Chris FAWCETT

Since mounting the TRANSVIDEO CineMonitor HD 6" SBL monitor on my Steadicam in early 2008, I've haven't looked back. It's a monitor with no negative issues whatsoever that performs beautifully under any circumstances. I was originally attracted not only to the brightness and daylight visibility, but to the rich blacks in the picture. All other monitors I've seen (and I've seen a lot) achieve daylight visibility by overdriving the brightness—resulting in pale, washed-out blacks—and by adding a matte anti-reflective coating that smears the image, reducing contrast even further. On the TRANSVIDEO. blacks are black. When shooting with the CineMonitor I feel I'm already watching the film in my own private theatre. After experiencing image making at this level of intimacy and perfection, there is no returning.

At first, I treated the monitor with exaggerated care, and when I was to shoot a feature for 5 weeks in the Amazon rainforest, I told Jacques that, of course, I wouldn't be risking my precious new monitor. He laughed, and explained that the unit is sealed with a goretex plug that pumps out residual moisture when the monitor heats up, and that I need have no worries. During those 5 weeks of extreme temperature and humidity, torrential rain and mud, the TRANSVIDEO never faltered. Now I consider it one of the most rugged items in my kit. Sitting out front of my Steadicam it usually gets the worst of everything, yet it still looks and functions like new.

It's more than a monitor, of course, It's a DoP toolbox. My biggest Steadicam flight-case is full of gadgets, one of which I might need on set—I just never know which one. The TRANSVIDEO is like that. The most common tools I use are the over and underexposure, plus the focus assist, but on every shoot, some other function makes itself indispensable to me. Recently, I upgraded from the Classic to the Evolution for even more functions, but unlike the aforementioned flight-case, it doesn't get heavier. From a Steadicam operator's perspective, adding one of these monitors to your rig is a way of upgrading your whole system to HD. I have on-screen adjustable framlines that work in HD, and a dependable on-screen horizon display I can place wherever I want within the picture, again, in HD. One day, after completing a very slow tracking shot, I asked Jacques of TRANSVIDEO if that max horizon sensitivity could be doubled. By the same evening I had an upgraded software installed that doubled, quadrupled, and octupled the sensitivity options. Service is everything with TRANSVIDEO.

I'm stating the obvious by saying now I'd recommend this monitor, but really, there are few things I could recommend more completely. It's not just an indication of where the camera is pointing, it's is my eyes. I wouldn't shoot without it.

Being a longtime CineMonitor user, I was delighted to be asked to beta test the Titan HD. I'd been on the lookout for an HD Transmission system for some time, and was unwilling to have to lug both an HD and an SD system around, so the Titan's dual capability was immediately appealing. During testing, I watched the system grow more resilient with every daily software update until it attained the rock-solid state it performs at today. In 'Search & Lock' mode, the system scans all frequencies on power-up to find the strongest channel with the least interference, then it transmits uncompressed images that the DoP can use for judging focus. For a Steadicam operator, the Titan is a cable-cutter, delivering a signal so robust it can go straight to air.

This is one of the most transparent items in my kit. I don't even use the off switch any more. I just plug it in and go, and back at video village, the picture just comes up. I don't even ask. TRANSVIDEO has once again made itself indispensable.

Chris Fawcett
Steadicam Cinematographer
http://steadivision.com/