FS7: Need recommendation for a 7" monitor

nedcam

nedcam

Well-known member
Hello.

I dropped my Small HD OLED 7" and they say they can't fix it because they don't keep "legacy parts" for monitors over two years old. So I do not want to patronize them anymore, they are too small.

I am semi-retired so I don't need the greatest most expensive. I'd like to use my Canon LP batteries with it. So what would you recommend?

Thanks,

Ned
 
What, Ned Miller is semi-retired?? We've definitely reached the end of an era. You are the freelancer's freelancer. When I had had my fill of employees and clients in 1998 I sold my production company in Utah in favor of starting over again as a one-man-band freelancer on the East Coast. I took a look at your website and I said I want to be doing what he's doing! You were my inspiration and my role model. (http://dougjensen.com/) Although I didn't stay on that pure freelancer path too long, and soon fell back into "production company" mode, you had a large influence on the direction I took for a number of years. BTW, I always loved the photo of you on the elephant. Although our paths have crossed a couple of times over the years but I don't know if I ever mentioned the influence you had on me and probably many others. Anyway, I don't have any suggestions at all for a small monitor, but I just wanted tip my hat to you and say thanks. You are the freelancer's freelancer. Good luck with semi-retirement . . . and that's just about how I would describe myself now, too.
 
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Another nail in the smallhd/Vitec coffin!

I think the átomos is a good price/capability ratio.

Lower than that I’d check “feelworld” or whatever amazon is doing
 
I have a couple of SmallHD monitors but they are a mixed bag when it comes to performance. I also find it difficult to find a decent monitor. Either they lack in tools, IQ or power.
 
Whats wrong with Small HD monitors .. I have two of the SDI Focus monitors and they seem to work fine to me.. ? ..
 
The problem seems to be professional pricing mixed with consumer level support

They are great until they conk out.

In the consumer world there is some stuff 1/5 of the price that seems very useable
 
With all the caveats about this class of monitor, this one is actually bright enough to see at noon with the sun over your shoulder. No real "pro" features, but for me the only thing that matters when I'm outside...is, well, a monitor I can see outside...

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07J5C3D5...d=1545834695&sr=1-1&keywords=FEELWORLD+FW279S

They have optional battery plates for Canon, but the default is Sony and the smaller 2 cell batteries last an hour at full brightness, and the six cell Sony versions are only down to 80% at an hour. When the backlight is dialed down to INT levels it lasts forever.

2200 NITs for 340 bucks USA. The best NIT deal out there. Of course drop it and it will break.

Regards,
 
nedcam said:
Hello.

I dropped my Small HD OLED 7" and they say they can't fix it because they don't keep "legacy parts" for monitors over two years old. So I do not want to patronize them anymore, they are too small.

I am semi-retired so I don't need the greatest most expensive. I'd like to use my Canon LP batteries with it. So what would you recommend?

Thanks,

Ned
Click to expand...

That sucks, Ned. I have two smallHD DP7Pro OLED's and I kind of consider them prized possessions. I don't know if I want to go as far as saying they were ahead of their time, but nothing exactly like them exists today that I consider 'as good' overall. Especially since I do not like sHD's new menu/user interface(page builder OS). Maybe look around on the used market. I consider myself extremely lucky that last year or maybe the year before, I just happened to see that fellow DVXer Charles Papert was selling his on the For Sale section on here. I couldn't reply fast enough, because I had been trying to get my hands on another one for a while and I just knew someone was going to beat me to it.

morgan_moore said:
The problem seems to be professional pricing mixed with consumer level support

They are great until they conk out.

In the consumer world there is some stuff 1/5 of the price that seems very useable
Click to expand...

SmallHD started out with what I considered, hands down, the BEST customer service in the industry. After they were acquired by Vitec I was extremely worried about what would happen to the company. And while I don't like the direction that they have gone with some of the monitors, I do have to say that the customer service has seemed to stay at a good level. At least here in the US(and at least here only 2.5-3hrs away from their office and warehouse). Granted, I have not had to have a repair since the first DP6 I bought directly from them years ago. But they had no problem sending me a replacement battery mounting plate free, for a monitor that was several years out of warranty.
 
Hey Doug!

Great to hear from you. Nice bird work! I'm curious about the autofocus you used. We're going to Costa Rica on vacation in Feb and I will do the same but in stills. My clients long ago learned it was cheaper to buy stock footage than to send a city boy like me into the swamps to shoot wildlife. I thought you were still living in the Boston area. Taxes are way better in FL, I suppose your are in the Orlando area? You were smart to get into the tutorial biz back then, freelancing rates slowly declined over the years. I decided to retire in May 2017 because I was looking at $3K for a new website, 4K was forcing me to buy an FS7 (I figured the clients won't pay more), plus they want a drone, so screw it. So I was living the dream until I was yanked out of retirement a couple of months ago because my wife wanted to refinish the kitchen, which is not in our budget. But you can never truly retire because of all the clients we have that have become friends over the years and they will whine and whine until you agree to get the band together for "just one more shoot please". I still shoot a couple of days a month to keep the tax write offs open, mainly easy gigs like interviews and conferences. No more 14 hour killer days for me.

