Throwback
Well-known member
I have been looking into getting a field monitor for my Nikon D7000 for some time, but have been struggling to get information as to how the camera will perform with many of the familiar models (emails to manufacturers getting no joy) so, with no nearby stockists, I decided on the lower-risk of getting a cheap Lilliput 667. Of course this doesn't have false colour, peaking or 1:1 pixel mapping (the latter is not so useful with 720p HDMI output anyway), but my main needs are for framing and focusing, and the 667 does the job fine. The main area I was struggling to find out about monitors was how they would size the image, so I hope my findings about the 667 may help someone else going through the process.
1. Overall screen dimension is 152mm x 91mm, which, of course, is not perfectly 16:9, but matches the ratio of the 800x480 resolution.
2. In Liveview the image size is 121mm x 85mm, with shooting information partly within this area and outside it, so that the information completely fills the screen top to bottom.
3. When recording in Liveview the actual image size is reduced vertically by the greyed-out bars (as per the camera's own LCD) to give the 16:9 image. The actuall size on the Lilliput screen is 121mm x 72.5mm, which, therefore, is slightly squashed horizontally (it is 94%): this is unnoticeable to me.
4. When playing back video the whole screen is used and, again, the 16:9 image is thus very slightly, but unnoticeably (to me), squashed.
I found the image area on the monitor larger than I had anticipated (from a few on-line photos mainly concerned with showing how the Lilliput monitors can be used for anamorphic lenses) and is easily adequate for stills photography and I would suggest, even for racking focus in video mode.
In terms of zooming, a general issue - which I haven't found discussed elsewhere - of the D7000 is that the HDMI output limits the zoom magnification compared to the camera's LCD. This means that with an external monitor you can zoom, in liveview (i.e. prior to recording), to 2.33x less than on the camera's LCD. This scale factor does not take into account that any HDMI monitor is likely to be larger than the camera's LCD, so the difference is further reduced or reversed. In practice, with the Lilliput monitor, these are not problems: in liveview I cannot improve on the external monitor's zoomed-in focusing with the camera LCD's greater maginification (and I can normally nail focusing without zooming in at all, which is important for racking focus in video mode). And, of course, the larger size of the external monitor means that I don't have to be as close to achieve comparable monitor size.
For image or build quality issues, I have not used more expensive field monitors, so please do not ask me to compare it. Personally, I find the image quality fine and as expected, but would not trust for critical exposure (especially relevant to video work, where the latitude of raw files is missing) or, certainly, for white balance. The build quality is slightly better than I expected, but, obviously, this is rather subjective.
1. Overall screen dimension is 152mm x 91mm, which, of course, is not perfectly 16:9, but matches the ratio of the 800x480 resolution.
2. In Liveview the image size is 121mm x 85mm, with shooting information partly within this area and outside it, so that the information completely fills the screen top to bottom.
3. When recording in Liveview the actual image size is reduced vertically by the greyed-out bars (as per the camera's own LCD) to give the 16:9 image. The actuall size on the Lilliput screen is 121mm x 72.5mm, which, therefore, is slightly squashed horizontally (it is 94%): this is unnoticeable to me.
4. When playing back video the whole screen is used and, again, the 16:9 image is thus very slightly, but unnoticeably (to me), squashed.
I found the image area on the monitor larger than I had anticipated (from a few on-line photos mainly concerned with showing how the Lilliput monitors can be used for anamorphic lenses) and is easily adequate for stills photography and I would suggest, even for racking focus in video mode.
In terms of zooming, a general issue - which I haven't found discussed elsewhere - of the D7000 is that the HDMI output limits the zoom magnification compared to the camera's LCD. This means that with an external monitor you can zoom, in liveview (i.e. prior to recording), to 2.33x less than on the camera's LCD. This scale factor does not take into account that any HDMI monitor is likely to be larger than the camera's LCD, so the difference is further reduced or reversed. In practice, with the Lilliput monitor, these are not problems: in liveview I cannot improve on the external monitor's zoomed-in focusing with the camera LCD's greater maginification (and I can normally nail focusing without zooming in at all, which is important for racking focus in video mode). And, of course, the larger size of the external monitor means that I don't have to be as close to achieve comparable monitor size.
For image or build quality issues, I have not used more expensive field monitors, so please do not ask me to compare it. Personally, I find the image quality fine and as expected, but would not trust for critical exposure (especially relevant to video work, where the latitude of raw files is missing) or, certainly, for white balance. The build quality is slightly better than I expected, but, obviously, this is rather subjective.