External monitors and I have a love-hate relationship. I love how it makes filmmaking easier for me. However, there are a lot of things that make using one harder. The weight, the battery, the I/O, cable management, and all sorts of things like that make choosing a perfect monitor pretty tough. After a few weeks of using the PortKeys BM5 WR, I feel relieved. It boasts all the tech you could need, with all the comfort one looks for in a monitor. But most importantly, it has GREAT cross-compatibility. let’s dive into it.
The new Atomos Shinobi 7 monitor has HDMI and SDI passthrough with cross-conversion and HDR
The popular Atomos Shinobi is essentially a Ninja V but without the built-in recorder, offering very similar features. Well, Atomos has now scaled up their Shinobi with the new Shinobi 7, with a larger and brighter 2,200 nits 7″ display, HDMI and SDI passthrough and HDR output conversion.
Like the original Shinobi on which it builds, the Shinobi 7 is just a field monitor. There’s no built-in recorder, but it can monitor signals up to 4K 60p via HDMI or SDI for viewing, focus pullers, live stream and video switcher preview, or passing along to a separate recorder.
Desview R5 – The new low-budget on-camera monitor king of 2020?
The Desview R5 on-camera monitor is one of the new models in the latest wave of low-budget field monitors that packs in a number of high-budget features. It’s a 5.5″ touchscreen monitor that offers HDMI passthrough, DC power output and advanced features like LUT support, waveform and vectorscope.
Its main competitor is arguably the Feelworld F6 Plus (review here), which recently released a firmware update which also adds waveform and vectorscope. They’re both at a very similar price point and offer similar features, so how does the new Desview R5 stand up? Let’s find out.
New firmware adds Waveform and Vectorscope to the $229 Feelworld F6 Plus on-camera monitor
We’ve been fans of the Feelworld F6 Plus here at DIYP for a while. It’s a great monitor for what it costs, offering a 1080p IPS touchscreen display, LUTs and 4K HDMI support. We first saw it a year ago at NAB 2019 in Las Vegas. I finally got my hands on one about six months ago and posted my complete review back in November. Or at least, it was complete then. Now, that review is a little incomplete. So, let’s call this Review Part 1.5.
Two of the things I mentioned in my review that the Feelworld F6 Plus was lacking were a waveform and a vectorscope. Well, it looks like Feelworld has listened because a recently released firmware has just added both of those features to this inexpensive monitor. This might just make it the best value on-camera monitor on the market today.
The Feelworld F6 Plus on-camera monitor features 3D LUTs and a touchscreen interface
The Feelworld F6 Plus is the latest 5.5″ on-camera monitor from Feelworld. Except in name, it shares little in common with the Feelworld F6 it replaces. It’s had a complete redesign over its predecessor, with a shiny new display, touchscreen interface, HDMI passthrough and LUT support.
We first saw the F6 Plus on display at NAB earlier this year, and I’ve been using one as my main on-camera monitor for a few weeks now with various cameras. So, here’s the rundown on the specs, how it works in practical use and my overall thoughts on the Feelworld F6 Plus.
SmallHD launches new Cine and Vision Series 4K HDR monitors
SmallHD has announced their new Cine Series and Vision Series 4K monitors for production and post-production. The Cine Series technically already existed with the launch of the Cine 7 monitor, although it wasn’t really much of a “Series”. Now, though, it’s been joined by new 13″, 17″ and 24″ sizes. The Vision Series also comes in the same three sizes.
Blackmagic’s newest Video Assist 12G offers internal 4K60 12-Bit BRAW recording
The Blackmagic Video Assist range of monitors has been a popular choice for many camera operators since the first versions were released. Now, Blackmagic has updated the Video Assist, with internal 12-bit BRAW recording in both 7″ and 5″ sizes. We caught up with Blackmagic at IBC 2019 to find out more about the capabilities of the new monitors.
Feelworld’s LUT7 monitor features waveform, vectorscope and has a superbright 2,200 nit touchscreen display
I’ve become a big fan of Feelworld’s monitors over the past few months. While they don’t always offer the bells and whistles of some higher-end field monitors, they’re excellent value for money, especially if all you need a monitor for is to check composition and focus. But Feelworld has stepped up their game now with the new LUT7 monitor, offering a touchscreen UI, waveform, vectorscope, and LUT support. We stopped by their stand at IBC 2019 to find out more about it.
The Feelworld FW279 is a super bright 7″ external monitor that can’t be beat at its price point
If there’s one certainty when it comes to shooting video, it’s that at some point, you’ll want to pick up an external monitor of some kind. One big problem that many of them have, though, is that they can be quite difficult to see outdoors when it’s bright. I’ve tried a few from different brands over the years, but when it comes to bang for your buck, one company that’s pretty tough to beat is Feelworld.
For the past few weeks, I’ve been using Feelworld’s newest super bright 2,200 nit 7″ Feelworld FW279 monitor, now that the sun’s starting to make brief appearances here in Scotland. And so far, I really like it.
Use this easy modification to put less strain on your field monitor’s sideways HDMI port
Feelworld makes some pretty decent monitors for the money. I have the Feelworld FH7 and the new super-bright Feelworld FW279 – we’ll have a full review on the FW279 coming soon (review here). But HDMI socket placement always seems to be an issue with many monitors. On the FH7, the HDMI ports are underneath pointing straight down, but they’re very close to the mounting thread, making it a very tight fit for HDMI cables.
The FW279 shifts them over to the side, which makes connectivity much easier, but brings another challenge. Namely, gravity. The lateral strain on the socket caused by the weight of the cable can potentially weaken the socket over time. This simple modification by Johannes Gauder solves that issue with just a few cheap components.
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