Thanks everyone for your ideas. I bought the 7" OLED from Small HD in July of 2015 so it never occurred to me that it was at the end of its life cycle, so I am pissed about this. That they would not stock parts to repair it. I suggest, and I don't know why they don't sell them, a rubberized cover so when you drop it there is a chance it will survive, like your cell phone cover. I will look into the Marshall family of monitors, I need SDI also for my ENG camera. When my monitor died I was on the road and went to a Best Buy and bought a 19" Insiginia open box special for $65 to give the client something to look at and wow, it was pretty nice! But I need a 7" for an on camera monitor, I have a 4" Small HD I use as a EVF but I need something larger to swing to the client for approval. I have gotten used to the brightness of the OLED though.

I don't know if it is a problem caused by Vitec buying them but they should have spare parts for repairs for monitors they sold just 3 years ago!!!

Thanks everyone. Have a healthy and profitable 2019! And plan, plan, plan for your retirement!

Ned
 
nedcam said:
I'm curious about the autofocus you used.
Click to expand...

Hey Ned, the only AF I trust for video . . . my hand working in tandem with my eyeball. :-) Besides, the F55 doesn't have AF even if I wanted it.

We moved to central Florida last summer and will only be in New England during part of the summer and as work dictates. I left my FS7 and a full lighting and sound package up there I can jump back and forth without the hassle of and expense of moving gear around. BTW, there is no true retirement in this business if you enjoy what you do. And I know that the case for both of us. Yeah, it's a business first but it is also a hobby and source of amusement. We just get to be a little pickier about what we say yes to now.
 
I just bought a small HD Focus monitor because it has the best weight to feature set for a monitor to use wth gimbals, but I've been appalled by their service from the beginning. When their first 7" monitor came out they promised features repeatedly for a year that they finally admitted were never going to come. (Can't even remember what it was except that it was important.) Likewise for their 4" model. Not stocking parts for a 2 year old monitor is pretty reprehensible in my book. Yes another nail in their coffin - don't think Vitec could be worse. Hope my Focus holds up.
 
But who else out there is comparable? If you're talking about a light monitor (not thick like Atomos) with features in a decent price range?
 
To me at least SmallHD doesn't feel like pro monitors. At first I had a DP6 which I didn't like. Bad colours, bad connectors. Years later I bought a 702 Bright which also had bad colours before I made a custom LUT for the monitor. It also didn't handle interlaced signals like PSF for years until they finally got a firmware in place that solved it. The Focus 5" I have starts to act strange when it's warm and that HDMI cable is something I'm just waiting on going bust.
 
They've been very popular here since I can remember. I don't know who out there makes small monitors that are any better...TV Logic?
 
OP HERE:

So last night I made a spreadsheet for SmallHD/Ikan/Marshall comparing the specs, seems those three have the market for 7". There are some really cheap Chinese 7" I see on Ebay but I don't think there's any quality in a $150 monitor. Also, because I need SDI in for my ENG camera, which is very helpful to have because the camera has a long servo zoom for tracking and rack focusing, there are few models out there because SDI is being phased out on smaller monitors.

One thing I loved about my Small HD 7" & 4" is that the connectors are on the bottom. Well, now they have them going out perpendicular on the back and I know that will add a lot of torque to the connectors. Ugh. But all the models on the market now have 90 degree back side connectors so that's more repairs in the future. I'll have to McGyver a strain relief.

The 702 brags about its brightness, but I tend to use a sunshade and wear a baseball cap when shooting outdoors so that's not a biggie. As I studied the SmallHD 702 on B&H, although there were 58 reviews 8 were absolutely scathing as to poor build quality, which will be my luck:

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1186278-REG/smallhd_mon_702_702_bright_7_daylight.html

I did notice that Atomos has rubber corners which would have helped me the two times I dropped my 7" OLED. Why don't all manufacturers use rubber corners?!?

So based on the spreadsheet it looks like my only choices are the SmallHD 702 for $800 or the Ikan VFX7 for $650, but if I buy the akan today I get $250 off. I need to confirm the ikan does PAL.

And Hey Doug, when I retired I decided to use my super powers to help the world, do good, to compensate for all the films and videos I did for evil corporations when I worked on the Dark Side as a money whore. Mainly now producing for very small local charities, where I can see where the money my videos raises goes toward. The downside I have found is I can't do one-offs, once I do a video for a nonprofit they then consider me their very own "Video Guy" and 100% of them always need an annual gala video, which as we all know is a LOT of work (for free). So I have throttled back on charity work and am very picky as to whom to help. I told a couple of them I sold my equipment! I felt you were racking focus by hand, you must have a young man's eyes!

Best,

Ned
 
OP UPDATE:

Just pulled the trigger and bought the iKan VXF7 7" HDMI/SDI On-Camera Monitor for $400 (on sale for $250 off) BUT....if I were you guys, if I was staying in the business and had important clients looking at my work, from what I learned on the phone with B&H I'd buy for $1000 the ikan Saga SX7 7" High-Brightness 3G-SDI/HDMI Field Monitor with 3D LUTs & Scopes

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1365189-REG/ikan_sx7_saga_7_super_bright.html

But I can limp along with the one I just bought.

See ya,

Ned
 
I had an Ikan monitor and although the image was really nice it seriously lacked in other areas. I guess there are no truly great on camera monitors.
 
Good luck. Ikan does generally not have a great rep. This is according to almost everyone I know that owns their stuff. Especially monitors.
 
For professional build Transvideo are/were the people but their features lack.

Personally I think “desposible” Chinese monitor are where it is at at the $1000 smallhd are desposible too.
 
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