Bruce,
More insights please. Can you give opinions on color, sharpness, ease of focus as well as viewablity in bright shooting conditions. Also, what is included in the base kit? I see on Varizoom site they show a case and stuff but are not clear if these are extras or not.

Thanks.

<Bruce,
More insights please. Can you give opinions on color, sharpness, ease of focus as well as viewablity in bright shooting conditions. Also, what is included in the base kit? I see on Varizoom site they show a case and stuff but are not clear if these are extras or not.>

Marty,
Unfortunately, you can't calibrate the Swit. You have brightness,contrast,hue and sharpness.I still need to spend some time with it so that I can judge exposure correctly on the swit and my fu 1000 viewfinder, and get them both to be close.
The sharpnes is good, and it makes focus quite a bit easier. Combined with the fu 1000, you have a killer focus system.The color is pretty reliable also.I haven't used it outside in a bright shooting situation yet ,and haven't even assembled the plastic sun cover. Some previous posts have said that they wanted to get a better cover like a hoodman or something.
The kit includes a case, the sun protector, and a shoe bracket that's attached to a clamp. The clamp is scary to use, since it's hard to get it to hold tight, even when you tighten the wheel as much as possible.I'm using a manfrotto sgoe adapter that I got with my firetore Fs4. It's similar to the varizoom unit, and lets you position the swit (tilt, etc.)
I'm definately returning the articulating arm, and getting something like an Israeli arm and a clamp or two.I'm really happy with the Swit, and want to be able to ue it in the following ways:
1-On the H1-I can use my manfrotto or the Swit gizmo for that.
2-On the tripod arm-This is important when I have to use my Frezzi ligjht on cam, and want to take the cam on and off the tripod, without having to diconnect the Swit.
3-I want to also use it on a seperate stand, so that it can be moved seperately. I used the clamp to torque it down to a mic stand on saturday, and it was nice that the director, student DP and I could all see look at the same monitor. The clamp slipped once(as did the varizoom articulating arm) and if my reflexes weren't quicker, it would have hit the floor on two occasions.
So the only real problem for me so far is how to secure it to various things. It has good color, sharpness and helps with focus , both in sd and hdv. It's the best $1100 I've spent in a while and I'd highly reccomend it.
Bruce yarock
www.yarock.com

Boyd,
Thanks for the info on the iklear product. I'l, try to get them asap.
Bruce S. yrock
www.yarock.com

Nothing in depth, but I just received my Varizoom Swit HD monitor. I had a little time to play around with it. Here are some things people should know.

Can you focus with the Varizoom? Yes.

Are the colors accurate? Mmmm... no but it does have separate adjustments for the red, green, and blue channels. So I would imagine you could get the colors pretty close to accurate.

Does the monitor do a 180 degree rotation/flip? Yes, it most certainly does. You just have to press the minus/dash "-" button. So anybody that has a 35mm adapter should be quite pleased with this monitor. I don't think anybody has really mentioned this on these boards.

I haven't had time to test the battery life, I may be able to determine that this weekend.

We're now using a SWIT with both HDV and SD and it's okay for sure.

Battery life seemed surprisingly good, and that was with the little screw-on battery option for the bottom (VZ702M from Varizoom). We used it both handheld and fixed on a tripod with our 12 ft Kessler Crane, and with several different cams (HD and SD) it pulled focus quite nicely, even in lowlight conditions. Next, we'll try to use it with our Steadicam Merlin.

For the price range, it's definitely good enough, though we did not care for the "ballmount" and would definitely use something more robust (we used a superclamp). The little screw on battery for the bottom helps to keep from overtightening the mount on the case, and would be good to just leave on the monitor. The little LEDs show battery life and we only managed to use half a charge up in more than an hour of testing.

One more complaint: the so-called Sony Mini-DV battery option on the back did NOT fit our little Sony A1U batteries, so is only for the three pin larger batteries. I would imagine you could easily go all day with a bigger battery!

All in all, we missed the 4pin power connector, but for the money, this is a good monitor and definitely usable. We'd buy another and probably will...

Two suggestions to Varizoom: sell a handle for it (to use "handheld") and GET A BIGGER BOX FOR IT! That little whimpy plastic case is too small and junk. Our first mod was to move it to a more robust and larger case for transport.

Hi everyone,

I use a Canon XHA1 with the Redrock M2 and need some sort of on camera LCD. We have an external field monitor but would like something on the camera for steadicam-type shots, etc.... I've read all the previous posts I could find, and it seems like for the price, this Varizoom kit is the thing to have:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?A=details&Q=&is=REG&O=productlist&sku=400388

Any comments/suggestions as to whether to buy this one or look into other options?

Thanks,
Luke

Hi Luke

I have the same kit . Also I have a XL2 and Redrock Micro adapter . I bought the LCD for the same reason : Steadicam shots and framing . It's a great tool for this type of job but you can't relay on focusing / lighting / color preview . Also it's a SD Monitors and I see that you have a HD Camera .

The battery last for about 2.5-3h always on .

I recommend you to buy a better Shoe Mount adapter because the LCD is quite heavier and because of the shoe mount , LCD tend to slip/fall . ( I don't know the exact word ) .

Hope this info help !

I'm also getting this kit.

I recommend you to buy a better Shoe Mount adapter

Where can I get the upgraded Shoe Mount, I didn't see it on their site.

Also, will this LCD fit on most stabilizer kits? (like the glidecams)

Anyone know of a good way to colorcorrect this monitor? It seems to have rudimentary color adjustment options.