ive seen some for cameras on ebay for like 250, yet at the same time i see others for car use on ebay from 60 to 250 bucks, i can find a way to mount it on my camera thats no prob, but will a $100 TFT LCD do the job? also how will i go about setting this thing up to my camera? as far as screen colors and contrast and all that?

Hi Shane,

Did you do a search here under something like "LCD camera monitor?" You'll find lots of good info. Here's the first one I found: http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=47662&page=1&pp=15&highlight=lcd+camera+monitor

I bought a 4" TFT monitor under $300 a couple years back. It was only good for focus--had to tape it off for framing, couldn't trust the color or contrast.

Come to think of it, it wasn't even that good for focus. :)

But a friend made me a cool little gadget out of a Tota clamp for putting it on my camera or tripod. That's the best part of the whole deal.

To answer your other question, I just used cable with RCA jacks and plugged one into the I/O on the back of the XL1s. For power I bought a BP4-12 battery and had the guys at the local electronics store make me a little power cord. The battery is heavy enough that I had to wear it on my hip in a fanny pack.

Check out Varizoom, they work very well.

Mike

Hi there,

You may also think about buying a small 4" or so TV. Most of these can run on AA batteries and have mini jack inputs for your video signal. Some may even have car adapters. Sorry, I don't have any suggestions regarding mounting one of these to your camera or tripod.

Regards,

Steph

how will i go about setting this thing up to my camera? as far as screen colors and contrast

See the following for a description of calibrating a monitor using NTSC color bars:

http://www.videouniversity.com/tvbars2.htm

I bought a 7.2" LCD monitor and have been using that. It has picture flip and rotate, so that's perfect for using with a 35mm adapter (see alternative imaging forum here), as the adapter creates an upside down image.

I mount the monitor to my shoe mount with a ball mount.

I have also tried running my camera upside down, with the LCD mounted to a ball mount which in turn mounts to the camera's 1/4"-20 tripod mount. That meant no problem with picture flip in post, but PITA to hold the camera and especially to making running changes.

I'm just a rookie at this stuff but I've been talking to people at LCD monitor companies and reading about LCD's on the web and here's what I've learned. There are very few companies that produce TFT LCD monitor technology, really only about 3 I believe. I'm just talking about the screen itself. Anyway, there is a somewhat larger number of companies producing the complete monitor but not as many as you'd think. Consequently, many of the automotive LCD monitors are very similar or even are identical with the exception of the silkscreening of the graphics and letters on the unit.

Anyway, there are a couple common 7"-7.2" screen resolutions:

800 x 480 display resolution (2400 x 480 dots)
480 x 234 display resolution (1440 x 234 dots)
345 x 234 display resolution (1034 x 234 dots)

The annoying part of shopping for monitors is that the second ones in the list, the 480x234's, are mostly advertised as 1440x234's. Yet the first ones in the list are mostly advertised as 800x480, which is misleading and makes it sound as if they have less resolution than the "1440x234" monitors. However the 800x480's have about the best resolution you can find in a ~7" monitor.

Also, all (?) of them are set for 4:3 but some can be set to letterbox a squeezed 16:9 image. This is great if you're using an anamorphic adapter or squeeze mode with a DVX. Not sure whether this helps XL2 owners.

Maybe someone better versed than I can answer this, but, isn't an 800x480 monitor more than you'd ever need, because native DVD format is 720x480 (NTSC)?

Bill,

Is Xenarc (http://www.xenarc.com/product/700v.html) one of the 800x480s you were alluding to?

Can anyone tell me if this Nebtek Battery Power supply (http://www.nebtek.com/proddetail.php?prod=LIBA) would mate to the Xenarc display.

Xenarc is one of the many brands made with the exact same guts as most of the others. I find Xenarc to be middle of the road pricewise. Their phone system sucks and I found they had less of a selection than some other places. Also, other places were more up front with me about "We don't know whether this monitor can do rotate and flip image." Heck, some of the others actually opened boxes for me. The instructions included with the monitors were comical, because, not only were they totally barebones but they had no mention of the brand or model of monitor at all. Naturally it's because they can print thousands of the same instructions at the mother ship and stick them in every competing "brand" of monitor they produce.

I forgot to mention batteries. I looked at the power my monitor requires - 12 volts and 8 watts - and used that to determine what battery suited my needs.

Batteries are rated in volts of course, and in amp-hours. Let's say we have a battery rated at 10 amp-hours. It can run a 10 amp device for about an hour, or a 1 amp device for 10 hours, and so on.

Amps = Watts/Volts

Again, my monitor requires 8 watts and 12 volts.

So, Amps = 8/12

So, Amps = .66

Well, I wanted to operate my monitor for a few hours, so I got a 5aH (amp hour) lantern battery. A 5 amp hour battery can produce:

5 amps for 1 hour
1 amp for 5 hours
.66 amps - like my monitor needs - for about 7.5 hours.

After many hours of operation, my monitor gets dim and starts to buzz. Just FYI.

I also bought a simple motorcycle battery trickle charger. You want as low a trickle charge as you can get; the battery likes it better. My charger was 1.5 amps and that is coincidentally the max charge the battery is rated to receive.

A hip pack is a great idea for the battery. I keep mine in a lens bag slung over one shoulder.

Bill,

Is Xenarc (http://www.xenarc.com/product/700v.html) one of the 800x480s you were alluding to?

Can anyone tell me if this Nebtek Battery Power supply (http://www.nebtek.com/proddetail.php?prod=LIBA) would mate to the Xenarc display.

I wrote a note to Xenarc asking about this:

I would like to know if this Nebtek battery adaptor would power your Xenarc 700v display. This would enable me to mount the monitor on a hotshoe bracket on my Canon XL2 video camera and power it with a Canon battery (which I have several of already). If this will not work, do you plan on building a battery adapter for the 700V? Patrick King


This is the reply I received:

Hi Patrick:

Thank you for your interest in our products.

So long as the battery can provide DC 8V – 14V, 1 amp, you shouldn’t have any problems. We currently do not have any plans to provide a battery adapter for the 700V. Should you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to let me know.

Thanks,
Mike