Lightweight Monitor for Canon 7D?

[David Shawl SOC]

I have a 7D shoot on Sunday in the L.A. area and I'm interested in using my lightweight 2nd rig for this. This smaller rig consists of the Glidecam 2000 Pro and the Glidecam X-10 Vest / Arm. I've used the sled for over 7 years and never once attached an external monitor. I am considering just using the 7D built-in LCD, but if there is a lightweight battery-powered LCD available in Los Angeles, that would be icing on the cake. The monitor must include its own battery since there are no power supplies on the sled. Any thoughts?

 

Thanks!

 

 

Update:

The DP1 monitor ( http://www.smallhd.com ) looks pretty ideal and has HDMI like the 7D. It's not available for rental but perhaps I can find a local owner.

[Tom Daigon]

I have a 7D shoot on Sunday in the L.A. area and I'm interested in using my lightweight 2nd rig for this. This smaller rig consists of the Glidecam 2000 Pro and the Glidecam X-10 Vest / Arm. I've used the sled for years and never once attached an external monitor. I am considering just using the 7D built-in LCD, but if there is a lightweight battery-powered LCD available in Los Angeles, that would be icing on the cake. The monitor must include its own battery since there are no power supplies on the sled. Any thoughts?

 

Thanks!

 

 

Update:

The DP1 monitor ( http://www.smallhd.com ) looks pretty ideal and has HDMI like the 7D. It's not available for rental but perhaps I can find a local owner.

 

I have a 5D that I use with a modified Glidecam 2000 (hdmi down the post ) with an X-10 vest / arm as well. I also modified the sled bottom (added yoke for monitor) for use with the DP-1. The image is great HD until the 5D goes into record then it becomes SD which still looks very good. The early batteries had problems but they have been rectified. Of course its wise to set the f/stop tp about 5.6 for extended depth of field. Im not sure how it might work in direct sunlight but indoors and on set it reads well. My sled stage was a bit light so I added some "cheese"plates to add a little weight to the camera and battery grip. I can get good static balance and a nice 2.5 sec. drop which helps its performance. Good luck with your shoot!

Edited February 11, 2010 by Tom Daigon

[Charles Papert]

Particularly with the SD output of the 5D, you could just use the SD output of the camera rather than the HDMI, which would open you up to any number of inexpensive monitors with internal batteries. Like this one:

 

http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.js...oductId=3324197

 

never used it, but of course you could try it out and then return it if you didn't like it.

[David Shawl SOC]

Thanks for the advice. Glad to know that Radio Shack offers complimentary weekend rentals of monitors :)

 

We went with the Ikan V5600 5.6" monitor with HDMI, rented from Samys along with the camera body and a few lenses. It's OK. I'll try to post pics of my setup after tomorrow's shoot. Like Tom, I added some weight plates to bulk up my top stage. HDMI down the post would have been awesome, do you have any photos of your rig? I'll consider modifying for the next shoot.

[Tom Daigon]

Thanks for the advice. Glad to know that Radio Shack offers complimentary weekend rentals of monitors :)

 

We went with the Ikan V5600 5.6" monitor with HDMI, rented from Samys along with the camera body and a few lenses. It's OK. I'll try to post pics of my setup after tomorrow's shoot. Like Tom, I added some weight plates to bulk up my top stage. HDMI down the post would have been awesome, do you have any photos of your rig? I'll consider modifying for the next shoot.

 

At the moment I dont have any shots. I can tell you it looks very clean and professional ;-) I spoke at great length to Dave at Glidecam before going to a machine shop and getting a squarish hole drilled to accommodate the small hdmi connector (about 2" below the stage and above the gimbal). Then a second larger squarish hole was drilled in the tube that telescopes down out of the main tube for the larger hdmi connector. I wanted to make sure I didnt mess with the structural integrity of the post. Buffing out the edges of the holes was also done. Its a very clean variation of the X-10 / 2000 hd configuration and it works very well with the 5D and DP-1 in my applications.

Edited February 15, 2010 by Tom Daigon

[David Shawl SOC]

I would love to check out photos of that mod if you ever get a chance to put them online.

