Best overall 5-6" on-camera monitor (no recording)

[Rick_B]

First off - I don't claim to be a filmmaker. I'm a photographer with a decent eye, dipping my toes in video out of economic necessity. I'm in process on my first decent-paying video job, and I'm trying to address the pain points I discovered on that shoot.

I am, for the foreseeable future, an Olympus shooter. The original E-M5 was my first mirrorless, when I was looking to lighten my 5DII/7D bag after a year of shooting professionally. I've dabbled with Panasonic, but they just never took for me. For the low end stuff I'm currently doing, 100mb 4k is fine - I've had an E-M1 II for a couple years, and just added an E-M10 III as a second camera based largely on the review here (the camera wasn't reviewed particularly favorably in photo circles because of the simplification/feature deletions). I like the size/weight of my current gear, don't want to take the resale hit of switching to something dramatically different (Fuji), and can't justify the likely $2k+ cost to get something more serious right now (GH5/BMPCC4k) until I know I can generate business.

The one remaining place that I think I could invest in right now is an on-camera monitor - I didn't miss focus on my shoot, but I can see how I easily could have in the right (wrong?) circumstances. I don't need a recorder, as my cameras only output 8bit over HDMI and I'm outputting to 1080p for web viewing, so the boost in color fidelity doesn't really move the needle for me. Olympus doesn't have a real log LUT, so that's another thing I don't really need. I want to stay in the 5-6" range to keep weight down, given the size of my current cameras. I was looking at a SmallHD Focus as a possibility, but then realized that, like just about everything other than the Ninja V, it won't do 4k60p if I get to that point (I may not), so what am I really getting to justify their $600-700 setup vs. any of the whacky Chinese brands at $200-300? SmallHD's reviews are all over the map, and some hate the "special" micro-HDMI cable they use on the Focus.

My main need is something with a cold shoe mount arm with a separate cold shoe to mount my mic/recorder, reasonably bright screen, good peaking/zoom for focus checking, zebras for exposure (scopes would be nice, but probably not necessary at this point). So, among the flurry of Feelworld models, iKan DH5e, Lilliput A5, MustHD, BestView S5, etc - what is the best bang for the buck? Any I should absolutely avoid? Or should I bite the bullet and get a SmallHD?

Thanks for any pointers.

[KnightsFan]

I have the lilliput a5. For the price, it is excellent. I can use it in bright sunlight, it has peaking and false color, and was cheap even brand new. It has mounting points on three sides, and runs off 9v power from the same brick that powers my camera. The color is NOT accurate. If you want to judge color on your external monitor, you will need to spend more money. But if you mainly want a monitor it for flexibility and focusing, I highly recommend the a5. The main problem with it is it only had one customizable button.

I previously owned a 7" feelworld and a 3.5" feelworld evf. Both were inferior to the lilliput. The 7" was just too big and heavy, it really dwarfed my rig. The evf was just bad in every way. My impression is the new feelworld monitors are better than the ones i had, probably on par with the a5 for the similarly priced ones.

I have used some smallhd monitors briefly. They are certainly better build quality. I cant say they would be worth 5x the cost to me, since i have never broken any of my cheap gear and i have no need of great color accuracy on set. Your needs may differ of course.

[Mako Sports]

If money grew on trees I would totally say the SmallHD 503 Ultrabright

[androidlad]

SWIT CM-55C, it's the only low cost one with both 3D LUT and waveform.

I also heard that a firmware update is coming end of this month for more features.

[AaronChicago]

Best cheap 5”: Bestview S5

Best overall: SmallHD 503

[Kisaha]

37 minutes ago, AaronChicago said:

Best cheap 5”: Bestview S5

Best overall: SmallHD 503

Best middle solution: SmallHD Focus

[Ki Rin]

12 hours ago, KnightsFan said:

I have the lilliput a5. For the price, it is excellent. I can use it in bright sunlight, it has peaking and false color, and was cheap even brand new. It has mounting points on three sides, and runs off 9v power from the same brick that powers my camera. The color is NOT accurate. If you want to judge color on your external monitor, you will need to spend more money. But if you mainly want a monitor it for flexibility and focusing, I highly recommend the a5. The main problem with it is it only had one customizable button.

