Soooo, Steadicam wants 750.00 to rewire my Pilot to HD, that's without the monitor. Which I told them was way too high.

Has anyone rewired their own?

Do you need HD on the Pilot monitor? With a 7" monitor around 3 feet would you notice the difference? Does the camera only output HD? If so, you can buy a little down-converter box.

If you cable from the front of the camera stage down to the monitor in a straight line, there will be no operating issues (you'd have to spin the camera around and see yourself before the cable would restrict you). You would need to disconnect it for spin balancing, but the weight of the cable wouldn't change anything once you had achieved dynamic balance. It's not as ideal as recabling the rig down the post but since money is a factor...

Actually I was thinking about doing just that for the cost. I could get a cheap Pilot AA set and get a SmallHD AC7 monitor with SDI.

Just be aware that a standard monitor such as an AC7 is going to be much less viewable in daylight than the stock Pilot monitor, which has a certain amount of anti-reflective coating on it (SmallHD does make a high-bright version but it costs quite a bit more). Probably the cheapest daylight viewable you'll find is a used Marshall transflective model from 3 or 4 years ago.

If you have to choose between a standard HD monitor and a high brightness or AR coated SD one, you're better off with the latter. You don't want to be struggling to see an image outside.

Charles, I'm not a steadi pro but if the standard LCD that I got with my Pilot VLB (bought 4 years ago at BH) does have any coating it's not very good.

It's hard to work with it outside on a bright sunny day.

I've actually experimented with a higher NIT chinese monitor, one of the earlier 7'' lilliput models and it was actually more useable outside than the stock Pilot LCD. But the 1/4'' thread mount was poorly made and I discovered that it induced vibrations while operating so I stopped using it and went back to the stock monitor.

I did heard that they have a transreflective model too but haven't been able to dig it up. I'd love to try it.

As I said, I'm not a steadi pro and still can't justify the cost of a proper monitor (which probably costs as much as my whole rig).

Certainly the Pilot monitor wasn't anywhere near great, but the one I tried was better than the standard monitors available at the time. In the past few years the NIT ratings have crept up in the budget monitor world. It does take a combination of brightness and AR coatings to do the trick though (brightness is good for the highlights, but AR is what keeps the blacks down, resulting in necessary contrast). There are currently very few monitors on the market that can satisfy the majority of pro Steadicam guys (there are still a few that stick to their CRT's, monochrome and standard def regardless)!

If you cable from the front of the camera stage down to the monitor in a straight line, there will be no operating issues (you'd have to spin the camera around and see yourself before the cable would restrict you). You would need to disconnect it for spin balancing, but the weight of the cable wouldn't change anything once you had achieved dynamic balance. It's not as ideal as recabling the rig down the post but since money is a factor...

Straight, meaning fairly tight, so it doesn't flop around. I can confirm that it doesn't get in the way during operation. But if you want to lengthen or shorten the post...

I bought a Monster Thin HDMI cable online for $18.00. Took my pilot apart and ran cable through. Easy. Now have IKAN VH8 HD monitor instead of the original Pilot monitor.

it is not the cable, it's HDMI connector that i can't pass through the sled, how the heck did you do that?