Hello,

I'm working in the (very new) video team at my church. We are using a Canon XL-1, and the EVF just isn't enough to check focus accurately--especially since I like to operate the camera with the tripod's arms, hands-off the camera. The EVF has a rotary switch that lets me see the full picture when standing behind the camera, but it's barely even large enough to frame with. I would like to get a field monitor, but it would have to come out of my personal finances, so a $2000 Sony isn't going to happen.

I was browsing B&H and noticed a cheap black-and-white monitor for $149. It's the Ikegami PM-K9 model, 9-inch with 700 lines of resolution. I know it's not great quality, but the price is very attractive. Is it good enough for pulling focus?

Thanks,
Daniel

The link for the product is http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=productlist&A=details&Q=&sku=400973&is=REG&addedTroughType=categoryNavigation

Daniel - I would think the major problem with this monitor would be its composite only interface. You would never achieve anything close to the 700 lines resolution from the composite output of most cameras. It would probably be more than sufficient for focus and framing from a standard def camera. I also can't tell if it's 16x9 switchable. It does not appear to offer a DC power option which you would expect in a portable monitor but the price is right.

Thanks for the reply, John. We won't be using 16x9, so that's not a big concern.

Now I've got to decide between this and a Varizoom Pro-LX controller. . .

Back when my church's video team was using ENG cameras for video we ran 9" color monitors out the composite monitor outputs on the cameras and they worked fine for focus. The black and white monitors should do fine.