Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/749700
FIELD REPORT www.postmagazine.com 39 POST NOVEMBER 2016 The Canon DP-V3010 is a 4K-capable, reference monitor for studio production use. It comes with an outboard (rack-mountable) controller for color, lumi- nosity and other video settings. My sample unit, once un-crated, was easy to set up and, although heavy, with its solid hand grips on the lower back of the chassis, was easy to put into my little studio. Using 3G-SDI connectors it will display up to four different FHD screens together or the UHD or 4K output from a camera or editing suite. Even just looking at HD footage, blown up to fill the screen, it was impressive to look at. With a native resolution of 4096x2560, it can display full 4K images without any scaling. The monitor can support multiple frame rates as well. What this unit was designed for, however, is critical color grading and digital editing environments for top-end work that must be reliably and repeated- ly completed. Either on-set or in a studio for color matching, the DP-V3010 will be a great choice. It was well above my 'pay-grade' from an editor's or graph- ics' point of view, but it was ideal for me to see the various video formats, aspect ratios and resolutions that I recorded while testing the DVX200 camcorder. I also did a little bit of Photoshop retouch work on some very high-resolution stills. The "IPS LCD" panel has a very high-contrast and image processing architecture that Canon has implemented creating an advertised contrast ratio of 2000:1. Reproduction accuracy of gradation should faithfully display dark images, shadow details or night scenes. I found that post-sunset and some moonlit tree silhouettes were nearly as real on-screen as they had been to my eye when I shot the footage on sev- eral desert evenings. The images were truly inspiring on-screen. The viewing angle was apparent to be very wide, right from the first images I spit out to the monitor. I happened to plug in the camera outputs while the monitor was already on, and as I walked around the front of my desk I could already see the uniform brightness of the display and the color accuracy. Clearly, the monitor was designed for an editing environment where multiple editors or artists would be standing around the workstation. Off-axis color was nearly identical to direct viewing from the front of the screen. Very impressive and, evenly lit, edge to edge. Canon's paperwork claims 178 degrees for viewing angle, and that was clearly what I could see in my studio. Up-scaling technology in the DP-V3010 is very good. Canon uses several systems to allow full- screen, 4K viewing of 2K HD footage, including one they call 'Shape Trace.' Without getting into too much detail, what I witnessed is that contrasting edges and contours of images are reproduced and smoothed so that there are not artifacts or jagged lines on curves or tilted straight lines in the footage displayed, and color is smooth and not displayed in 'mosaic' blocks, as is sometimes the case when up-scaling footage. Very impressive. The outboard controller has buttons and knobs for general display setup, but it also serves to input ASC-CDL (American Society of Cinematographers' Color Decision List) formatting. There are buttons for RGB and CDL selection as well as adjustment knobs for finer tuning. The unit has subtle back-lighting for the buttons. A lot of thinking went into the design of this monitor. Clearly, Canon came out of the gates intending to win. This monitor, while out of my small studio's budget ($19,990 at B&H), is absolutely per- fect for high-end studio work. — BY WILL HOLLOWAY was rapidly approaching, only to realize too late that the camera was gained-up. There is less noise in the images in low light from this camera than any I have seen to date. I was thrilled by some of the low light and twilight images. Sunsets and sunrises were clear and colorful, and lacked vertical smear or other image defects. It is rivaling most DSLR footage I have seen for night and dusk shots. IN CONCLUSION The DVX200, for the price, is almost unbeatable. The images are sharp, it records to common media, which one can buy at a discount store (but you get what you pay for, so buy the best quality and use name brands). The lens has a powered servo that makes smooth zoom shots a breeze, and it has dedicated switches and filters for video shooters, where they are supposed to be located — at your fingertips. Audio recording is a breeze and the DVX has balanced XLR connectors and decent auto or manual level record- ing. The built-in mic on the front also produced fairly-clean recordings. The rest of the recordings were all with a stereo shotgun mic, mounted in a shock mount on the shoe mounting of the grip. Being able to output video directly via HDMI or SDI connectors is very nice. The HDMI port will output all of the camera's capable recording formats, while the 3G-SDI port will output the FHD formats only, but with the more robust, professional connector used for SDI. There are also ports for computer connection and timecode, as well as audio and remote control. The grip also has standard threaded sockets for mon- itors or outboard recorders or other video peripherals. One feature of the on-board USB connector is that in play- back mode, the camera can take control of a portable hard drive and transfer footage or files without the need for a computer. This is very useful for clean- ing out the cards for more recording. Recording options are plenty. In fact, there may not be another camera built yet that has as many recording for- mat, frame-rate and resolution options available under one hood. From 480i, 4x3 SD all the way to 2160p UHD and 4K, with varied recording bit-rates and frame speeds. In all, I loved this camera. When the field test was complete, I decided to buy one. Nuff said! THE CANON DP-V3010 4K REFERENCE DISPLAY MONITOR