This LED monitor looks nice

[Dano Motley]

Found this surfing dvinfo. looks nice for camera assist or even small teleprompter. rumor price to be @ 350 ish.

http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/canon-eo...d-monitor.html


Dano

[Hal Protter]

9" Small LCD Monitor, On Camera Field Monitor - the DP1 by SmallHD

[Dano Motley]

Hal,

I was actually going to order that monitor but then I read this (below) and decided not to.

Dano

THE SMALL HD DP1 MONITOR – MISTAKE | Robin Schmidt, Director, Editor and now 7D (experi)mentalist

[Rob Lagerstrom]

The poster who trashed the DP-1 is using it as an output monitor from a computer card not as a field.

People who like their Marshal monitors have not seen the output from a DP-1. Yes, the cables stick out from the top, but they have to stick out from somewhere. Yes the controls are on the back, but once the monitor is set up you really never need the controls which keeps the front of the monitor clutter free.

The build quality is professional cine quality.

The manufacturer is hands on and ready to take care of any problem. In fact, they have had many problems with their batteries. They bent over backwards to FedEX overnight a new battery to me when I was going out of town on a shoot. Further, I got an e-mail from them this week that went out to all their customers who have had battery problems. They want to offer me a new batter, a credit of $150.00 towards future purchase or a credit to a new product. What other manufacturer would make this kind of offer?

I am sure that if you buy a DP-1 and find it less than the best true HD 1920x1080 monitor for your camera assist or, yes a teleprompter monitor they would gladly take it back as they are almost always in a back order status. That tells me the monitor is popular they can't keep them in stock.

I have mine mounted on a Nago cine arm attached to my Cartoni head's left handle rossette using a new custom bracket from CineArm Bracket for holding monitor on tripod head using existing tapped hole for arm.

Olef built this bracket for me and is now offering it as an obvious mounting choice for a tripod mounted monitor. The photos on the page also show the DP-1 positioned as a teleprompter.

I am not affiliated with Westside AV. I am just a fan/customer of Olef's products and personal service.

Rob

[Robert Turchick]

Agree, that poster (poser) is WAY out of line. My DP1 is perfect on every source I've fed it from EX1, HMC-150, Matrox MX02, 5D, T2i, HMC-40 and even my bluray player and cable box! I've used it inside, outside, run both batteries down and used the A/c adapter. Not a glitch and since I use it for critical focus, it has never let me down. Even the color (once calibrated) is really nice!
When I show up to a gig with it, other camera guys are always drooling over it and I even had one guy beg me to rent it for a week.

That poster may have gotten a bum copy and he should have contacted SmallHD to figure it out as they have the best customer service I've seen in a company in a long time.

[Reed Phillips]

Originally Posted by Dano Motley

Hal,

I was actually going to order that monitor but then I read this (below) and decided not to.

Dano

THE SMALL HD DP1 MONITOR – MISTAKE | Robin Schmidt, Director, Editor and now 7D (experi)mentalist

Can't say that I blame you, but he never called or emailed us to let us know there was an issue. I wish he had. We could have fixed his problem. We're not perfect, nor clairvoyant. ;-)

[David Issko]

Originally Posted by Dano Motley

Hal,

I was actually going to order that monitor but then I read this (below) and decided not to.

Dano

THE SMALL HD DP1 MONITOR – MISTAKE | Robin Schmidt, Director, Editor and now 7D (experi)mentalist

Dano,

You read one, just one person's opinion about the monitor that has sold in the hundreds, probably thousands by now and that shapes your decision making? Sorry to be a bit harsh but that's not correct.

Could he have been from the pro Marshall camp? It's possible. Nothing would change his mind. Maybe he did have a legitimate problem, but as Reed states, he never contacted SmallHD. They are tops with after sales service. One of my batteries did not charge and they shipped a new one at their cost instantly.

I loved my DP1 monitor until it was lost/stolen. However, I used it as a monitor off a camera as it should be. Great pics, super easy focus find and NO banding via HDMI.

So now you have at least 4 positive views on the DP1 and 1 negative. Do you still have the same opinion? Have you seen the DP1 in action? See it before you pass judgement. It is a very good monitor.

