When filming what you see is what you get

In days of yore, when I was employed as a television cameraman, we used to have a little game of 'tweaking' one an-others camera controls, just before we went 'on air'. One is all set to transmit a live drama with 3 other cameras, and you look in the viewfinder, and to your horror there is no picture there, just a black screen!!!

After a while you get used to this, and turn the brightness up in the tweaked viewfinder, and there it is, your opening shot neatly framed. It was Bill on camera 2 who tweaked your viewfinder controls. You just wonder how long it will be before he notices that his pan and tilt head is locked!!

In the video world, unlike the film world, it has largely been a case of what you see in your viewfinder is what will be recorded. Of course there are many more tweaks available in post production these days to try and mitigate any recording problems, but we should always strive to have the best possible material originating in our cameras. And we must 'see' that it is excellent in our viewfinders.

Well it is becoming increasingly difficult, and sometimes nigh on impossible to see what we are recording in our cameras, because the viewfinders are crap. The manufacturers trend is to eliminate proper viewfinders completely, and just manufacture cameras which have 'flip out' viewfinders on the side of the camera.
 

These flip out viewfinders have their place in camera operation, but your eye cannot scan the frame to easily assess the headroom, looking room, what else is included in the frame, its colour composition, etc. It is similar to those of us who use a digital stills camera, holding some distance in front of us whilst we take a picture. Your eye simply can't scan the picture to see that all the necessary elements of composition are correctly placed.

Of course you may argue that there are all these automatic controls which will focus for you, adjust the exposure etc. You are of course right, and this may be OK with a stills camera, but with a moving picture, you need to see precisely what you are recording, and whether the automatics are focusing on the background to the subject, or on the subject itself. Was the exposure correct throughout the moving shot or was it just correct at its end?

High definition. How do you pull or throw focus with a crap viewfinder? It's just about impossible. There is a new professional HD camera which has just been produced, which is sold without a viewfinder. You buy the viewfinder separately to the camera body, and of course you will want the best viewfinder, which costs just £3,860.00 plus VAT!!!!

I would suggest that you keep your eye glued to the viewfinder, and make sure that what you record is what you want.

by Dick Hibberd