Hi all,

I know this isn't usually the angle of this forum (the focus is usally on high quality :-), but I could really use some help.

I'm getting an inexpensive crane for a short shoot for work. I barely have room in the budget for the crane, but it will really help to add some fun shots.

Questions is: Can you give me some ideas for a very cheap monitor for the bottom of the crane. It will probably only be used this once time. I don't have another $199 in my budget...

Thanks big time!
JL

Eek. It seems like you should be able to purchase a cheap LCD without too much trouble... I'll go look around the net and see what I can find as I'm in a similar situation.

I posted the below in another forum on dvinfo. If you can get a gameboy advance this is the cheapest way to monitor. There is no mount on the gameboy but you can hold it in your palm or stick it on your crane with rubber bands or gaffer's tape. I just want to repeat that it is very useful for framing your shots but useless (due to low resolution) for focus, color, apeture, etc.

PS What crane are you getting? Will you be looking to sell it when you are done with your shoot?


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I'm building a simple crane and needed a remote monitor just to keep an eye on framing. I didnt want to spend much now since I plan to experiment with the rig and then find out what features I really want for a better implementation.

One day I started thinking about my daughter's Gameboy Advance SP, which fortunately she doesnt use much.

Sure enough you can by an AV adapter for it for $30:

http://www.allmediaoutlet.com/allmedia/prodDetail.do?kitNbr=1178

It gives you video and audio in. Of course the resolution stinks--you would never use it for anything other than framing a shot. However it fits in the palm of your hand, runs for hours on the internal batteries, and I found it's semi-16:9 and semi-underscan so it does a much better job with the framing than the LCD on my Gl-2. It is also a lot more visible in direct sunlight. Oh yes, you can also sneak in a quick game of Mario Bros between shots :)

So if you have access to a gameboy this is probably the cheapest way to monitor your cam.

I have small black & white TV I bought for my pool deck (don’t want to miss a game when I’m swimming) with a 5” screen. It was $39.00 at one of the mart stores a few years ago. It has a video input (RCA), I have used it for a monitor a couple of times. Takes batteries too.

Steve

The cheap LCD televisions work for framing. I also had one of those inexensive Sony B&W televisons that worked OK.

5 inch and below are really quite inexpensive.