Personal View site logo
5.6" 1280x800 on camera monitor with peaking, aka H056
  • 344 Replies sorted by
  • @vicharris Yes that is the 5.0" Lilliput w/simple & easy-to-remember model# 569GL-50NP/HO/Y (it has HDMI in & out) running firmware v5 which has a "camera" mode to assign to one of the buttons for 5Dmk2 mode. I don't own a 5dmk2 and never tried it out. Glad to hear you like the Liliiput 7". Their 7" monitor last Feb. with peaking also looked good, but, I went for the size, as an on board monitor on a small arm for focusing. It helps but isn't perfect for focusing.

    @Sangye thanks for answering @Peter123456. I tend to frame with too little head room, so I am glad if the monitor is over-scanning a tiny bit. With consumer cameras today, there is no chance of seeing something in a monitor that the camera isn't recording (no "look around" area), only less than the camera is recording due to over-scan. As for your boom man, you won't tell him exactly where the frame line is, you'll tell him it's slightly above where it really is to protect your ass when his arms get tired. Also, as-far-as-I know all consumer monitors overscan, so when you are editing and seeing that 100% image on your computer monitor, don't be surprised if you only see 95% on your TV later. I don't know how this is with the latest TVs. Anyone got some info?

    Also the H056 I received has 2 options for the FUN button: "BULE GUN" aka blue gun only, then monochrome then full color. "LEADVIEW" which provides some frame-lines for a widescreen, then, a squarish format, then off. More investigation needed.

    Just noticed pressing the FUN button requires a solid long press. Just pressing it quickly doesn't activate it.

  • @CFreak Is that the 5" Lilliput monitor? I can't really tell. I have the newer 7" one, not the 5D piece of crap and it doesn't display that squeeze effect you're getting there. Odd.

  • Well said, @Sangye. You are correct that the more likely error would be giving too much headroom/lookroom etc. That is obviously a less significant error than clipping. However, there is also the possibility that there is something that the camera is recording (eg. the top of the boom mic) that you are not seeing in the monitor. You make a good point though, that you can double-check framing with the GH2 monitor.

  • @Peter123456 I agree that overscan is a more serious fault than inaccurate color or not having good peaking functionality, but I don't consider it a dealbreaker necessarily. When mine finally arrives, I plan to use the camera's LCD for framing, and the monitor for focus. Not ideal, but I don't want to pay $50 shipping and wait another two months to get another questionable monitor from China. If it has the correct aspect ratio, and only minor overscanning as @CFreak reports, I'll probably keep it.

    I also doubt that clipping the subject is likely to happen with a monitor that overscans, for me at least. I'd be more likely to give too much headroom and space on the sides, given a monitor that overscans, as I'd be basing my framing decisions on a cropped view.

  • @CFreak, thanks for the review, but I am surprised that you aren't more concerned with the overscan. This could mean the difference between clipping an actor's arm or not if you are framing a shot. I consider overscan a dealbreaker on any monitor. If anyone disagrees, I'd like to hear why you think overscan isn't a total dealbreaker for any monitor. Accurate color and peaking is far less important, in my opinion.

  • @CFreak Thanks for great review! Could you please post a picture of your GH2 with the LCD mounted on the hotshoe? This would help me estimated the bulkiness :)

  • @CFreak

    Thanks for detailed opinion.

  • OK, trying to add the rest... Oct 13th, I added 2 screen grabs at the bottom to show this headroom framing issue is actually a non-issue: the H056 top and bottom framing are accurate. See my post on p.7 for more detail.

    P1000036.jpg
    2376 x 1584 - 824K
    P1000038.jpg
    2376 x 1584 - 723K
    P1000039.jpg
    2376 x 1584 - 847K
    P1000040.jpg
    2376 x 1584 - 844K
    P1000041.jpg
    2376 x 1584 - 794K
    P1000043.jpg
    2376 x 1584 - 727K
    P1000044.jpg
    2376 x 1584 - 923K
    P1000045.jpg
    2376 x 1584 - 853K
    P1000046.jpg
    2376 x 1584 - 813K
    P1000048.jpg
    2376 x 1584 - 978K
    Screen shot 2012-09-27 at 10.19.35 AM.png
    1920 x 1166 - 2M
    Screen shot 2012-09-27 at 10.23.33 AM.png
    1918 x 1172 - 2M
  • I attached 9 photos to my post and none showed up... help anyone?

