Ikan v8000 HD on-camera monitor: first impressions

bvalente

bvalente

DVXuser Sponsor
Okay folks, some of you have been interested in whether the new ikan v8000 hd monitor is any good. My box just arrived about 30 minutes ago, so here's a "first impressions" post.

Box/packaging: nothing to write home about, but solid.

Comes with: the v8000 monitor, a knuckle mount for the top of your camera (again, nothing to write home about, but gets the job done), power supply adapter, and wireless remote. Doesn't appear to come with any documentation, but the menus within the monitor are pretty straightforward.

For my purposes, I bypassed the knuckle and hooked it directly to my Redrock M2/HVX setup using my noga arm. Simple and painless setup.

Observations:

The ikan v8000 is an 8" on-camera monitor, vs. the marshall 7" monitor. It is also much lighter than the marshall owing to a plastic case that, while perhaps not as robust as metal, is certainly much easier handling for on-camera applications. Let's face it, the marshall is a rack mount monitor, and it's really great. Just a bit heavy and awkward on the camera. the v8000 doesn't strain my noga arm anywhere near what the marshall has been doing. Easy to move and adjust and then just tighten up. I would highly recommend a noga (isreali) arm for this monitor. 8" is great, but it's pretty big

The v8000 finally provides component in AND out, so you can put it inline with other monitoring solutions. nice. This is in addition to s-video and BNC in/out connectors as well. Nice!

It does not have internal flip, but mounted upside down works just fine.

It also has a panasonic battery mount, which is a nice option instead of the marshall v-mount battery (which adds considerable weight and strain to an on-camera monitor). (note: I have to double-check if it's a panasonic battery mount or other small battery mount.)

Image quality: While I didn't have a chance to put it side by side with the marshall (yet), I found the image sufficiently high resolution good enough for both framing and focus in HD.

Viewing angle: One of the drawbacks of earlier ikan monitors seemed to be a relatively narrow angle of view - a few degrees left or right of the monitor, and it disappeared. With the v8000 the viewing angle seems to be considerably larger: good news for ACs and focus pullers.

adjustments: solid on-screen menus for birghtness, contrast, and color balance. Would have been nice if some of these were knobs to make adjustments quick.


Questionable stuff: this category should be thought of as "haven't had enough time to figure it out yet, but...." Appears to have a "blue mode" but couldn't get that working. Has several options for color modes (labeled mytseriously 0-5), but couldnt' figure out what they did.

Overall, I'm pretty impressed. I didn't want to get my hopes up about a $750 monitor that had all the image benefits of a marshall but the lightweight form factor of a panasonic. So far, it's my monitor of choice for on-camera HD focus and framing.
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Brian Valente
Redrock Micro
c r e a t e t h e c i n e m a e x p e r i e n c e

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AWESOME review!

Always helpful as usual Brian!

Oh and it takes those small info lithium SONY batteries.
 
thats good to hear brian! i had the same sort of nebulous experience with the blue mode and the various 0-5 color settings? didnt see anywhere to save color settings or what they may be used for??? i thought it was just me ; )

wayne
 
Will us normal folk have the accessibility to purchasing one soon? Heard June, but am hoping for something this month.
 
Nice little review...
The battery mount is a Sony as mentioned above. The Blue switch is there (as I was told) because they will be releasing a higher priced, more robust version of this monitor in the future, priced well above this one.

I'm pretty much sold on this monitor as I found it suitable for my needs, especially Jib/Crane work.

Now I just need to get my hands on one of those redrockmicros.

D.L.
 
Part two of the review; The Marshall comparison

Okay *drum roll* the moment you've been waiting for...


I had a chance to work with Carlos Acosta (carlos@hdnerd.com), who is one of the tech geniuses behind the forthcoming f23 accessory package, and a top-notch DIT working with the F900, viper, etc.

here's how we spent our evening:

we hooked up both monitors and compared the images side by side while hooked in to an HVX. The cabling was:

hvx->v8000->marshall R70p-HDA

We used the v8000's in-out capabilities to run it in-line.

The marshall excels at having crisp, black blacks. It also has a wider viewing angle, which tends to make it look a little brighter if viewed from an angle. Overall the color accuracy is good when compared with the HVX's LCD (granted, it's not a waveform monitor, so keep in mind it's a somewhat subjective test).