Whatever you bought (if you have bought) I hope you are happy with your investment.

Oh yes, I will be buying another DP1 very soon.

Cheers

[Duncan Craig]

Hello Folks,

My lilliput monitor of old blew over yesterday, and now has a built in spiderman effect onscreen (ie. it's knackered). Anyway I've been looking for a new screen for a while, I suppose now's the time.

I'll be using it with my EX1 through component, with thick 5 - 10 metre three core component cables.

Is the component input going to be as good (or at least not massively different) as the HDMI in terms of clarity, lack of banding? (obviously HDMI will be a tiny bit sharper, cleaner etc, by it's very nature).

Also is the boot up time of the monitor a huge pain when onset?

TIA for any input,

Duncan.

[Doug Jensen]

When I was able to escape the Sony booth, I spent some time at the SmallHD booth at NAB yesterday and today and I am totally impressed with the DP-SLR with SDI option and will be ordering one when they are ready to start shipping in a couple of months. I found the picture quality to be excellent. The build quality to be more than adequate. And the staff at the booth to be knowledgable and very helpful. What more could you ask for? An excellent propduct for the price. This is a product I want.

[Duncan Craig]

Doug, are you looking to buy the new SLR monitor for use with an EX camera?
Would you be using it as an on-camera screen, is it too small to have onset as a client/director monitor?

It does look good on the website, and the batteries run and run it seems.

Duncan.

[Doug Jensen]

Duncan,

I'll be using he monitor for several things. If I had it right now I'd be using it with a Canon T2i on a shoot next week, but what I really want it for is to use with my dolly and jib when seeing the F800 or EX1R's viewfinder is difficult or impossible. And lastly, I'll be using it sometimes in conjunction with my nanoFlash as a confidence and playback monitor.

[Duncan Craig]

Thanks Doug, good luck with it when it arrives.
Cheers, Duncan.

[Dano Motley]

i am leaning towards the marshall monitors. does anyone have any recommendation for a field monitor. possibly a unit that attaches to the camera or tripod?

thanks in advance,

dano

[Hal Protter]

There is now a firmware update for the first SMALLHD monitor. The company is making it available to current owners on a very favorable basis. I talked with these folks at NAB and was impressed how much they are committed to product improvement and customer service.

[Noah Yuan-Vogel]

This new firmware, what issues does it address? SmallHD seems to have become quite popular, but every time I use a DP1 I am amazed at the poor quality of the image compared to much older, lower resolution marshall, ikan, and panasonic monitors ive used. I would be happy to hear that it is all fixed, and it sounds like some of it is in the DP1x but that is a paid upgrade. The big issues ive had with the monitor are the terrible shadows, bootup time, scaling, thick sharpening, lack of battery indicator, and hard to use calibration control (though difficulty calibrating is made less important by the fact that the terrible image quality makes it impossible to really calibrate anyway). Does the free firmware update fix any of these issues?

I can appreciate that smallhd has quite good service from what I've seen/heard, and its not easy to make an inexpensive LCD if they are new to the business, so they are probably learning a lot for their new designs, but unless the firmware really fixes a lot of those issues, I feel a little bad for people who spent a lot on the original product that as far as I can tell really didnt live up to its marketing hype or even up to the low bar set by similar products that have been around in its price range.

I have only used 4 different DP1 monitors but they have all performed the same as far as I could tell. But that seems enough for me to feel that my experience with the monitor is likely to be consistent through the line except for differences in firmware. I admit I am always surprised when I hear good things about the DP1 since I have very little good to say about it and wonder if maybe somehow others are seeing something I am not. Most of the jobs I have used the monitor on I was an AC so sharpness for focusing is usually my primary interest, and while the DP1 claims to have more pixels than any other on-board monitor out there, it does not look sharper, feels poorly scaled, and then that coupled with the fact that no matter how hard I try to calibrate it, I always have to tell directors and DPs not to look at the monitor for color or exposure and the batteries die without warning during takes and I have to tell people to wait for it while its booting up and they are waiting to roll, it sure does make my job a lot more work than any other monitor I've used does.