Best Camera Monitor 2020 - And the Award Goes To...12G HDR Video Assist from Blackmagic Design!

[Music] i want to share with you all my current setup of the pogo 4k with the 12g hdr video assist from blackmagic design now before we get started i need to make one thing clear blackmagic design have never reached out to me never asked me to say anything nice about their products i'm just a legit fan of these tools so if you've been following the channel for a minute you know that i did a couple of big videos on this 12g hdr video assist back in february when i first picked this unit up and i've enjoyed working with this monitor recorder combo so much that i just had to share the way that it's improved my progress i'm going to show you today how this setup can improve your professionalism security and reliability to your workflow as well [Music] now first you may ask justin why do you need a monitor recorder when the camera you own already does prores and raw internally and the simple fast answer to that is i'm not always shooting on my own camera in 2019 i booked multiple jobs where i was shooting on cameras that either the producers rented or they owned already now the really cool part about that is you get to shoot on some really awesome expensive cameras with really good dynamic range but the downside is you may never see any of that footage ever again now that is a huge problem i never liked driving home after those particular jobs and wondering when or if i'd ever see that footage it didn't leave a very good feeling in the pit of my stomach but with the 12g hdr video assist that is no longer a problem and as it turns out most directors actually enjoy the idea of having those backup files that was the original idea for wanting to return to a monitor recorder setup but now let me tell you why i chose this over something like returning to an atomos if you've been on the channel for a minute you know that i've had my bout with three different atomos monitors in the past they're an okay brand but there's certain things about them that i'm just not a fan of particularly it's their color science and their build quality i'm just not a fan of plastic monitors so some of the major advantages with the 12g hdr video assist is that it's made of aircraft grade aluminum it is a 2500 nit high dynamic range monitor that automatically detects the hdr signal it has broadcast level scopes and if you're using it with a black magic camera the false color is identical which is always nice 12g sdi in and out a digital slate that you can add metadata to and my favorite part is you can record up to 4k 60 frames per second prores files or depending on what camera you have black magic raw files to these little tiny sd cards but more on that in a minute so people ask me all the time what is so great about sdi well first of all it's the security as i'm sure you're all aware an hdmi cable doesn't take much to get yanked out and the cables themselves don't exactly last forever whereas sdi takes a thick coax cable with a bnc locking mount now most of the atomos monitors are only 3g sdi which means lower resolution at lower frame rates whereas a 12g sdi signal can send an hdr 4k signal up to 60 frames per second you're just not going to be able to do that with your normal 3g sdi connection however you do need to make sure that the coax cable you purchase is actually 12g sdi compatible it took me three tries to finally find a good one and i'm gonna have links to this one down in the description below the cool thing is about this as you'll see in the ebay link it's from a company over in the uk and you can have it at any length you desire not to mention some cameras like almost all of aries cameras only have sdi out hdmi isn't even an option so there's always that idea of professionalism and future proofing to think about as well now back to the media cards you do have the option of recording to an external ssd drive via the usbc port and if you guys saw my initial tutorial of this monitor you already saw that in action but that's just a tad overkill for my more recent scenarios especially when i realized i can record up to 4k 60 frames per second prores on these little tiny freetail evoke pro sd cards now these little cards are v60 rated cards so that means they can handle those higher resolutions at the higher frame rates and this brand is actually on the blackmagic design approved list and they're currently going for forty dollars over there on amazon prime now here comes my most favorite part about this hdr video assist it's the trigger record function with time code so when i'm shooting on the pocket 4k and i hit the record button on my camera the hdr video assist automatically starts recording to its internal sd card so what you have now is a really high resolution proxy and i'm using the term proxy kind of loosely here because it is actually a prores hq file but now if you know anything about the pocket 4k you know that it can only output a 1080p signal through its hdmi so depending on whatever codec you're shooting in for instance if you were doing 4k dci well in that case then yeah you would be shooting a proxy file but only because of the limitations of the camera however it