Blackmagic Forum

Hi all,

I love the Mini Panel that I own for several monthes now. Still, I feel there are a few parts that could be improved if a revision comes someday :
1. Why no power switch ? Isn'it weird to have to unplug it to turn it off ?
2. The Y Lift Gamma Gain / Contrast Pivot Mid Detail / Color Boost Shadows Highlights / Saturation Hue Lum Mix knobs name are barely invisible in a dark environnement. All the colorist I know are complaining about it. Even if, after a little time we get used to find them naturally, errors sometimes still happen. I use some glowing stickers, but I saw BIG Dimmo or colorfull stickers in some facilities.
3. Will the FX and USER buttons be active in a forthcoming version ?

Still, it a great tool !

Alexandre Sadowsky wrote:Why no power switch ? Isn'it weird to have to unplug it to turn it off ?

There are quite a few pro manufacturers (I'd include Dolby, UREI, and SSL in that list) who provide no power switches because they believe it's better to leave the device on 100% of the time. One engineering theory is that when failures occur, they often do so during a power-up cycle. I can go either way with this, but I understand their reasoning. As for me, I just put a $20 X10 remote switch on it so I can kill the power when necessary, like during a system crash. We use them on both the Asvanced Panel and the Mini Panel at our facility. I agree it would be nice if there were a screen saver on the Mini Panel.

The Y Lift Gamma Gain / Contrast Pivot Mid Detail / Color Boost Shadows Highlights / Saturation Hue Lum Mix knobs name are barely invisible in a dark environment.

I would suggest buying a couple of Littlites, preferably the dimmable LED models, and use those over the panel so you can see what you're doing. I've done this for almost 30 years with all the various color panels and switchers I've used over the years. I'm always amazed when I've freelanced for facilities where they expected the colorists to work essentially in the dark, unable to see the mouse, write down notes, or attend to all the additional work details that we need to do.