covered glass.
Has anybody had soft focus problems in HD before? I have shot a lot of HD but never through a prompter before.
Thank you
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4 Replies
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Huh? How would a teleprompter cause anything different on the camera itself? No doubt the lower optical quality of the glass or whatever material was on the prompter acted as a softening effect in front of the camera lens. Also what is titanium covered glass- sounds like a marketing term.
Noah
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[Noah Kadner] “Also what is titanium covered glass- sounds like a marketing term. “
Not really.
Since a Prompter requires a semi-reflective mirror surface, gold and titanium are the most likely sources for this.
Maybe it had more to do with a slight flare or errant reflection since the flare would be out of focus on the Prompters image plane and would degrade the image without actually seeing anything.
Ned I am speaking at Chifcpug next week bring me a good and a bad sample as video and I will analyze it.
gary adcock
Studio37
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“Not as crisp as 60i of course since it was progressive.” Huh? 60p progressive is better than interlaced as there is no moire. What do you mean by this? Plus, it has no relationship to ‘crispness’, especially on a static talking head.
Prompter glass will always effect image quality as does shooting through filters. But, not that much. Maybe the person moved slightly. HD focus is utterly critical and the person shifting his position 1-2″ can make a huge difference as you state you were shooting fairly wide open at f4. I check and double check focus all the time. Nothing I hate more than a soft focus shot, especially when projected on big screen. Your 7″ hides a lot of that. (I have one too).
Ernie Santella
Santella Productions Inc.
http://www.santellaproductions.com -
Perhaps your back focus shifted as the camera and lens heated up in the prompter “tent”.
I guess also, it might be wise to set back focus through the prompter glass as well, after the camera has been on for 1/2 hour in the prompter environment.
Varicam/Steadicam Owner
Los Angeles, CA
http://www.brucealangreene.com
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