The v8000 benefits from a larger viewing screen (8" vs. 6" marshall), and the reds seem a little more red (the marshall had a slightly orange tint, and we couldn't get it calibrated correctly to get rid of this). The v8000 suffered from slightly green blacks, and we had challenges getting it calibrated. This is a brand new monitor, one of the first out, so it may still have some slight bugs to work out (for example, when we adjusted the blues the numerical readout disappeared). Even adjusting the colors from their default 128 all the way up to 256 didn't seem to make a significant difference in saturation, though differences in color balance were a little more obvious when we changed the relative color balance

On an interesting note, it seemed that the v8000's colors weren't anywhere near as saturated as the marshall. It turns out it may be that the luminance (y) channel isn't correctly terminated in the monitor. When we plugged in the y 'out' cable, the image got noticeably better in the color department. A tip for you ikan users should you find this the case. Note it's *just* terminating the y connector. Terminating all colors will result in r and b being double-terminated and getting a washed out look. Again, this may be due to it being a brand new monitor. If this the case, it's an easy fix for ikan to make.

On overall sharpness and image, they look reasonably comparable. You certainly wouldn't expect one to cost nearly 60% of the other. For focusing and framing the ikan is fine.



So does the ikan v8000 measure up to the marshall? more or less, yes, considering the following points:

- the marshall has the edge on picture quality, durability, and features (color bars are always nice!) but suffers from heavy weight and a smaller screen

- the v8000 has the edge on monitor size, lightweight, and price, but suffers from what I would consider "new product wring-outs" - small bugs that are mostly irritating (blue adjustment disappearing, apparently non-terminating y connector) but not life threatening


This comparative review - somewhat subjective, I grant you - reaffirms my belief it's a good choice for an on-camera monitor for the HVX. The lightweight form factor, large screen size, and - let's face it - a great price. It's easy on the noga arm and the wallet!


Cheers

Brian
 
bvalente said:
It's easy on the noga arm and the wallet!


Cheers

Brian
Click to expand...

LOL! Great write up, thank you for the response, and the comparison- very helpful indeed. Looks like I may be able to save some money after all! Or maybe I'll have to spend the extra cash on an additional redrock accessory like the Matte box ... I really apprecaite you comparing the two monitors :) .
 
Nice review. If it only takes sony batteries, does anyone know if there is a sony to panasonic battery adaptor?
 
Hi guys

one more thing. We also noticed a quirk which I don't think affects shooting situations, but something you may want to be aware of.

The monitor seems to have a tendency to reset itself (lose signal and then regain it) under certain circumstances of extreme light change, or when playing back, during certain scene changes. I don't know if we have nailed it down completely, but it may have something to do with the auto-sensing circuit determining which channel the signal is coming in. For example, in a normally lit situation, if we throw on the ND 64 filters and then throw them off really quickly, it can reset the monitor.

I mention this because it's unlikely that kind of shooting shows up in normal production (though I suppose if you had a completely black room and then threw the light switch, it might happen) but seems like you might see it during playback.

Brian
 
jdajda said:
what do you mean by reset? Off and on or all adjustments back to factory settings?
Click to expand...

I mean it loses signal and then gains it back. I don't believe it changes any of the monitor's settings.
 
bvalente said:
The monitor seems to have a tendency to reset itself (lose signal and then regain it) under certain circumstances of extreme light change, or when playing back, during certain scene changes. I don't know if we have nailed it down completely, but it may have something to do with the auto-sensing circuit determining which channel the signal is coming in. For example, in a normally lit situation, if we throw on the ND 64 filters and then throw them off really quickly, it can reset the monitor.
Click to expand...

Are you sure that this is from the monitor, or might it be form the component connection - the connection on the HVX end - whatever that is called - is not very good / solid of a connection. Even when I have the Marshal connected to it, if the cable gets bumped that can cause the monitor to loose the signal for a second or two. I wonder if when you are making the changes to the camera, if you are bumping the connection enough for the monitor to loose the signal ... (It is sad that Panasonic developed such a great camera, and then has such an unsecure / loose connection on the camera side for the component ....)
 
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