would be a prores hq 1080p proxy but what i like about this workflow is that it's very akin to what it would be like if you're shooting on an alexa because alexa's record proxies to internal sd cards as well but for all of my non-pocket 4k shooters your camera could very well allow you to simultaneously record those prores 4k files and maybe even blackmagic raw files you just have to check the specs of your camera's output and the video assist compatibility list so here's three main reasons why this dual recording setup is so awesome number one i can easily pop this monitor off of my rig and just take it to lunch with me and the directors actually like that they can review how the day is going and get a quick refresher on the shots we've already done number two i'm a bit of a nerd and i like to review the footage as soon as i get home and since i have these high res prores files on this little tiny sd card i can just pop it into my macbook pro airplay that to my television and now i can easily scrub through all of the footage from the day from the comfort of my couch while watching it up on the big screen if any of you guys have had your own experience with that black magic raw player you already know how finicky that program is so being able to scrub through all of these high-res prores files on quicktime is a dream the third advantage to dual recording with this hdr video assist is if anything ever goes wrong with the media inside of your camera you can always rest assured that you have those backup files on the hdr video assist however those files from the pocket 4k are going to be 1080p versus 4k because of the whole hdmi limitations of that camera but hey at least they will be prores and depending on whatever codec you put it on they could very well be prores hq and those prores files would certainly be better than nothing but a sob story to hand over to your client at the end of the day so that is a pretty huge bonus and this setup is so nice and tiny it's not nearly as bulky as some of those atomos monitors that i've owned in the past quick little side note on recording media for the pogo 4k i have since retired from recording externally to ssd now do keep in mind i shoot every day so this may not apply to all of you but some of you may remember a few months back during a transfer upload where i had files mysteriously disappear off of my samsung one terabyte ssd but since then my little blue samsung ssd has had the internal usbc port come completely loose and now no usbc cable will stay connected to it any longer now i do realize that's probably something that happened because i'm using it every single day but still i just cannot have that happening for obvious reasons so i've graduated onto c fast cards one quick note about the c fast so lexar sold their name back in 2017 to a chinese company and not long after that arie put out a public statement saying they can no longer recommend lexar cfas cards for their cameras due to complications after 2018. so if you go hunting for cfas cards and you find the killer deal on lexars like i did just look on the back and make sure that the copyright is prior to 2017 and you can also look for micron consumer group which were the original owners of lexar or you just have to spend more money and get the angel birds or the sandisk extreme pros for now i haven't been having any issues even in black magic raw three to one 4k dci at 60 frames per second but if anything starts going south you guys know me i will definitely let you know but i gotta say i'm really loving having one less cable hanging off of the side of my camera now you can't have all good with no bad and certainly there are some compromises to be had with this 12g hdr video assist some are easier workarounds than others the first one is the battery issue now it does take two sony mpf l series batteries and they are hot swappable but the downside is you're gonna be swapping those batteries out all the time not to mention they add a lot of weight to your rig and if you have any experience with that you already know how annoying it is to constantly have to readjust your monitor because of the weight of the batteries but for me that was no problem at all a few months back i found this really awesome sony mpf dummy battery to d-tap from powrig and it has this really awesome oled readout of the voltage which leads me to a question i get all the time there seems to be a problem across the internet with people shorting out their monitors and their cameras when they have both their monitoring camera connected to the same battery source i don't know what to tell you guys that has not been my experience at all the only thing i can think of is that this is happening to people that are either buying really cheap cables or you're not using v-mount batteries you're using some other battery source and it's just simply being overloaded because i do know this was a huge issue with the original blackmagic pocket cinema camera but here's the deal guys this dummy battery that i use from palrig is a 60 cable but i realize that is steep for some of you but you have to think would you rather spend 60 bucks or take the gamble on your monitor or camera or both shorting out on you