External monitors?

[Psychovideo]

If your like me with a limited budget but need help making sure things are framed correctly and to be sure things are in focus then why does an external monitor have to be an HD monitor? I know it would be nice to own one like a Marshall or an iKan but can something in a standard def be helpful in making sure your shots more precise?

 

[txsbluesguy]

a HD resolution monitor will be best practice for focusing, but for composition, movement and framing a SD monitor will work fine. most SD monitors with composite inputs could leave you with surprises in the focusing department if you are manually focusing, auto focusing is a different story. but that being said the camera LCD will do fine for movement and auto focusing

 

[LuckyMovie]

I'm in the same boat as you. We're in pre-production for a feature film, and we're working with an HVX200 and an SGpro adapter. It's almost imossible for us to keep focus (lots of handheld work) and frame (we lack a flip module), but we were looking into cheaper solutions.

We bought a used Sony FX820 portable dvd player on ebay for $60 just to test, and to our surprise - it fixes the vertical AND horizontal invert from the adapter! No word yet from my cinematographer on how accurate the focus is (just got it yesterday), but the specs say it's 800x400. I'll let you know about if it's good enough for focusing in the next couple days.

 

[jpastuch]

Yeah I'd love to drop a grand plus on a nice HD monitor but I have to put that towards lights, tripod, microphone, etc. I'm shooting on a DVX100 in SD anyway and really just want to make sure no BOOM MICS drop in. I hate overscan, it's killing me- any DIY solutions or whatever would be awesome.