RNG35

I am looking in to providing HD field monitors but I would like to hear feedback. Would you rather use a flipping device or an HD field monitor?

I figure the easy solution is to offer an HD filed monitor. yes it will cost a bit more than a flipping device, but with a monitor you will keep the front end light (the adapter I mean) and you will have a tool for better focusing.

What do you think?

Both?

Here is my thoughts on devices:

Monitor is great as long as it has the features of flip floping so its not updside down etc.. and maybe not too big. Down side is that its another device to have on your camera thats poking out which makes the rig even more larger to handle where the flip atleast is all part of the unit.

Flip is great but like you said light loss and but obviously makes editing a little easier and what you see is what you get.

I would lean towards a field monitor as u can then choose to use it or not. Like if I want shoot a couple of merlin shots to keep the weight down then I can just take it off unlike a flip device I would have to unscrew it etc..

what price range would you be looking at?

Hopefully $500 - $600. THere are cheaper solutions too but I need to find them and try to work a discount which I can pass on to customers.h

You could also offer a small, low-res monitor. I made a 4.5" battery powered monitor for about $50 ($25 ebay screen plus radioshack parts).
Its not too great for focusing but I can use my built in screen for that. Most people just need something for correct image orientation.

I still shoot SD 16:9 and the VariZoom VZ-TFT7U kit is what I use in the field. It works very well and the built-in electronic flip/mirror option gives me the ability to work with an adapter like the RNG35 without a flip module which saves me an extra half or third of a stop of light.

I'd rather spend an extra minute rotating the image in editing (or a few seconds in FCP) than have less exposure flexibility and tonal range because I didn't have that extra half-stop of light -- which makes all the difference in the world sometimes. Editors know that the time of an edit could mean a mere 1/24th of a second for the cut to be perfect or "a little rough". The same goes for fractions of a stop of light when you're shooting.

So no flip modules for me, thanks. I'm losing enough light as it is with the DOF adapter by itself.

The prevailing view is that 480 is the minimum vertical resolution for a monitor being used for a focus reference. That Varizoom looks to only be a 480 x 240.

bluesgeek wrote:The prevailing view is that 480 is the minimum vertical resolution for a monitor being used for a focus reference. That Varizoom looks to only be a 480 x 240.

Oh, true...but it's also really, really lightweight and inexpensive. It's not good enough for critical focus, but the 7" preview is a lot better than the 2 or 3" flip outs built into the camcorder. In the studio I do use a nice, big 19" LCD.

Of course, when I go HDV I'll get an HDV monitor. I hear good things about the Ikan V8000HD...which also is inexpensive...and I'm cheap.