Specifications
Using Blackmagic UltraScope
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Blackmagic UltraScope is included for use with your Blackmagic Cinema Camera so you can always use
it on set whenever your computer is connected to the camera's Thunderbolt port. The following pages
explain how each waveform display is used for tasks such as editing and color correction, as well as with your
camera, so you get a deeper understanding of how each type of waveform display can help you.
1. Parade Display
Parade Display is perfect for checking for illegal colors and checking levels.
Press the RGB button to display the full height of each color channel as red, green and blue. Monitoring the
levels of each red, green and blue color channel makes it is easy to view color balance in the blacks, mids
and whites of the video signal. Parade Display enables you to identify details common to the red, green and
blue channels.
It’s often important to make sure you’re not clipping the video levels. Make sure the video is full level but
not clipped. You can turn on the GAMUT function, and any illegal levels will be highlighted in bright red,
so they are easy to see. Instructions for setting gamut limits can be found in the Error Logging Display
section of this manual. If you want to increase the video level, then make sure it doesn’t go above upper
RGB limit or you will encounter illegal levels. Some equipment won’t let you generate illegal 100% RGB
levels, however other equipment will. Blackmagic UltraScope lets you see illegal levels whenever they occur.
Illegal video can also happen in blacks as well as whites. Some equipment produces black levels which can
be lowered below the black point of 0%. The levels will be shown as bright red if this falls below the lower
gamut limit and the GAMUT warning mode is enabled. If you observe illegal black levels, just add some
“lift” or gain to eliminate them but check the 100% graticule level to make sure the whole video signal has
not lifted and generated illegal colors in the whites.
To check levels, simply press the YUV or YUV+ button.
The COLOR setting switches the RGB display to color rather than traditional black and white. When the
COLOR setting is used with the YUV or YUV+ display, luma (brightness) remains white, B-Y (difference
between blue and luma) appears blue and R-Y (difference between red and luma) appears red. The COLOR
setting is not a professional setting and should usually be switched off, especially when showing video
to clients.