Monitor first impression AOC A17W221
 

As soon as I got my Canon Xh A1 out of the box it was apparent that no SD monitor was going to be adequate for production, especially not the Lilliput 800x480 native LCD I had been using with my Gl-2.

Like most folks I dont have $3k for a real HD field monitor. And frankly the Marshall and Swit models are not any higher native res than the Lilliput, although they have lots more features.

So I decided to give the following a try. Its a 17" widescreen LCD HDTV. AOC model A17W221. It seemed the smallest thing that gave me 1080i component in, downconverted to its native 720, and better than average contrast ratio (600:1) for its class. Best thing is you can get one for a mere $250. Of course its no pro field monitor--120volt, 22 inches wide and no decent picture controls

I tried it out tonight and I was not disappointed. It worked great for focus. For comparison to the SD experience, if I changed the cams' output to 480i I could not find focus. But as soon as I popped it back into 1080i focus with this panel was no problem--verified with a tape measure. I was very happy to find it gave me the full frame, not overscanning like the LCD on the camera. Color rendition seems good. I havent tried to calibrate it yet, but just eyeballing it, it is better with color than any other LCD I have tried. Contrast seemed quite good.

Obviously a set like this will be problematic outdoors. But for only $250 I really dont care. At least I can shoot with some confidence inside. After I play with it for a while I will probably crack the case and cut off the side speakers and any other bits I can shave down and then put together a stand mount for the beast. Who knows, maybe a 12v conversion and a hood in the future. Again, $250. I'm going to have great fun customizing.

I forgot to mention that the AOC has a 25ms response time. This is probably one reason it is so cheap now (plus who wants a 17" hdtv these days?). So it definitely has ghosting on pans, as expected.