to me it's a no-brainer and i've always shared with you guys the cables and batteries i use and i do my best to be honest about things that i've been hyped about and all of a sudden they go south i stay pretty transparent here and i can tell you that i've been using this waipu to d-tap from alvin's cables for the pocket 4k for well over a year now and i've been shooting with v-mount batteries for at least a year as well and i've always used dummy batteries to d-tap cables with all of my monitors usually always alvin's cables and i shoot almost every single day and for those of you that follow the channel you know i test out a ton of different monitors and i've never experienced anything shorting out or blowing up so i'm either really lucky or it's because i don't skimp on the cables and i use name brand v mounts so i'm going to leave that up to you guys as always there's links to everything we talk about down in the description below there's even a link down there to my entire kit bag so feel free to peruse in there for all of my cables and accessories that i use another issue that some users have been reporting with the hdr video assist is overheating now personally i have yet to experience anything crazy there was one time when i first got the monitor and i even showed it in the initial tutorial where i was shooting out in direct sunlight and i did get the warning that the monitor was getting too hot but it didn't cause the unit to shut down entirely but since then there have been about four firmware updates i have noticed however that the unit does seem to get more hot when using the on-board batteries whereas when i'm running to d-tap it doesn't get nearly as hot but most importantly i think you would definitely want to keep checking in on the blackmagic design support website and just make sure you're downloading all of those recent firmware updates now the main downside to me about the 12g hdr video assist is that there is no real way to calibrate this thing and blackmagic designs seem to think that because it's hdr and dci p3 that it doesn't really need color calibrating and i just find that bizarre i don't like it that i can't go in there and manually adjust the white balance of the monitor i can't change the hue and i can't change the tint either but and this is a big but you do however have the ability to adjust both the saturation and the contrast so what i did is i imported the color bars off of the gh5 onto the hdr video assist and was able to do a poor man's color calibration by adjusting that saturation and contrast in conjunction with the brightness and so here's what i found these are the numbers that i've dialed in so feel free to try them out and let me know what you think i've been shooting with these adjustments for a few months now and i kind of dig it so the contrast i have set to 74 percent the saturation at 63 and i've also found that the monitor looks the best when it's at 1000 nits now obviously depending on your particular shooting situation you will be adjusting that brightness quite often it's just that i found that 1000 nits seems to be the sweet spot so there you have it folks my workflow with the pocket 4k in 12g hdr video assist combo i mean you guys know that i've had other monitors sent to me since i've owned this hdr video assist and we're going on six months now and i still have it and use it daily so if you guys know me you know that it must be pretty damn good however i do know that it's gonna be quite a while until i go back to a real monitor that doesn't have a record function because recording to these little tiny sd cards is pretty badass hey if you're a fan of the channel and like to support there's a couple different ways you can do that the first and easiest way is to just hit that subscribe button and be sure to hit the bell so you get the latest videos as soon as they're dropped but if you want to go above and beyond that and be a part of a daily filmmaking conversation then i invite you to join the dog times community over on patreon that is where once a week i release an exclusive members only video breaking down projects talking gear and sharing real world experiences as a diy indie filmmaker in los angeles but my favorite part about the patreon is the conversations happening over on discord that is where you will be connected with like-minded filmmakers and have instant access to learning ways to improve your own skills so you feel more confident about working on set as a professional so welcome to the dog times community and i'll chat with you soon cause i'm getting out of here

Channel: Justin Phillip

Views: 26,274

Keywords: blackmagic design pocket cinema camera 4k, video assist 12G HDR, blackmagic video assist 12G hdr, video assist 12g, video assist blackmagic, video assist 12g review, bmpcc4k, bmpcc 4k, bmpcc 4k camera rig, bmpcc 4k rig, camera monitor, hdr monitor, color calibration, color calibrate your monitor, cinematography, weipu connector, GH5, best monitor, best monitor for pocket 4k, best monitor for blackmagic pocket 4k, bmpcc6k, bmpcc, bmpcc 6k, blackmagic design, best monitor 2020

Id: _VCuS5HBC-s

Length: 14min 44sec (884 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 02 2020