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Archive 2014 · SmallHD's AC7 OLED monitor for Live View

  
 
eleff
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · SmallHD's AC7 OLED monitor for Live View


Anyone use this monitor for live view? This is the OLED version, not the LCD version and not their new DP7. Are there other companies making similar monitors?


May 05, 2014 at 04:46 PM
jcolwell
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · SmallHD's AC7 OLED monitor for Live View


I recently sold my SmallHD DP6 because now I'm using my Samsung Galaxy Note 3 smartphone, instead. I use a male USB 3 to female USB 2 OTG (On The Go) cable, connected to a male USB 2 to male mini HDMI connector to connect my 6D, 1DX and 1DIV cameras to my phone. I could use WiFi for the 6D, but wired has some advantages.

Anyway, the same approach should work on your 5DII (based on your profile).

OTOH, if you want a dedicated screen, the SmallHD products are just fine.



May 05, 2014 at 05:05 PM
StillFingerz
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · SmallHD's AC7 OLED monitor for Live View


Jim, what App are you using on your smartphone, DSLRController or something else?


May 05, 2014 at 05:46 PM
jcolwell
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · SmallHD's AC7 OLED monitor for Live View


Jerry, I have Canon's EOS Remote and DSLR Controller. I'm just getting into it, but basically, it works.


May 05, 2014 at 07:24 PM
Mike K
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · SmallHD's AC7 OLED monitor for Live View


yes there are several other companies making similar devices, primarily for the dSLR video market. However I use a DP6 for stills (low angle tilt/shift) for critical manual focus and tilt adjustment. Smart phones have lots of pixels, but you can't use most of them for Live View monitoring unless you have a device which accepts HDMI input. Otherwise wireless and/or USB connections only yield 480X640 resolution. Read all about it here:
https://www.fredmiranda.com/smallhd/
Mike K



May 05, 2014 at 07:31 PM
eleff
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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · SmallHD's AC7 OLED monitor for Live View


Is there there a real world differene between then dp6 or dp7) and the ac7? The difference in price is $1000+ vs $2000+.

Also, what other accessories do you buy with it?

My current cell phone does not have HDMI input.



May 06, 2014 at 10:03 AM
Mike K
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p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · SmallHD's AC7 OLED monitor for Live View


The DP6 was discontinued when Small HD introduced the 7 series of monitors. The same number of pixels in an HD display, just larger screen size, some models using the newer OLED screen. Software seems very similar between the models.

Cell phones and pads do not have the requisite HDMI input. Thus the number of pixels in the display is a mute issue for Live View since you cannot supply a high resolution video feed.
I use the acrylic screen protector (I am not sure if this is worth it, but it is not available for the 7 series?) and occasionally the neoprene hood.
Mike K



May 06, 2014 at 12:32 PM
jcolwell
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p.1 #8 · p.1 #8 · SmallHD's AC7 OLED monitor for Live View


Mike K wrote:
...Cell phones and pads do not have the requisite HDMI input. Thus the number of pixels in the display is a mute issue for Live View since you cannot supply a high resolution video feed...


It's not that simple.

Here's an example using DSLR Controller on my Galaxy Note 3 (GN3), connected to my 6D which is shooting a USAF 1951 resolution target. I set up my 1DX with Zeiss 50/2 ZE on a second tripod, behind the GN3 and 6D, as shown in the first attached image.

The second attached image shows:

Top Left: 100% crop of GN3 screen, at 10x
Top Right: 100% crop of 6D screen, LiveView at 10x
Bottom left: full image of GN3 screen,
Bottom right: full image of the 6D screen.

The red squares in the bottom left and right images show the locations of the 100% crops shown in the panels above them.

Note that the GN3 display shows 10x times the 10x display on the 6D, which is the low res video output. Also, the GN3 screen is dimmed for some reason - I should be able to figure out how to make it brighter...

Anyway, the two orange circles joined by an orange arrow, and the two white rectangles joined by a white arrow, highlight the same content on both screens. The "3" on the GN3 screen at 100% is the little 3x3 pixel smear on the 6D screen. Similar for the "line-triplets" by the "6". The GN3 functionally out-resolves the 6D LCD screen by slightly more than two full "steps" in the USAF 1951 target - that's huge!

So, even though the GN3 has a relatively low res feed, being able to enlarge that low res feed in the GN3 provides a substantial increase in magnification, compared to using the 6D LCD at 10x. It's quite likely that a HDMI monitor like the DP6 I sold early this year could do better, but the GN3 is so much better than the 6D, that I'm happy with my decision.







Test Setup







Galaxy Note 3 DSLR Controller (left) 6D LiveView 10x rear LCD (right)




May 06, 2014 at 02:17 PM
Gunzorro
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p.1 #9 · p.1 #9 · SmallHD's AC7 OLED monitor for Live View


Jim -- Impressive demo!


May 06, 2014 at 03:23 PM
Mike K
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p.1 #10 · p.1 #10 · SmallHD's AC7 OLED monitor for Live View


Very intriguing result!

One possibility is that the Samsung is sharpening the image for display then using the extra display pixels and fillling in with a pattern recognition interpolation? Is it possible that the camera video output is greater than 640X480 (0.3 mp)? Do you have video capture on?

I agree that the 10X enlargement on the Canon LCD clearly not twice the resolution of the 5X setting, which is the one I use. I would fault the Canon resizing algorithm that is assigning pixels to the 6D LCD.

But I agree that the 1M dot Canon LCD is resolution limited at the 10x setting and in this instance is easily bested by the phone.

Did you try a similar test on the 1:1 pixels setting of the DP 6 before you sold it? The 1:1 setting looks much crisper than the 6D LCD, and due to the screen size is easier to make out too. I can't imagine how a 1280X800 image is softer than a 640X480 image unless the smaller image is getting a lot of software massaging.
Mike K



May 06, 2014 at 05:50 PM
jcolwell
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p.1 #11 · p.1 #11 · SmallHD's AC7 OLED monitor for Live View


Hi Mike,

Yes, it's very interesting.

Mike K wrote:
Do you have video capture on?


No. LiveView in single shot drive with a manual focus lens (Mamiya 645 C 80/4 N Macro). Not that this last bit is relevant, but I should have mentioned it in the first post.

Mike K wrote:
Did you try a similar test on the 1:1 pixels setting of the DP 6 before you sold it?


No. Although I did use 1:1 pixels with the DP6 and 6D, just not in a test setting like this. The DP6 screen was very nice, but didn't provide nearly as much detail as the 10x setting on the GN3. I'll play around a bit with it. The image could be shaky at that high mag for normal field use. The GN3 (DSLR Controller) 5x mag might provide all of the information required for the T-S focusing that I will typically do with it. Even at 1x, it's better than the 6D rear LCD screen, which is 'OK' for T-S focusing.

I figure there must be a lot more information in the NTSC video stream than an "equivalent" 640 x 480 pixel display can show, but all I know about video is how to push the start button.

Jim



May 06, 2014 at 06:16 PM
Mike K
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p.1 #12 · p.1 #12 · SmallHD's AC7 OLED monitor for Live View


Perhaps your 6D is outputting 1920 X 1080, the max video resolution of that body? When I put the DP6 in the 1:1 mode I figure the 1280 X 800 pixels are displaying perhaps 1/2 the image at a time via scrolling around. So that is about what the ratio of the HDMI output resolution Vs the max video resolution of the camera. Alternatively, as I suggested earlier, the GN3 could be using software to create more pixels.
Mike K



May 06, 2014 at 07:02 PM





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