An external monitor for video capturing

Getting in into videography there is a point do decide about an external monitor for the camera.

Introduction

While a couple of years ago the quality of a camera was judged for still photography only now more and more the video options of a DSLR or system camera are part of the choice. Video capturing was on of the reasons to upgrade to the Lumix G81.

Most of the videos i do are for my  Youtube channel but even outside Youtube videos are getting more relvant too me. For the evaluation of sharpness and exposure most of the built-in camera display are too small. It makes the handling convinient to have a swiveling display like on the Canon 6D MK II, but here in this case size matters.

And then there is a wish for an external monitor.  I did a small video on this:

Selection

Since i don’t know at the moment how deep i will get into video capturing a monitor should’nt be too big and with a moderate price. Typical representatives are monitors from Liliput or FeelWorld in size between 5 and 7 inches. I bought the FeelWorld Master MA5, a monitor with a 5 inch display and a price of arround 180,– €.

The monitor is delivered with a bag, 2 HDMI (mini and micro) cables, a sunshade and a bracket to mount the combination on the hotshoe of your camera. The quality is good but its plastic so i don’t want to do a drop test 😉

On top you’ll find the menue buttons including two Fn buttons, which can be defined by the user. On the right hand side you got HDMI IN and OUT and the dc-in. On the bottom side you’ll find a dc-out plug to power your camera with a dummy battery from the monitor.

Configuration/Operation

The monitor can be powered either with the Sony NP-F batteries, which are quite common in video, or with Canon LP-E6 batteries (comes in handy for me)

I configured the function buttons once with the focus peaking (or like it is called on the monitor focus assist) and the other one with false colors to judge exposure. In focus peaking there is no setting to display in b/w to make the focus peaking lines/areas more visisble, since there then the only color in the image.

In the default settings the brightness of the monitor is set to 50& which is enough even in brighter environments like with the Godox SL60W video lights. In the bright sunlight the sunshade should help a little bit.

Things i don’t like

• The monitor doesn’t provide a touch screen and menue handling is circuitous
• Using the Canon 6D MK II the camera display is disabled while the monitor is connected via HDMI. This way you’ll loose the touch screen of the camera for positioning the focus
• Operating in selfie mode is possible, but you have to manually flip the screen and the menue display
• Repositioning of the monitor with the screw requires two hands
• Powering off the monitor and leavinbg the battery in place will eat up battery because of the stand-by LED

Conclusion

The Feelworld MA5 delivers a bright and sharp image because of its 1080p resolution and offers the basics needed for a so called “low budget” monitor. But maybe the company should think about it and improve the monitor as mentioned above.

ciao tuxoche