HD field monitor
by shooter
on
Jan 4, 2008 at 8:31:54 pm
Looking to buy a field monitor for HD, HDV & SD use with various owned & rented cameras. Prefer LCD in the 7" range.
I have used the Panasonic monitors & like them very much. Anything new on the market? Holding the budget down is always a good thing.
Thanks
Ed
I don't have any specific recommendations, but I would say that when you DO get some ideas and start shopping look very closely at the technical specs.
There are a lot of small monitors out there that sport the "HD" badge... but when you look at their specs they are actually nowhere near HD. Most of them are actually only 480 lines or so. They can input an HD signal, but they are not displaying an HD picture. Not very useful if you wish to use them for critical focusing when shooting HD, etc.
If you are actually looking for a monitor that can display HD... I am not aware of any in the 7" range unless you get up into real money (like the little Astro montitors, which I believe start somewhere in the $5K range).
Sanyo made noise last year about developing a 7" 1080 line display... it was more of a consumer product intended for headrest displays, etc., so I expect its price to be more in line if it ever hits the market. Unfortunately, it is not here yet though.
Sorry to not give any actual suggestions, but I did want to encourage you to look at the line specs... I know several people who bought small TTF screens thinking they were getting HD, only to be very disappointed... maybe others in here can chime in with some actual suggestions...
T2
__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
Re: HD field monitor by Emre Tufekci on Jan 6, 2008 at 3:51:29 am
I own a BT-LH80W monitor from Panasonic and I find it useful for it's price. As todd mentioned it is not Full rez like Astro but has a few useful functions.
-Pixel for pixel display allows you to fill up the screen in true resolution of your format so you can see a part of your image in HD
-Red mode lights up parts of your image in focus in red making on the spot when pulling tape is not convenient.
-Built in waveform is a quick reference to your levels when your light meter is a little far away.
-Very rugged build, in fact few shoots ago my 1st AC who is very careful got distracted and pulled the camera off when it was connected to the monitor. It flew 15 feet through the air and landed face down in asphalt. I picked it up, blew the dust off and kept shooting. No damage except for a few cosmetic scratches.
-On board anton bauer mount allows for easy field power.
What I dont like about the monitor is low light output making it difficult to view in direct sunlight.I would love to hear about other people and brands.
Re: HD field monitor by JimTuch on Jan 8, 2008 at 4:22:59 am
I can definitely second the Panny LH80. This is such a versatile piece of equipment. The pixel-to-pixel mapping allows you to view a portion of your image at a time at the native resolution. Otherwise it is 800 lines, I believe. The red focus assist is essentially peaking displayed as red outlines. The waveform monitor is also a great field tool. Blue only also is available. The thing is pretty rugged. It is not particularly cheap and the SDI option costs extra, but it will accept either a component or composite signal out of the box.
