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5.6" 1280x800 on camera monitor with peaking, aka H056
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  • @sherwood - Agree with everything you said, for me an external monitor is about 2 things; composition and focus. This was why I was so pissed off when I got the previous monitor when it overscanned and stretched, so this was useless for composition.

    The way I see it this monitor is something you look at when you are physically shooting the shot taking place. Colour accuracy and exposure are 2 things that you look at before you take the shot and this can be done with the onboard LCD or viewfinder or whatever other monitor, essentially those are items that you set and forget, for each particular shot.

    Another way to look at this monitor is it's like a cut down SmallHD DP6. It's the same where it matters (panel size and resolution), but a bit rougher round the edges, less colour accurate and has less features. The focus assist isn't quite as sweet as the SmallHD. But you can't complain at about a 1/3 the price!

  • I think to fix the issue with my monitor I'd have to take the housing off and drill a bigger hole where the headphone port is as the it's too recessed into the monitor. I've already looked inside it but it's essentially 2 halves that are connected with a little plastic connector (don't know the technical term), it doesn't come apart too easily. So screw it, it doesn't bother me that much. Audio acquisition is always a separate thing for me with a sync job in post, so it's never going to be needed.

  • arknox, thanks for the excellent coverage. I'm surprised no one has mentioned the handy 4-pin XLR DC connection; lots of battery belts out there and they'd drive this thing for weeks! I do wish people would stop going-on about color accuracy. This is as good as it's going to get with a micro budget-priced monitor and is perfectly fine for everyday shooting purposes. I'll repeat that: for SHOOTING purposes -- framing, focus etc. This is obviously NOT intended for color correction or those instances where dead-accurate color rendition is vital. That is what you get with substantially higher-priced, calibratable gear.

  • Thanks for the pic arknox. I'm about 95% sold on this thing, but the Seetec looks nice as well.

    I imagine adding a small metal grommet would do the trick as far as the headphone is concerned.

  • @arknox The only monitor I ever had that displayed good color was my $1200 Marshall that I sold. Any other one of these cheap Chinese monitors are pretty useless for it. I've tested out many and they all suck for color. Sharp as a tack but shitty color. I guess we can't get everything for $200! :)

  • I also tried to match colour a few days ago. No luck on that I'm afraid. As @slackaporte says. The shadows seem to go a blue tinge. It's like they baked in a Michael Bay colour where the highs are warm and the shadows are cool, and you can't get around it, no matter what you do.

    Not a deal breaker for me, but may be for some. Colour is definitely not accurate to the GH2 monitor, and always seems to be contrastier or show less DR than the LCD. For composition and focus though, it's perfect.

    Just as an added bit of info. There is no hole in the hood to accommodate the headphone jack, so unless you fancy creating one you're not going to be able to use the headphone jack with the hood on. I'm not using the jack since it's messed up on my particular monitor, and I won't need it anyway.

    I bought 3rd party Sony F770 batteries for this, 2 of them. Price was only £15 each. One of these runs this monitor for 5 hours solid! Can't ask for better than that. Have no idea how much battery life you save by turning to standby between shots, but with 5 hours on the clock for each battery I'm not bothered about running that test.

  • @losad83 - Short answer, you can mount it any way you like, there are 1/4" 20 threads on all sides of the monitor and all are much stronger than the original plastic monitor threads.

    Long/stupid answer :-) Here's my new pal Johnny 5.6"...image

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  • @arknox I usually mount from the top of my current monitor. Are the screw holes on the top 1/4 in?

  • @slacklaporte any news on the color? I'm shooting with an AF100 and the LCD on it is already a bit yellow so I'd love to have more accurate color on the monitor.

  • @slacklaporte - I will see if I can match the GH2 lcd colour this weekend. Will also take more pictures. How is your headphone port?

  • There are my first impressions: Finish of the monitor is pretty good, seem solid and well made. However the battery plate is thick, cheap and feel not solid like the monitor when fixed. This part is a miss at my point of view, it clash with the finish quality of the monitor. Ok but at this price its a detail. Front buttons seem sturdy, and the touch is good. They are a bit noisy and it may be a problem for some when shooting close interview. Ok, ok, long debat here about the sunhood. I admit, the sunhood is great and well made. I prefer metal than fabrics, but thats really a "personal view" ;-) and at this price its a detail. Now the quality of picture. The resolution of this monitor is amazing, i love it. Really sharp and the definition seem acurate. It mean, i have the impression i can focus directly on it. For this, that is excellent. 16:9 is working well. The software got some nice options. @arknox named them. My best one is Scale mode. Really great to make the focus. The only blemish about that... if u set the function button to this and push it for focusing your scene, u should get the 16:9 back if u push again on the button. Thats not the case, the image come to 4:3. U have to press 3 times to get it back to 16:9 ratio. I regret a thing, it have only one function button. it could be great to assugn functions on others buttons. The last aspect most important, COLORS... on mine the black are blue and seem impossible to calibrate correctly. When u set the black the highlights are completly shifted in the yellow. After 1 hour of working on RGB setting i was still unable to get the colors right. So, i will continue to try resolving that but i'm sure i wont be able. Its disapointing. I'll. let me think. Positive= really good for focusing. Negative= My monitor is not color accurate. Lets see...

  • @arknox, i just received mine. Tell me, does your blacks are blue?

  • Thanks Arknox, for the extensive overview and pics. Great to have confirmed that build, overscan and stretch issues have indeed been resolved.

