FILMCASTLive!: THE GREAT DAYLIGHT MONITOR SHOOTOUT

Camera Support a designer and provider of crane, rail and moving camera platforms for the film and high definition industry and a Stedicam rental house in Burbank hosted yesterday The Great Daylight Monitor Shootout.

The public at the event

A "rotisserie" was constructed with speed rails to hold 14 different new daylight monitors available for Steadicam and other flying rigs. There were 14 clips and a live camera feed. To demonstrate the features of the monitors the rotisserie could be rotate 90 degrees to position the monitors from horizontal to vertical. Several of the manufacturers were present to answer any questions about the features and price of the monitors.

The "rotisserie" with daylight viewing monitors for close evaluation

Steadicam operators checking features

Gaylen Nebeker of Nebtek answering questions

Some of the companies who participated in the Daylight Monitors Shootout were, Nebtek, Inc who showcased three monitors namely, the Blackbird Sunlight Viewable 6.5" Screen Monitor and the Solar 7" HD and HDS Sunlight Viewable TFT LCD Monitors. These monitors offered a superb color rendering and definition at a glance at different viewing anglers under the direct afternoon sun. Another practical accessory showcased in their booth was the CW-5HD HD Wireless Transmitter and Receiver along a with bracket to handheld the monitors. Pretty nifty!

Transvideo the premier state of the art electronic company for the film industry was showcasing couple of monitors of their flagship series, The Rainbow Series, a 5" daylight viewable monitor with a outstanding amount of features and the choice of many Steadicam operators. The monitors offered at glance easy viewing of the image and color at several angles, along with an array of many necessary adjustment and features such as underscan, overscan, vectorsope, waveform, histogram, blue check, gamma, zoom, 4.3, 16:9 and 2.35:1 ratios and much more. Also they had available many accessories necessary to the displays such as a 6" Night and Sun Hood, a Spirit level, a raincover and a wireless handheld bracket to name some.

Bernie Keach of Marshall Electronics

The largest company in the shootout was Marshall Electronics, a veteran manufacturer in the broadcasting industry. The quality of their outdoor viewing monitors is outstanding with an larger array of sizes to choose from the outdoor 6.5" TFT to the 15" TFT offering the technical characteristics and performance Marshall Electronics is known for. Their 6.5" and 7" portable camera-top field monitors are fully featured monitors with False Color and Peaking Filters with a variety of inputs and outputs, including 3G, HD and SDI and a variety of battery configurations.