I am planning on buying a battery powered 5" TV with AV-in to use as a portable monitor when shooting with my XL1. I have an option for color or black and white....

Questions:

1. Should I go B&W or color? I feel the conventional wisdom is for B&W, but I don't know exactly why. (the price differential is $30 vs. $150, not a big issue for me)

2. Will a 5" monitor help me enough to make it worth it's while? I am mostly interested in focus, framing, and being able to mark it with 16x9 bars.

3. I have kinda ruled out the little 7" LCD monitors because I don't think they have the resolution to really help me on focus... am I wrong?

Thanks in advance....

The 5" monitor will help in focus operations only if it is B&W. The resolution of a 5" color monitor is not good.

I think 5" color is too small for most operations (I have one).

My 8" hi-res Sony portable is much better. I can focus, check color and frame with ease. It also has underscan and blue-gun only which helps a lot. It cost about $350 used. It is also much larger and heavier.

You are right about the LCD. Few LCD's have more than about 240 pixels vertical resolution. Not enough for focus. OK for framing. NOT good enough for color checks.

If you get something in the 8-9" range, it can also be used as your NTSC monitor for your editing setup.

Mike,

Thanks for the info.... the only thing about the 5" that I liked is that it is battery powered, so I can take it anywhere with the camera....

Are there 8" battery operated monitors out there?

Yes, that is what mine is. It takes external 12VDC and will work for 3 hours from an NRG battery belt, takes and charges NP1B batteries in internal slots or will work from 120 VAC.