Monitor for HPX170 (HD-SDI or not)

R

RJ_Ortiz

Active member
Hey Guys,

I am not necessarily looking to buy a monitor immediately, but I am doing my homework. I was looking into these monitors to use with my HPX170. They have an 8.9" monitor and a 5.6" monitor. For the price, the bundles seem like a really good idea.

I am, however, having a hard time deciding which one is better overall for monitoring purposes. I will be using these to pull focus. My first idea was to go big and enjoy the screen real estate for monitoring, but a thought occurred, would it be better to get the 5.6" model with HD-SDI (around 1,199.00) or the 8.9" model with component inputs (around 999.99). Seeing that the HPX170 doesn't have an HDMI output, component output would be the best I could use on the 8.9" monitor without some other external solution to utilize the HDMI input.

I'm sure many of you have played with multiple monitoring solutions and the HPX170 and want to get your input. If you have a better monitor solution in that price range (1000-1200) for the HPX170 let me know.

Thanks!
RJ Ortiz
 
i have the DP1 and talking about build-quality, resolution and overall image - its spectacular! i LOVE it! its by far the best bang for the buck out there. it kicks the snot out of its nearest competitor, and the smallHD customer service is top-notch!

things i dont like about it is that small HD has had some issues with battery design/performance. ive had 4 batteries in about a year. and two of them either died or dont work well. the other two are fine-ish and i do hear that they now have the problems worked out. the one remaining drawback is that there is no metering system on the battery. so you never really know what the remaining capacity is. youre just shooting away and it suddenly goes off, and you hope that its a dead battery. but each battery comes with its own ac charger. so you can have all of your batteries charging at once. so its easy to have another one ready

the upside of this discussion is that again, the smallHD customer service is SUPERB and they were very up-front about the problems and were very quick to get me replacement batteries. they even gave me freebies for my trouble

i also find the dp1(dp1x) pretty BIG. i use mine nearly exclusively on my jib. so big is a GOOD thing. but i used to use it on my zacuto shoulder rig. and though its very light for its size. i still found it a bit too big as an on-camera monitor.

another good thing about the larger model is that its big enough to sell as a client comfort monitor. i offer mine as a line item on my invoices and its paid for itself at least two times over.

if i were going to buy one for general day to day, multi-purpose shooting id go with the 5.6 model.
 
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Thanks for the replies guys. I am going to seriously consider this monitor when the time comes then. I didn't know the 5.6" had that new feature. I personally think the 5.6" (HD-SDI) model will end up being my choice. Thanks again for the info!
 
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