Blackmagic Forum

I am a newbie to this so forgive the possible ignorance of this question. I have 2 Sony cameras feeding a BMD Atem TVS. I cannot get the cameras to match exactly on their iris and colors. Will the ultra scope or smartscope allow me to adjust the colors and iris of these cameras individually from my control room where my TVS and multiview monitors are?

Scopes allow you to more accurately see what is technically in your video. But if you don't have an understanding of what you are looking at on a scope, it won't do you too much good. Also, the scopes don't change the cameras. You'd need a camera control unit to paint them and set proper levels. The UltraScopes require a computer to host them, where the smart scope duo is self contained. But just so that you understand this, they are just special monitors to view your video, and will not perform any kind of adjustment for you. They only allow you to see what might need adjusting, if you have a good knowledge of what they are showing you.

Have you seen The Matrix? They are the computer screen with all the green characters dropping down. If you know how to read them, it means something. But it doesn't affect the Matrix.

Do you have camera control units in your control room for painting the camera levels? You'd need that, and preferably some good quality charts (various color bars, gray-scales, and such - on a board you can focus the cameras on to see what it needs). Adjusting these camera parameters is not for the faint of heart or the newbie.

Adjusting your Iris, however, is not very technical, and these scopes can help you do that accurately without too much in depth knowledge. Then again, you can do that fairly decently by eye, without the scopes.