MINI TESTS
DESVIEW T3 TELEPROMPTER £110/$95 desviewglobal.com You don’t have to be a vlogger to get a teleprompter. Anyone who needs to talk to camera and has specific things to say – such as presenters or clients extolling the virtues of their products – can really benefit from one. While large, professional units made for TV are commonplace, there are also lots of affordable, lightweight options for when you are faced with interviewing a client and they just can’t remember what they have to get across. Typical of these inexpensive prompters is the Desview T3, which stands out as it can accept not only smartphones, but also up to 11-inch tablets. That makes a big difference, as small phone screens can only cram in a certain amount of information. The heart of these units is a semi- translucent mirror that sits at 45° in front of the taking lens and you shoot through it. This reflects the text on a tablet clamped just below the screen for your talent to read off. And no, you can’t see the words in your recording, although the mirrored glass does cut out a tiny bit of light. There was also a very slight green
“The heart of these units is a semi-translucent mirror that sits at 45° in front of the taking lens”
cast, but you would only notice it in side-by-side tests, like ours. The Desview comes with a set of nine lens adapters, from 49-82mm, which screw onto the end of your lens, and the prompter clips on. The unit is very light, so there are no worries about stress on your lens mount. The T3 unit allows lenses as wide as 24mm without vignetting, and we had no issues with it on a Panasonic S1H with a 24mm lens. The kit also comes with an adapter to use with a phone for recording, along with blanking plates to stop light creeping around the phone lens. It's also good for vertical shooting. To use a phone or tablet as the screen to be read from, download the free Desview app from iOS or Google Play stores. Then create a new project and key in the words you want to say, or more likely, copy words from a document. You paste the text into the app, and you can adjust its size, font and the speed at which it scrolls. 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 start and stop the test, scroll through it, page up or down and adjust speed. However, all we could do was use the remote to start, pause and stop the
AUTOCUE EASE The light and affordable Desview T3 is simple to use
SPECIFICATIONS Mirror size:
186x144.5mm/7.3x5.7in Glass beamclass: 70/30, 26-layer beamsplitter Maximumfocal length: 24mm Max reading range: 3m/10ft Lens adapters: 49, 52, 55, 58, 62, 67, 72, 77, 82mm Maximumdevice size: 11in Coldshoemounts: Two on top Remote control: Bluetooth
Dimension (wxhxd): 200x104.6x202.6mm/ 7.87x4.12x7.98in Weight: 440g/0.97lb
scrolling text. Perhaps it’s because we were using the very latest iOS. The app is decent, but there are stand-alone versions that even have voice recognition to speed up or slow down as you talk. This would probably be a good buy to use with the Desview. PROMOVIEMAKER RATING: 8/10 Inexpensive and works very well
Pros: Light and easy to use Cons: Doesn’t fit camcorders
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