Best 7" LCD 16:9 Monitor w/good 4:3 as well?

[Thomas Wagner]

Hello to all of you!

I will try to mount an 7inch lcd display to my tripod which fits good to XL2 . My question is if you know a good 16:9 lcd display which is also able to display 16:9 fullscreen and 4:3 letterboxed with black stribes on left and right sight of the picture.

Please help me.

Excuse my funny english I am from germany.


Thanks for your work


Thomas

[Jed Burdick]

this looks interesting, I havnt used it. Maybe it would work?

http://www.xenarc.com/product/700y.html

Jed

[Barry Goyette]

Jed

the one you linked to won't work..but this one will

http://www.xenarc.com/product/700v.html

Pricing is listed here

http://www.xenarcdirect.com/search_results.asp?txtsearchParamCat=6&txtsearchParamType=ALL&txtsearchParamMan=ALL&txtsearchParamVe n=ALL&iLevel=1

The only problem to sort out is the power...its spec'd at 12v, although it says it will run at 8-14v. this means an expensive battery setup or an ac to 12v transformer as it won't run off of canon batteries. Here's a battery I found that's cheap. It should work...but the xenarc monitor, being designed to run off a car battery, may not be the most energy efficient device in the world...so you might need 2...or 3 of these space age babies.

http://www.batteryspace.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=919

If you want turnkey deal...look at the nebtek.com page...but it'll cost ya.

good luck

Barry

[Ken Tanaka]

The Panasonic 7" LCD has become one of the gold standards. I've had one for over two years, using it for both video and photo. It's excellent, and can be adapted to be powered from your Canon batteries, too.

Markertek has a very competitive price on it right now.

[Thomas Wagner]

Hello,
is one of you using the NEB 70 LI (Panasonic) looks very smart.

http://www.nebtek.com/proddetail.php?prod=101-NEB70LI



Thanks for your help


Thomas

[Thomas Wagner]

I think the Panasonic will be my deal. Hopefully I get it in Germany if not I have to order it in the USA.


Thank you very much


PS. If you know a cheap dealer who will ship to germany please inform me.

Thomas

[Barry Goyette]

thomas..the nebtek monitor is the same panasonic, and its main benefit is that you can use standard canon camcorder batteries...the regular panasonic uses an anton bauer setup which is costly if you don't already own it...any way do a search here at dvinfo...someone found the same adapter as the nebtek in the UK...I thought it was less money as well...I tried a quick search and couldn't find it..but maybe you can package up a panny monitor with this battery solution on your side of the pond.

Barry

[Dennis Hingsberg]

I've seen a Lilliput 7" TFT LCD screens that sells for about $139 USD on ebay and other sites, but have no idea how good it is. I was considering one myself because I don't want to spend a fortune on one.

The specs don't seem that bad either for what it is:

194 x 122 x 26mm
336,000 pixels
100mVp-p
75 ohms
contrast ratio 200:1
brightness 400 nits
NTSC/PAL auto
9.5 watts
12 volts

These things are primarily sold as displays for in your car, you know, so you can play PS2 or watch DVD movies while driving.

[John Sandel]

Dennis, have you figured out a convenient way to power the Lilliput monitor?

I'm looking for a monitor to use on my Magiqcam (Steadicam knockoff) & can't afford the Nebtek or Panasonic.

Generally: do these 7" displays require 12v? Markertek has a nifty little doodad:

http://www.markertek.com/SearchProduct.asp?off=0

JS

[Lawrence Stevens]

Guys
I had a big thread discussion about getting an LCD monitor

Right there are 2 types of LCD screen/monitor. Whatever company sells the screen, they will either use 2 types of actual lcd panel.

One that has 336,000 pixels (240 Horizontal lines)

or one that uses 1,152,000 pixels (480 Horizontal lines)

Now which one would you want to use. More pixels means a sharper, clearer image remember!

The panasonic that everyone raves on about has only the fewer number of pixels. I had one on a shoot the other day, and it had the same sharpness (or lack of it) as a 7" cheap tft that I bought off ebay a few months back to use as a monitor. If it only has 240 lines that is less than half of the lines your XL2 is outputting - not really too useful for focussing then!

