I think we've all found the position of the LCD Screen extremely frustrating.

Today, I was considering the plus and minuses of having a technician remove it.
The top of the camera could have a cover plate, which included a female plug… and the LED screen could have an 8 inch cable with the male plug.

Advantages
- can be positioned anywhere.
- when using a PIX, camera info like REC and zebras on screen.
- the cost might equal an EVF
- no extra power needed
- very light

Disadvantages
- voids guarantee

it's an interesting thought, but If the cost is equal, why not leave the LCD and buy EVF?
that way you would have both if you ever need backup, etc., and not have to worry about voiding the warranty, etc.?

I have a EVF which hangs off the side...
It requires 2 sony batteries and an HDMI cable which runs from the back of the camera to the front.
While handholding yesterday... the cable fell off during a shot.

I miss the zebras, REC, timecode and the sound meters...
I'm always 'looking back in anger'.

I love the modular design of the camera... but hate the placement of the screen.
Years from now... we'll look back and say... what was Sony thinking.

HDMI is not the best connection. I suggest getting a BNC equipped EVF. You can have the audio meters and rec markers using the cameras output overlays or if you get the Alphatron EVF that has zebras, peaking and audio meters.

If you were to try to remove the LCD you would find you would need connectors with about 30 pins and a big fat cable. It's isn't just a power and video signal going to the LCD panel.

For the money of that hackjob you could buy a nice TVLogic 5" monitor, that comes with a pro waveform, vectorscope, zebras, false color and the best peaking I ever seen.

Also it is pretty color accurate, calibrates niceley and high resolution.
Best of all, it has SDI in (and out and HDMI) so your cable dropout problems are gone.

Yes, you need to power it, but it's way worth the hassle, I never go without it.

And as Alister said, that cable and connectors you would need would be a PITA.

Frank

Thank you Alister and Frank, for your thoughts…

I posted… on the off chance, someone else had the same idea.
It's happened in the past…
I get an idea… post… and receive an answer, usually from an Ozzie saying… "I've already done that mate".

Since my first post, I phoned an ex Sony product manager to ask what would be involved…
He warned me the cabling would be extremely difficult. But suggested, I talk with a company here in Montreal.
They' modify tape cameras... by removing the mechanisms and installing HD recorders in their place.
So just before completely dropping the idea, I'll give them a call next week.

Alister, I can't use the camera output overlays, because I'm recording with a PIX 240.
It would be helpful… if one could output overlays on HDMI but not on SDI.

I viewed your wonderful review of the Alphatron EVF… it was very helpful.
It seems to have it all… for me the audio meters are essential.
But I assume it gives no indication if the camera is recording.


Bill Kerrigan
www.kerrigan.ca

I think what would be handy is the choice of putting the FS menu screen on either the HDMI or the SDI, and being able to have both going at the same time.

HD-SDI goes clean to the recorder, HDMI goes with overlay to the EVF...

*WITH PUNCH IN / EXPANDED FOCUS, PUHLEEZE!*

Sorry for the shouting. It's just that one feels that one is duty bound to barge into some camera manufacturers design meetings with a crate of beer and chips for the engineering team and a fistful of 98 Degrees tickets for the marketing team, thus guaranteeing that the marketing team are far, far away from the core decision making team.

F3 can do that. You have an always clean output on the A and B SDI outs and the monitor Sdi/HDM can have the overlays on or off.

Not much help here I know.

The only way you could get a record indication in the Alphatron EVF would be to turn on the EVF's timecode display and watch for running timecode. Perhaps in a future firmware update that might add the ability to read the record flag that some cameras include in the Sdi data.

F3 can do that ... Not much help here I know.

:-) but worth another £4k? Sounds a bit like the EX3's extra price tag for the big blue S&Q button.

But, seriously, does the F3's info output also display its equivalent of 'Expanded Focus'?

It has to be said that I can feel the steely grip of Marketing, as to be brutally honest, much as I love the FS100 and FS700, I really want ECS, the viewfinder trick, and I love the SxS workflow, and whilst CineGammas rock, would love to play with S-Log... The devil's in the details, is it not?