FS7: Need recommendation for a 7" monitor

Jim Feeley said:
It's always good to take care, but you know... productions happen. :-)

I think back to some other equipment where some vendors would attach their SDI connectors directly to PCB boards, while other manufacturers would attach their SDI connectors to backplanes.... One had lower production costs but was weaker and irreperable if broken, one was more rubust and fixable if something did go wrong (which it hardly ever did).

When I've worked with SmallHD monitors, they've seemed decent. But I don't own one...
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Yes sure.. its hard to understand what Morgan says though.. I thought he said or at least implied he had a lot of problems with Small HD monitors ,and that part of that was SDI,s breaking or not functioning after being impacted ..?.. HDMI,s I would avoid in the professional field.. notoriously useless .. even at consumer level.. apart from bad customer support.. rather than the product itself .. I mean Small HD didn't invent HDMI..
 
On the 502 the SDI is soldered to the board (no other physical attachement) .. or was.. two tiny blobs of solder being the only thing holding it in place. Mix that with the SDI sticking straight out forwards and you have a receipie for disaster. A completely beta design.. and I got to be a $1000 beta tester.

Its interesting looking at SmallHDs publicity stills - very rarely are the leads included in the images (although the monitors are 'live')

As it happens Im less allergic to HDMI than I was.. the super flexi leads are great for routing nicely round a rig.

S
 
ah ok got it.. maybe they have improved their design/engineering .. the focus has recessed SDI/HDMI ports .. almost impossible to bash them.. but I guess they could still be pulled out.. although that should less of a worry for an on board .. in theory :)
 
Years ago I purchsed one of the original SmallHD monitors. The reds were never correct on it, so ended up selling it and buying a TV Logic. When it was time to replace the TV Logic, I purchsed a newer version even though I wanted a monitor larger than 5.6”. While on a shoot, I compared the TV Logic to the 702 Bright my client had and the 702 was more accurate out of the box. I returned the TV Logic and bought a 702 on sale from B&H.

I’m very picky about the monitors I use. I want accuracy more than anything and I have been pleasantly surprised by the 702.
 
I have a 702 bright...any recommended settings for more accuracy? I also have an Odyssey7 and hooked them both up and eyeball tweaked the smallhd to the Odyssey, since I believe the Odyssey to be more accurate, but it was very unscientific. It’s definitely closer than it was.
 
I am not a fan of small HD as I've said before, however I did have an original 702 for a short while and did think it was more accurate than the Odyssey. the 702 always matched my Flanders while odyssey varied under different conditions. one thing i thought ( perhaps incorrectly) was that because the odyssey was not as bright, was that I would change the contrast and brightness settings sometimes to match the ambient situations and this would affect the monitor settings. Whatever it was I find that I often have to tweak my Odyssey to stay with the flanders and I didn't have to with the 702. On the other hand the 702 brights that I tried were impossible to set correctly under normal indoor use. I am happy so far with the focus though. i wish they made one that was both SDI and HDMI.
I wish Atomos still made their little converter from SDI>HDMI that fit a Sony L battery . I have one that goes the other way. It would be perfect on the Focus.
 
LennyLevy said:
I am not a fan of small HD as I've said before, however I did have an original 702 for a short while and did think it was more accurate than the Odyssey. the 702 always matched my Flanders while odyssey varied under different conditions. one thing i thought ( perhaps incorrectly) was that because the odyssey was not as bright, was that I would change the contrast and brightness settings sometimes to match the ambient situations and this would affect the monitor settings. Whatever it was I find that I often have to tweak my Odyssey to stay with the flanders and I didn't have to with the 702. On the other hand the 702 brights that I tried were impossible to set correctly under normal indoor use. I am happy so far with the focus though. i wish they made one that was both SDI and HDMI.
I wish Atomos still made their little converter from SDI>HDMI that fit a Sony L battery . I have one that goes the other way. It would be perfect on the Focus.
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Lenny, I have an Atomos S2H HD-SDI --> HDMI converter. Haven't used it in a couple of years. I will test it tomorrow. If it is okay, I am willing to sell it. I know you mentioned Sony L battery. This converter is designed for Sony NP batteries and came with battery adapters for Canon (LP-E6) and Nikon (EN-EL15).
 
I've used four SmallHD monitors and of them one had problem with the SDI connectors, one become flaky after being used for a while, another had to be serviced and at least three of them showed wrong colours.
 
LennyLevy said:
I am not a fan of small HD as I've said before, however I did have an original 702 for a short while and did think it was more accurate than the Odyssey. the 702 always matched my Flanders while odyssey varied under different conditions. one thing i thought ( perhaps incorrectly) was that because the odyssey was not as bright, was that I would change the contrast and brightness settings sometimes to match the ambient situations and this would affect the monitor settings. Whatever it was I find that I often have to tweak my Odyssey to stay with the flanders and I didn't have to with the 702. On the other hand the 702 brights that I tried were impossible to set correctly under normal indoor use. I am happy so far with the focus though. i wish they made one that was both SDI and HDMI.
I wish Atomos still made their little converter from SDI>HDMI that fit a Sony L battery . I have one that goes the other way. It would be perfect on the Focus.
Click to expand...

The Odyssey is OLED(maybe the same panel that sHD used in their DP7Pro OLED), and the 702 LCD(I'm presuming your Flanders, as well). That could have been the difference.
 
I understood the odysseys were supposed to be deadly accurate (once you dial out some green). When you say “match your Flanders” youre talking a full size monitor right? Cause flanders doesnt make small ones right?

as for the 702 bright, indoors eyeballing tells me 20-40% on the backlight is “right”. zero looks way too dark to me.
 
Here's my follow up. I got a last minute call yesterday evening to do a quick talking head today, the iKan was still in the box from B&H. Last night all I had the energy, and sobriety, to do was power it on, set it on HDMI in and make sure there was an image. So on the shoot today it looked OK, "good enough", I think OLED spoiled me as to brightness, but this will suffice. As for color, it looked the same as I was seeing with my own eyes so I did not tweak it at all. If I were still deep in the biz like you fellas I would have bought B&H's 2 year warranty, but at 65 who knows if I will live that long. I will search for rubber corners of some sort as long as they don't look too bad, after all, the clients are training their eyes on the monitors. I will try not to drop this one. It is not as slim as a SmallHD, which may be a plus when abused.

I do like their old fashioned controls on the front, instead of having to drill down into menus as the SmallHDs make us do. There is a 35% drop in price which makes me think they will discontinue this model but I really like having the controls so easily accessible. It seems like a good build quality. See photo.

I was worried about the torque of cables coming out at a 90 degree angle but used my articulating HDMI cables which I think helped by putting the pressure downward, see photo.

See ya,

Ned
 

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