What makes the brighness is the backlight that the assembler of the screen uses. Ie Panasonic use the screen, put it in a case with a brighter backlight than some of the cheaper models, and hey presto its slightly brighter than the other screens.

Now I have the new higher pixel count screen, and it is much much better. It is sharper, it is clearer and much more useful. It has nearly 4 times as many pixels making up the screen, so it's kind of obvious that it will be better.

As regards to battery life. All of these screens are roughly the same, which again makes sense as they are all the same size tft panels, with the same size backlight illuminating them. They all consume about 9 Watts of power, at 12V DC input. This means they draw about 0.75 amps of current. If you get a battery that is rated 12Volts and 1500 mAh (milli amp hours) then that battery can theoretically drive the screen for 2 hours - 1.5 amps per hour or 0.75 amps for 2 hours. Anyone lost? You can get one of these batteries for around £5/$5

Now you are thinking how do I know what screen I am getting.

Well look for the number of actual pixels on the screen. If it doesnt say then be suspicious and assume the lower number.

Now one of the more widely known of these higher pixel count screens is the Lilliput 7" TFT touch screen - which is the one I have. I bought mine of ebay - and foudn it by typing in '7 Touch' into the search box. I paid £165 in the UK for mine, just to give you a rough gauge of whether you are being ripped off.

As a side benifit, this screen can also be connected to a pc and used as a touch screen to control the mouse!

The ONLY downside of this screen I have come accross is that it cannot seem to display a 4x3 image properly. It is a 16x9 panel, and displays the XL2's 16x9 output perfectly. However when I shoot in 4x3 mode (which I NEVER do so it is not really a problem for me actually) instead of putting black bars at the left and the right of the image, it stretches the 4x3 image sideways to fill the screen - can you visualise what I mean? I have trawled through the menu settings and can't find a way around this. If anyone knows about this great screen or indeed another tft screen that uses the higher pixel panel that can do this 16x9 and 4x3 switch properly then please let me know.

Anyway enough rambling, I hope this has been useful to at least someone.

Lawrence

[Dennis Hingsberg]

Lawerence, thanks for all that info. I really wanted to hear from someone who had used (or is using) the Lilliput. Up until now I've been forced to pull focus using the mini35 and XL2 using the 2" VF so anything has got to be better!

As for the 7" Lilliput, there are actually different 7" models from what I've seen... the one I saw for $139 USD was actually 7.2" if it matters.

By the way Lawerence, what are you doing to mount the screen to the XL2?

[Lawrence Stevens]

I think lilliput do models that have both the low res and the higher res screen. If the res is important to you make sure you get the higher res screen - but make sure that it will also display 4x3 like you want.

I have developed a cunning way to mount the screen to the camera. I screwed on the accessory adapter that comes with the cameras on to the back, and used a big strip of strong velcro to mount the screen to the flat plate on that adapter. It is great because it actually makes it sit at the right angle. Even better is that the flat bit that juts out from the adapter - look at it and you'll see what I mean, is perfect for mounting a small 1.2Ah 12V lead acid battery - it powers the screen for about 1.5 hours

Lawrence

[Dennis Hingsberg]

I plan on using the screw on camera accessory plate to hold my wireless video sender gizmo & addition battery packs, so I was hoping to use the shoe of the XL2.. I remember reading somewhere in these posts about some small extension rods from BH Photo that might do the trick.

[Lawrence Stevens]

Hmm
The only place I know of is in the UK. They are called B-Hague and they make all kinds of different tft monitor mounts - for jib arms, tripods, cameras etc.

http://www.b-hague.co.uk/Monitors%20&%20Btackets.htm

Scroll to the bottom, if you don't buy from them, at least you can see the images of different types of mount!

Lawrence

[Dennis Hingsberg]

Lawrence, do you have any pics of your rig? I'll show you mine if you show me yours? (But for mine you have to wait a week or so until I get everything up and mounted)

Ah Ha! (Dennis makes discovery). I found that thread on mounting the Lilliput to the XL2 : http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthrea...threadid=34246