What’s an adequate, CHEAP 1920 x 1080 monitor in 2011?

Cinematography

What’s an adequate, CHEAP 1920 x 1080 monitor in 2011?

Posted by Terry O’brien on September 20, 2011 at 5:17 pm

Hi,

I equipping a studio shoot with a couple of EX-1s and I want to purchase an adequate monitor for viewing full HD that costs in the hundreds, not the thousands of dollars. I assume that I would be better off to buy a computer monitor with HDMI input vs. a consumer TV because I assume that the former is not going to have a lot of “Features” designed to manipulate the display so that it fakes more latitude than an LCD actually has. I figure that an LED backlight monitor in the 20″ range is going to be about the right combination of size, resolution, gamut and portability

After the shoot, I will probably use this monitor as an editing display and use a color calibrator to get it in the right ballpark for editing.

So, yeah, I have a Panny BLTH 1700 in the rental budget, but I’m shooting talking heads against a green screen and saving to 4:2:2 files. It’s not like anything other than focus should be critical.

Any suggestions or experiences?

Thanks

Terry O’brien replied 14 years, 7 months ago 2 Members · 4 Replies
4 Replies

Nelson Goforth
September 23, 2011 at 4:16 am

I think you’d be better off with the consumer set, rather than a computer monitor. After all the consumer set is (in theory) Rec 709, it’s what you’re aiming for. The computer monitor is typically more contrasty (or has a higher gamma). At least you’ll get a reasonable-looking picture, and for focus it should be fine.

But using it for anything to do with final color correction is probably an error. Ballpark for the editor, yes, but knowing it’ll go through to a real color correction later.

Red Camera Rental & Indy Features, Denver Colorado.
rockymountain4k.com * 303.506.2456
Terry O’brien
September 23, 2011 at 4:33 pm

Hi Nelson

Thanks for the reply and the rationale behind it. It’s good to know about the 709 spec, and as long as I keep the TV out of the “SPORTS” preset, it should look less contrasty than a PC monitor.

Do you have any brand preference? I’d assume that Sony would have a clue as to how to do consumer sets right given their pro equipment pedigree. Every other manufacturer of monitors that I can think of seems to come from the PC background.
Nelson Goforth
September 23, 2011 at 5:18 pm

I can’t recommend a particular brand. I purchased a Samsung 22″ a couple years ago to be an inexpensive on-set monitor for our Red camera (we also have a couple of the Panasonic 17″). I just went to Best Buy and looked for something small enough to mount on a stand and that had good blacks; the Samsung 4000 series did the job.

For on-set use I got a tilt-able monitor bracket from Target and had a machinist add on a piece that would mount to either a Baby spud or a Junior receiver.

But make sure you get a 1080 monitor. The smaller ones are often 720 (mine is), and the down-rez can make focus less clear. You may just need to mount it on a table, or get a beefier stand.

Nelson Goforth

Red Camera Rental & Indy Features, Denver Colorado.
rockymountain4k.com * 303.506.2456
Terry O’brien
September 23, 2011 at 5:25 pm

Thank you Nelson!

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