5D Monitor Showdown!
Lately there’s been something different about the Endless Picnic office…could it be all those cardboard monitor boxes, both big and small, piled high ’round the room? Sure it is! Pesky as they might be, they’re signs that changes are afoot here at HQ, and I’m here to tell you what new field monitors we’ve been testing for our 5D rigs, as well as run down the pros and cons of each.
Now keep in mind that we’re not gonna bog you down with pages n’ pages of tech specs (that’s not our bag, so we’ll leave it to others to fill you in on every last transistor and pixel) but we will serve up some pragmatic notes on how some of the newest HDSLR monitoring solutions stack up in real world situations. Ready?
The contestants today–dig the links to the manufacturers, if you please–are as follows:
Marshall V-LCD70XP-HDMI 7″
Marshall V-LCD50-HDMI 5″
smallHD DP6 HDMI 5.6″
These three monitors all have a few things in common: (More …)Tweet
David Cavallo 3:11 pm on August 21, 2011 Permalink
Hey folks, just wanted to add a few important updates to this review. (Sorry for the delay, but things have been super busy at Endless Picnic!)
• A few months ago we upgraded one of our Marshall V-LCD70XP-HDMI monitors. The factory installed update added an HDMI loop-through feature, which eliminates the tremendous headache of using an HDMI splitter when working with multiple monitors or an EVF, as well as a DSLR ratio adjustment feature, which, like the smallHD DP6, allows the unit to display a full screen image while you’re recording with a DSLR. These features work wonderfully in the field and the studio, and have really improved an already excellent unit.
In addition to making the upgrade available for older units, Marshall sells a new model with these features:
http://www.lcdracks.com/monitors/model/V-LCD70XP-HDMIPT.php
• Additionally, I thought I should add that the smaller MARSHALL V-LCD50-HDMI has proven to be somewhat erratic in the field as far as color reproduction and image quality are concerned. Under certain circumstances–with tungsten lights for a night interior, for example–I had a terrible time getting a strange golden cast out of the image–no matter what white balance settings I used. (This cast was absolutely not there on the 5D’s LCD screen.) I recently recailbrated the unit with Alex, our colorist, and it looked solid enough in our office, but I’ll confess that my confidence in using the unit to gauge color is a bit shaken, despite my initial impressions. It’s still great for black and white
shooting, though!
• Recently, word came through the rental house grapevine that Small HD had updated the firmware for the DP6-HDMI. Being the objective, higher truth seekin’ types that we are here at Endless Picnic, we borrowed a unit and installed the latest version. Unfortunately, after another good hour of attempting to calibrate it, we found that the same picture issues still existed as in our original review. As such, we still stand behind our original review of the unit’s image quality and color reproduction.