  • @CFreak - thats not all the colour options. I will take another photo tomorrow. Yes there is individual rgb.

  • @arknox Thanks for the review! Does the screen shot of the OSD (3rd photo), show all of the available color control creatures? If not are there individual adjustments for R, G, B? Thanks.

  • The new monitor is here. It's a real upgrade on the previous monitor. The housing feels much more solid, it doesn't creak like the plastic one did. I feel like if I dropped this it might be able to survive a fall.

    Overscan and stretch are totally fixed, the view is exactly what you see on the GH2 LCD in fact I don't think you can set it to be 16:10, it defaults to correctly displaying 16:9. I haven't played with it fully, but it looks like the button toggles between 4:3 and 16:9.

    It has an earphone port but unfortunately on the monitor I have received it so recessed into the housing that the cable doesn't make proper contact and the audio only comes out the left channel. If I push it and hold it with my hand I can get it to come out of both, but as soon as it's released the right channel cuts out. I always record audio separately and sync later on so I probably won't use the earphone socket anyway. So I'll probably not return it.

    The battery attachment is completely different. It looks like the battery sits in a 3rd party shoe, which the makers of the monitor have accommodated with the holes on the back of the monitor. It's not as slick a solution as the original monitor, but it might have an advantage in that it does not make electrical connection with the monitor, instead connecting with a small wire to a DC input, so you could not bother with the shoe and go direct from a v-mount to the DC input. On mine when the socket is fully screwed in the socket does not sit straight, I think I can live with that. It's not loose, it's just not vertical.

    It has 6 saveable user modes, I think I will set one and just leave it at that.

    There are a lot more options for the "FUN" button. Great name...

    Exposure - Makes over exposed areas red
    Focus - No point setting the "FUN" button to this as there is a dedicated focus button
    Black White - Enough said
    Guide - Toggles between 4:3 guides and 16:9 safe areas I think
    BlueGun - Makes it blue...
    PicMode - Goes through the user modes 1 - 6.
    Freeze - Most useful setting for me. Freezes the view and keeps it on screen until the button is pressed a second time.
    Corner - Does a split screen kind of thing, toggles between split vertical, split horizontal and 4 corner split (Don't see myself using this)
    Scale Mode - A zoomed mode (I assume for getting even more critical focus)
    Display Mode - Seems to just flash up what the input is at the top right (HDMI 1080i 60hz)
    Micro Color - Weird colour mode, like inverted colours or something (no idea what this is for)

    It looks like there is more control over colour on this screen, so you should be able to get closer to matching the LCD on the camera for colour. I've not tried to do this yet.

    The OsdDuration sets the time before the menu will disappear. If you set this to 4 it will never disappear. The 4:3/16:9 button also acts as the exit button for the menu.

    The 3 screws to attach the sun screen are a very nice improvement, although on mine the holes were slightly out of alignment with the housing so the material had to be stretched to fit over the hole, not a big deal.

    I have 1 stuck red pixel on my screen, not going to break out the tissues and cry about this one, you have to really look for it and it's probably within tolerances.

    The focus peaking is as it was on the previous model. The biggie for me was stretch and overscan, these are 100% fixed, the extra FUN options are a nice bonus.

    Freeze is an awesome bonus, I will be doing skeleton crew budget stuff where the crew are also the cast, so it's great to get the shot together, hit the freeze button and let everyone see a quick preview before the shot goes ahead. Especially useful when I get my BMC as there will be no need to record a quick clip, that cannot be deleted in camera (in current firmware) and would waste space.

    Any questions fire away.

    Andrew

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  • yes thats what i mean! thanks for answer

  • I think he means the battery plate. Yes, you should be able to use another battery plate if you find one that conforms with the voltage requirements etc.

  • is it will be possible to change the battery plate if never i find somes on ebay?

    What do you mean here? This batteries are plenty on any place, cheap and good.

  • ooh! i must had bought one more yesterday... is it will be possible to change the battery plate if never i find somes on ebay?

  • NP-F770

    This one will do (as F550, F950, F750, F970)

  • wich models? i actually own NP-F770 and NP-QM91D (is it the same base plate for these tow?) thanks fo answering :-)

  • Another question was about the battery plate, wich battery will go on this?

    It is for Sony batteries.

    Will we get 2 or 3 different battery plate like some other monitor?

    Not this time.

  • Hey guys, first of all, i know the difference on "how professional something looks on the set" and "how professionnal someone is on the set". I will not debate on this with you because i think like you. I simply said than i'm personnally disapointed about the sunhood, because i prefer metal or other material. Thats all. I'll try this sunhood and may be i'll love it. We will see. And in the fact, the most important for me is, how this little monitor will work on the field. Another question was about the battery plate, wich battery will go on this? Will we get 2 or 3 different battery plate like some other monitor?

  • Soft monitor hoods are always a good idea. I had a soft hood from "hoodman" velcroed onto my on-board monitor in my focus pulling days.

    Sew some velcro on the cloth side, stick some adhesive backed velcro on the metal monitor and you're golden. Believe me, cloth doesn't break, crease or split AND... folder it over on your quick location moves, and you've got a screen protector too.

    Filmmaking is not "all" about how professional something looks on set, it's about what you do with the tools you have (creative), properly utilizing their functionality (technically) and how much you can accomplish in the time allotted. Quality AND quantity, it's a tall order. After one run & gun shoot, you'll be thankful that's a cloth sunshade.

    At least IMHO and experience from the field.