Cool, I'll try not to ramble on!
My gear: pocket camera, view factor cage
My situation: I'm filming two "no-budget" shorts this year. The first one is indoors, and I've scheduled to shoot it in a day. The second one is mostly outside and spans across two weeks of shooting. I decided to pick up a monitor to help compose shots in bright daylight and also give the director something to look at.
Rental: yup, thought of this, but for the amount of time I'll need the gear, I might as well purchase a monitor. I also thought about joining a co-op but as a new father, I barely have time to even create shotlists. Not my situation, but if you live in an isolated town, renting might not even be an option. I could also just use a shade, or umbrella, but a monitor can be pretty damn convenient.
So, I checked some forums, stumbled upon mostly unsuccessful pairings with FeelWorld monitors, and a couple of successes. I did a search on the brand and found that FW (
http://www.feelworld.cn/English/) has a huge list of monitors and they have been around for several years but I think maybe FW was more popular in the RC / drone world. Some monitors matched the specs required by the pocket camera. I also found a post somewhere, maybe on here, where someone had contacted FW directly and found a monitor for their camera. So - I tracked them down on Alibaba (at the time, their feelworld.cn website was down) -
http://feelworld.en.alibaba.comThey even had a list of compatible BlackMagic monitors but I can't find that link anywhere. Anyways, on Alibaba I chatted with the FW sales person and they insisted we continue chatting on Skype so I figured why not. I outright asked them which camera will work with the pocket camera and they suggested the FW759 (
http://www.feelworld.cn/English/Product/1268391345.html)
To be honest, I was quite impressed by their customer service - they responded very quickly to everything except my warranty question in which I never got a real answer other than "problems with these displays are extremely rare". Okay...
Given that a lot of people have purchased FW monitors, and given FW's responsiveness to my questions, along with the $140 price tag, I decided to bite. Worst case scenario, I spent $140 on parts. I sent over $140 USD via PayPal and a few of days later, a package arrived at my door, what the hell? That's faster than some local online retailers (I'm in Canada by the way). They used FedEx if I recall.
So what was in the box?
1. A cardboard box, packaged in another box with styrofoam - not bad. The monitor was well protected, it even has a film protecting the screen
2. Monitor
3. HDMI lock for the monitor
4. Mount for the camera
5. Sunshade (plastic and velcro but works really well)
6. HDMI cable
7. Sunshade frame
8. Manual, but it's not in english but it has pictures
So a few things.
1. It doesn't come with a battery. The default configuration runs off of these F970 compatible batteries like these (
http://www.amazon.ca/dp/B00H0JRKSE/ref= ... TE_3p_dp_1) - I had to buy these, works, a bit huge for 2015 - $50 - I believe you can get other battery plates for this monitor but you would have to ask FW
2. HDMI cable is not compatible with the pocket camera. You need to pick up an HDMI -> micro. Whatever, I ordered one from B&H for $4
3. Then I found out that the micro HDMI port in the pocket camera sucks... so I purchased this:
http://www.viewfactor.net/hdmi-power-clamp.html - another $30
At this point I'm thinking, one more f*cking accessory and I might as well have bought a SmallHD
Once everything came in, I assembled my rig and turned the monitor and pocket camera on, it works! It really really works! But there are some deal breakers:
1. Construction: plastic... I would NOT drop this thing. It's light, and I don't think it would survive a drop
2. Powering on, I heard this god awful feedback noise coming from the monitor - I had to fumble around to figure out which buttons turns the volume to 0%. I do my audio externally anyways so I have no need for audio on the monitor.
3. Guides on the monitor are clipped, and I can't find any adjustment to shrink the horizontal/vert. You can only increase the view > 0. The framing guides from the pocket camera show up, which is awesome. I can even see the battery indicator, albeit slightly chopped off
- IMG_0646.JPG (293 KiB) Viewed 18805 times
I can live with these, as I did when the pocket camera didn't have any audio meters and formatting of any sort. I'd be surprised if any of these gets fixed with firmware, but I can still frame shots and I still have my pocket camera's display as a reference. At the end of the day, this is going to make shooting easier. For others, this is probably not worth the money.
And some good things:
1. This monitor has some additional features which I haven't explored, like frame guides? / aspect ratios
2. Some RGB colour reference menu options
3. And guess what, I see the focus peaking guides, I bet the zebras work too
My other thought is, if you're making a no-budget short, really think about whether you need a monitor or not or if you can get away with a sunshade or an umbrella. I convinced myself that I needed a monitor, but it's only to make things convenient. If you're shooting indoors, and it's just you and an actor, you probably don't need a monitor.
On the other side of the fence, maybe you need something to share with the director and frame shots, or maybe you're tired of cupping your hand around the pocket camera's screen in the bright sunlight... maybe you only have < $200 to spend on a monitor. I felt that I belong to this category and at the end of the day, I have something that works.
One last note, there are many many many distributors of FW monitors on EBay, AliExpress and so on. I would avoid these with a 10 foot pole and try your hardest to order directly from FW.
I will take photos of the menu options this weekend and post them here... this will be the longest post I ever make
Wed Feb 11, 2015 4:21 am
) - but I have to make sacrifices. 