 

Here is my rig from yesterday's shoot. It's not gonna win any beauty contests :) The entire sled weight with camera/lens was around 13 pounds, so I rarely needed to dock the rig. The music video concept was a road trip experience, so we had over 6 locations throughout the day in the Valley. Once I parked, I was ready to fly in about 5 minutes at each location. Very efficient. The Ikan monitor is far from daylight viewable, but my mega sunhood helped quite a bit.

 

Though we didn't really need to pull focus for the type of shots we needed, I definitely want to attach my Bartech/M-One to this

rig and use lens gear wraps on the SLR lenses for the next shoot. I would likely need to put an AB battery plate on the rear of bottom stage and use a P-tap power cable or does anyone know if it's possible to adapt a Sony or Panasonic camera battery to power a Bartech?

 

[Daniel Mimura]

I just had a 7D shoot sunday as well...

 

I've been having problems with my main monitor (a Tiffen SD 7") and I knew it would be a 7D shoot so I bought a $300 LCD monitor from LCD4Video.

 

It worked out great.

 

http://www.lcd4video.com/products/LCD4Video-7%22-HD-PRO-LCD-Monitor-w%7B47%7D-Internal-Battery%2C-HDMI-%26-Composite-RGB-Inputs.html

 

It has composite/component bnc as well as HDMI.

 

Honestly, since it's a cheaper monitor with HDMI and the same 7" size, I didn't need a converter box and still have HD, so for DSLR shoots, I will be using this in the future even after I get my Tiffen monitor repaired b/c I have HD.

 

There are battery options for it---plus it has a battery inside that is supposed to last 1.5hrs, although I never used the battery. I used a lemo to...whatever it is...it's a standard power supply like older cellphones or consumer electronics.

 

Instead of altering the brackets, I just used the tiffen bracket with the monitor removed and covered the thing in velcro.

 

It's 450cd/m (which I believe is synonymous with nits)...I don't know how it does in daylight yet b/c "daylight" in Seattle won't happen for another month or two! It seems decently bright though.

[Carl Wiedemann]

David, Your set up looks great but it appears that you'd need to remove your hand from the gimbal every time you pan more than a few degrees to the right. If you run the video cable down the front of the rig (over the back of the monitor) you'll be able to pan nearly 360 degrees (rather, 180 degrees in each direction). A more convenient way to work until you can run a video cable inside the post.

[Amando Crespo]

Hi friends.

This is my configuration: Ultra2 + Canon MarkII 5D

[Ramon Engle]

Here's the best thing since DSLR's became video cameras. http://www.tvlogicusa.com/product/vfm056.php

TV Logic has eliminated the need for a Black Magic box by allowing the monitor to accept HDMI in then converts it to HD-SDI out!

So you can run a BNC to video village, transmitter- what ever you need with out the gacketry of an additional powered accessory.

Plus, its well constructed, easy access to menus, light weight, waveform, vectorscope and I think it has image reverse on the horizontal and vertical axises. Had my hands on one for a few minutes on set the other day. We've been using the 7' TV logic as onboards as well. This is a great monitor. Not exceptionally bright but lots of menu options, well made, fantastic image quality and IMHO the compact 7' HD-SDI monitor on the market. My only quarrel about this monitor is its only available in a V-Lock mount but there is a 4pin XLR for power.

 

Rick Trock is a distributor for TV Logic. Good guy to deal with. He has better pricing than what you find on the internet on most models.

 

rick@trockmedia.com

[Charles Papert]

Yes, I've been hearing good things about this monitor.

 

Ironically, this being the Steadi forum and all, it does mean that you have to keep the monitor onboard in all configurations--Steadicam being the least likely to require this except for the need for HDMI conversion. It does mean you have devise a way to essentially fold the monitor out of the way as you probably don't want it sticking out the side as it usually is for studio or handheld. Not a biggie if you are using an Israeli arm of some kind.

 

Another factor which I haven't heard any feedback on is the speed at which it "recovers" from the 5D resolution change when going into record. Two parameters here--how quickly does the monitor itself change resolutions, and does it impart any additional latency onto the output SDI signal.

 

And finally--nominal power spec for the monitor is 6-12vDC, with the ability to take up to 16V before it gets unhappy. Of course, a hot battery can deliver more than that--so it should really have some external voltage regulation to prevent that.

 

So a few caveats here, but otherwise, a nice way to avoid that infernal Blackmagic box which can be both delicate (due to cheap connectors) and unreliable.