GEAR
BUYERS’ GUIDE
DESVIEW T3 £119/$119 desview.com
The Desview T3 stands out among the more affordable teleprompters, accepting both smartphones and tablets up to 11in in size. It features a semi-translucent mirror positioned at a 45° angle in front of the taking lens, allowing you to shoot through it. This mirror reflects the text displayed on a tablet clamped below the screen for talent to read off. The teleprompter comes with a set of nine lens adapters from 49 to 82mm, which screw onto the end of your lens, while the prompter clips on. The unit is very light and eliminates any stress on your lens. The T3 unit allows lenses as wide as 24mm without vignetting and comes with an adapter to use with a phone for recording, along with blanking plates to prevent light from creeping around the phone lens. To use a phone or tablet as the screen to be read from, download the free Desview app from iOS or Google Play stores. You can then create a new project and key in the desired words, or import words from a document. Adjust its size, font and the speed at which it scrolls, and set the screen to mirror mode or else the words appear backwards on the screen. The kit comes with a Bluetooth remote control, allowing you to scroll through pages, move up or down, start or stop tests and adjust speed.
Pros: Light and affordable Cons: Doesn’t fit camcorders
ZEEPROMPT ZP12 £1422/$1493 primelightdesign.co.uk
The Zeeprompt ZP12 is a professional teleprompter blending ultra-speedy set-up, lightweight one-piece design and user- friendly prompting software. It’s simple to use; just connect a laptop to the Zeeprompt’s HDMI input and you’re ready to go. An SDI version is also available. The unit is a one-piece folding system, assembled in a few seconds without needing tools. It fits directly to 15mm rods or to a light stand, although the rods are not supplied. Instead of using a phone or tablet as a source, it has an integrated 10.1in HDMI monitor with a built-in text-reverse feature. A laptop is therefore required. The 8-bit screen has 320 nits of brightness. It is fitted with a 12in beamsplitter glass, which folds into the unit for safe transportation. The box itself is built in Britain using lightweight carbon fibre, and is designed to be enclosed to eliminate light from entering the display. The kit comes in a compact case with laser-cut foam – an optional IP67-rated hard case is also available. As well as various mains adapters, the unit can be powered by an external battery from 7-24v if you buy the additional cable. The lens aperture is 140mm/5.5in and comes with 63mm, 80mm and 112mm stretchy doughnuts to ensure good fit without light leaks. The kit includes a licence for the Zeecue teleprompting software for PC and Mac, which usually costs £70/$96.
Pros: Light and top quality Cons: Software comes free
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