Marshall Releases New Monitors for NAB

[Dave Wowchuk]

Read a post on Vincent LaForet's blog about three new monitors that Marshall is releasing for NAB. I've been thinking about buying a Steadicam Zephyr (SD version) and upgrading the monitor, but I also wanted a monitor that I could use for other non-Steadi shooting. These new "modular" monitors will make the purchasing decision much easier. (The 7" is quite bright @ 800 nits!)

 

http://blog.vincentlaforet.com/2011/04/01/three-new-marshall-monitors/

[Tom Wills]

I'm actually pretty glad I picked up my Marshall 651STX when I did. It's bright enough for everything I've done so far, it's got a real metal casing (unlike their current other offerings, which are plastic... ick), and it's got composite inputs. Plus, I actually really like its size. Being that it's a 6.5" screen, but also 4x3, The actual screen size when shooting 16x9 footage is smaller. I think it's much easier to scan than a larger monitor (I had a 7" before, and this just seems easier).

 

The new monitors look really nice, but I don't see the 7" being mentioned as transflective, so even though it's bright, it may not be as viewable in sunlight, it doesn't have composite, so you can't feed it any SD signals, and the casing is probably plastic. Could be a nice monitor, but I don't think it's necessarily got all the features you'd need in a Steadicam monitor (not that any of these relatively inexpensive LCDs do, but I'd rather make the least compromises possible).

[Dave Wowchuk]

Good points Tom.

[Andrew Stone]

I'm in the process of trying to find a good monitor as well for both Steadi and focus assist on my F3.

 

I agree with Tom about the 651. I would get a monitor at this point that will do HD-SDI and 3G. One will have a problem getting HDMI down the post. Seen it done. Not pretty. I'm pretty sure the 651 does not do image flip for low mode which requires either turning the monitor around with an unbolt or 3rd party image flip through a nanoFlash or something else. The 651 you can easily acquire with whatever battery plate you want from B&H or wherever and the battery plate is centered.

 

I didn't see weight specs on the new Marshalls and they haven't, as of yet, put this info on their website. The 651 is around 1.3 pounds according to B&H. That is a good weight for the smaller Steadi rigs and it was very much up there in terms of daylight viewability when compared to the monitors in Charles's monitor shootout from a couple of years ago. It has both the 800 nits and the transreflective material going for it.

 

I'm hoping there will be more offerings to come at NAB. I need a monitor now but I am going to wait at least a couple of weeks.

Edited April 2, 2011 by Andrew Stone

[Mark Schlicher]

A few thoughts...

 

The relatively inexpensive plastic Marshall monitors appear to be rebadged and marked-up Lilliputs, or maybe some other Chinese manufacturer.

 

Although running HDMI outside the post is not the most convenient, it is not really a big deal if you keep it neat. Running cables from the front of the dovetail across the back of the monitor is still a pretty common way to handle certain configurations. Just yesterday I had a 5D job with a Flyer. Production supplied an SD Camwave and the only place to mount it was on the bottom battery shoe. Since the video feed on a Flyer is basically hard-wired to the monitor (non-pass-through) I had a splitter on top; I fed the monitor video through the post (per normal) and ran a second cable outside the post down to the Camwave. There was no problem operating at all.

 

With an HDMI job on my Zephyr I'd probably use the same technique, using an HDMI monitor. It's just not enough of a problem to buy another box.