HDMI Field Monitor Review

by Sebastian WöberFebruary 25^th, 2010

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Surface and Brightness

There are different types of surface to the screens. Some have a matte finishes, others are glossy. As far as I know most people prefer the matte stuff, only some like the glossy on a field monitor.

Personal Opinion:
I didn’t find the glossy or the matte finishes to be better or worse, the 7D screen itself has a glossy finish and it works fine for me, my computer has a matte finish and it works fine too. When there is too much reflection only brightness will make a difference for me.

I photographed each surface against a lightsource (window) at the same exposure settings.

You might notice the magenta tint of the Marshall cover. That’s a special coating they put on there to minimize reflection. You can also find these coatings on lenses or filters. Does it make a difference? As you can see the tint of the reflection changes, but the amount doesn’t seem very different, the reflection actually looks brighter. What the Marshall surface does though is provide additional protection. It’s the only monitor that has two layers of plastic in front of the screen.

The DP-1 comes with a matte screen protector that you can put on if you prefer that. I didn’t have it for review.

When pressed down against the surface the DP-1 feels the softest, the ikan’s less soft and the Marshall the most sturdy. I cannot judge how that affects durability though.

Here are some shots of the displays turned on and held against a window (please don’t use these pictures for reference, they only partly reflect how it looked in reality (Sorry, the Marshall was already gone at that time)):

Brightness and Contrast was turned to the best settings throughout the test on all devices. The visibility during daylight is not great on all tested field monitors, but this is nothing unusual on field monitors. The sun is simply very strong. The DP-1 comes with a very easy to mount sunhood.

All monitors tested here only have digital brightness adjustments. That means when you change brightness on the screen it will not affect the backlight intensity but instead only blow up or darken your pixels. It’s like adding a filter to your footage instead of adjusting the screens actual brightness.

I tried to test and photograph the actual brightness of the screens but it was not possible, the photos wouldn’t resemble what I saw. I think the brightness values the manufacturers give reflect the actual brightness very well:

DP-1: 300 cd /m2
ikan V8000: 400 cd /m2
Marshall: 250 cd /m2
ikan V5600: 165 cd/m2
I found that you could also compare the brightness of the ikan V8000 to a lcd brightness setting of a little under 4 on the Canon 7D and the one of the V5600 to a setting of about 2. The other monitors are in the middle of that accordingly.

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