monitors - Small HD AC7 OLED SDI vs Odyssey7

Josh Bass

Veteran
Hi guys. I would like to get a sweet sweet monitor soon. Had my heart set on an Odyssey7 (don't even care about the recording function), but there is so little anecdotal info on it online, reviews etc., aside from owners on this site, that it's hard to get a feel for the real world experience of owning one. Additionally, most of what IS out there focuses on the recorder stuff while merely saying "image looks great!" as far the monitoring goes.

I'd looked at the AC7 line from SmallHD when they came out, decided they weren't for me (can't remember why, possibly cause there was some feature I perceived to be critical that was lacking, or 'cause the one I wanted, the SDI/OLED model, was too pricey at the time), now I'm reexamining those as well.

Anyone have any input as to how these compare? Here's what I KNOW so far as far as differences that matter to me:

-Odyssey has no blue only, AC does. (important for calibrating to camera bars)

-AC has no Waveform, Odyssey does. My thought here is that a waveform and false color are essentially different approaches to the same thing. I could see myself using either/both for greenscreen to even out the screen or for something where I was trying to set up shots that were to match across different locations/days/etc. (e.g. recreating a certain contrast ratio or various values on different things in a scene).

-AC has no LUT functions, Odyssey does (I have to be honest the whole LUT thing has not been part of my life really to this point, but who knows what the future may hold?)

-AC is at this time a few hundred dollars cheaper. Not a big deal but worth mentioning.

-AC doesn't seem to have the full suite of calibration controls. . .brightness/contrast/chroma etc. I see it has a black level adjustment and RGB levels. Is this enough to calibrate to bars from cameras? Odyssey is in a similar situation? Not sure.

Some of the things that CONCERN me with the Odyssey are:

-just read some issue about green tinting. . .is that still the case or was that earlier versions? Can it be properly dialed out?

-read (admittedly a single) online review mentioning waveform on Odyssey was not accurate. . .can anyone comment?

-Again, general lack of reviews/anecdotal evidence about how the Odysseys hold up/build quality/reliability/etc. Thing's been out for a while, but I can't find much info about it! Literally NO ONE I work with in town has one. I met ONE guy who was using one on a shoot (not part of our crew), and a few other folks who've handled them. THAT'S IT! SmallHD on the other hand has many fans and what would generally be considered a proven track record.

Anyone have any thoughts/input? Thanks.
 
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