I previously owned a 7" feelworld and a 3.5" feelworld evf. Both were inferior to the lilliput. The 7" was just too big and heavy, it really dwarfed my rig. The evf was just bad in every way. My impression is the new feelworld monitors are better than the ones i had, probably on par with the a5 for the similarly priced ones.

I have used some smallhd monitors briefly. They are certainly better build quality. I cant say they would be worth 5x the cost to me, since i have never broken any of my cheap gear and i have no need of great color accuracy on set. Your needs may differ of course.

Do you feel that 5 inch is big enough to judge focus and composition? 
I'm also looking to get my first monitor, and wondering what size is best. 

[KnightsFan]

3 minutes ago, Ki Rin said:

Do you feel that 5 inch is big enough to judge focus and composition? 
I'm also looking to get my first monitor, and wondering what size is best. 

Yes, it is big enough if you are close enough to be operating (ie not 10 feet away). I downscaled from 7 to 5 because the 7 was so unwieldy on a dslr rig. Much happier now.

[Mmmbeats]

SmallHD Focus, which is a very good monitor, I would recommend replacing the mount, which is very well designed apart from the cold shoe connector which has come loose on me a few times (and I'm reading, others as well).

[Rick_B]

Thanks to all for the input!

After going back over some reviews, I realized that I might have been conflating Focus OLED reviews with the regular Focus, which has generally gotten very solid reviews (with some misgivings about the custom cable). Along with the recommendations here and a couple things I like about the available Focus kits (basically comes with everything I'd need, plus the Sony dummy battery that I can use for personal stuff with my RX10 IV), I decided to go the SmallHD route in the end. Should be here Monday.

Thanks to @Mmmbeats for the pointer on possible mount issues - I'll keep an eye on it.

Thanks also to @KnightsFan for the detailed response regarding the Lilliput A5 - I very nearly went that route, but since I've been able to get some good deals on the rest of my kit, I decided to splurge a bit on this piece.

[Kisaha]

5 hours ago, Rick_B said:

Thanks to all for the input!

After going back over some reviews, I realized that I might have been conflating Focus OLED reviews with the regular Focus, which has generally gotten very solid reviews (with some misgivings about the custom cable). Along with the recommendations here and a couple things I like about the available Focus kits (basically comes with everything I'd need, plus the Sony dummy battery that I can use for personal stuff with my RX10 IV), I decided to go the SmallHD route in the end. Should be here Monday.

Thanks to @Mmmbeats for the pointer on possible mount issues - I'll keep an eye on it.

Thanks also to @KnightsFan for the detailed response regarding the Lilliput A5 - I very nearly went that route, but since I've been able to get some good deals on the rest of my kit, I decided to splurge a bit on this piece.

Best choice in my opinion. It is the absolute lightest/smallest and less power hungry small monitor, with the best mount (even though is a very simple design, cheap knock offs have so many shortcoming and problems. Mine stays where I want even with the largest of the F batteries), best touch User interface (you won't believe it until you own it!), build quality is OK (mine is still in perfect condition, I would rather have it in some kind of aluminium alloy) and most important, really view able in direct sunshine.

[Rick_B]

@Kisaha It was actually your passionate advocacy for the Focus in a thread from a few months back that encouraged me to take another look at the real benefits that I'd be getting for spending the extra cash, and to take another look at the reviews. When I factored in that the mount is good enough that people were looking to get it for non-SmallHD monitors, general enthusiasm for the touch interface (which most inexpensive options don't have, or if they do, it has issues), questions about support/documentation for the inexpensive options, and that I am an "Apple guy" (we have 4 Macs, 3 iPads, and 2 iPhones in a household of 2 people) and like setups that I know will work well out-of-the-box, it seemed like the best choice.

Also, just realized that I didn't do the @ thing right in my earlier thanks, so thanks again to @KnightsFan for all the info on the A5!

 

[KnightsFan]

@Rick_B I appreciate you taking the time to ensure that I see that. Always happy to give my opinion on gear!

[Kisaha]

@Rick_B Thank you very much for your kind words, +1 for the @KnightsFan treatment!

Just an iPad Air here, mostly an Android/Windows guy, but I too trying to buy reputable products from companies with great R&D departments; plus, I was getting seriously frustrated with all the cheap (or not so cheap) monitors all these years, so when I went super small, I chose the smallest possible, and with all the benefits mentioned above (no lag also!).