    P1000049.jpg
    2376 x 1584 - 886K
    P1000050.jpg
    2376 x 1584 - 958K
  • My PV Deal H056 monitor arrived last week and I have just done a detailed evaluation. I was concerned about it like others here. I have done some comparison photos (posted below) and find the PV Deal H056 monitor to be better for me than my Feb 2012 Lilliput. You'll see in the photos the H056 WB looks off. I spent >30 minutes just trying to color balance it with a MacBeth chart, this is it's weakest point.

    My example of the H056 monitor seems to have had a 2nd serial number sticker placed over the original one. Was it revised? People can check against my serial number in the photo below. Did I get the first revised one at PV? Did anyone else get one like this?

    The resolution is great, that was why I bought it. Easily focusable with or without the peaking function. The peaking function is a fixed level of peaking (or sharpening -white outline), just they labeled it "focus" and it does help to focus. The menus are easy to navigate and more responsive than my Lilliput 569 (the menu system on the 569 is a mess, because it uses push-knobs with slow responsiveness instead of buttons and has a lot of options).

    Color Rendition: It is definitely a little challenged in this department. The presets are 5600 6500 and 9300 (I think). The GH2 OB screen looks much more accurate (see photos). maxing out the brightness or contrast or saturation has the effect of washing out the reds, greens and blues. All three colors are not accurate in their subtler shades. @Vitaliy_Kiselev *IF they could add in the firmware a user definable color balance in the menu (like on the Lilliput 569, user definable RGB controls) , that would make this a great monitor.

    Overscanning: There is a tiny amount of over-scanning on the top of the frame (less than 2% I'd say) and slight (ca. 5% over-scanning on the sides (see photos). I believe this is done to display in 16:9 properly.

    CORRECTION (Oct. 13th): I have added to more images below. I checked the image on the chip and found the framing was not exactly off, the GH2 is generating a grey line in display mode 3 (underscan) and that is what looks like a white line on my photo. check the last to photos which are screen grabs. I checked it again and posted again on p.7. The H056 is not over-scanning in the vertical dimension, it is accurate!

    16:10 stretching/oval effect: I am lucky this is not present on my monitor (like it is on my Lilliput). See photos.

    Saving your settings: @abadseed2 mine is saving my settings, even with all power pulled off. But I did notice while color balancing it, one setting (contrast I think), had decided to not to display what I had dialed in. it "woke up" when I went to tweak the setting and the problem didn't return.

    Build quality: It is plastic, but harder plastic than my Lilliput. The flexible sunshade is really nice and won't break like my Lilliput 569 fixed shade could.

    Screen: it is glossy. Will have to check it out on an outdoor shoot, if it's problematic.

    Screen size: 5.6"

    AC power supply: works but cheap.

    DC power: The battery plate fits a sony NPF battery, but is a little tight to get it on and off on my example.

    Shipping Time: I ordered via the daily deal on 8/20, it showed up in the china post tracking on 8/22 and it arrived in 24 days on 9/13 to the USA.

    Tracking: I asked VK in a PM, within hours he said they'd email me and I should check my junk folder (it wasn't in there). He followed up sending them a second email and then I had an email from the seller with the tracking #. I think they were 1 extra day slow to mail it. I am too when receiving funds via Paypal (too many scams). Or maybe they had to revise one :-) for my shipment?

    If you are in the USA, you can track it on USPS.com once it enters the USA (mine took 22 days to show more than that it had left Shanghi). I think customs in the USA is holding stuff from China Post longer than in other countries. It might not be the seller's fault.

    The HDMI connector in the back was finicky with one cable and stable with another. I have heard of this happening with all HDMI cables/connections, and I don't have much experience with HDMI.

    For the deal price, I am very happy with it at first glance. I will use it for focus and my tests reveal I can count on it for framing headroom as well. Color should be judged on the GH2 swivel screen if at all.

    To everyone who wants a monitor with no over-scanning, perfect 16:9 and perfect color... I don't think it exists anywhere near this price. I had a chance to play with a 1500$ TVlogic and found while it had a lot of great features, the menus were slow to react and the red peaking was almost too much to see the shot through it.

    My background: I used to be a focus puller back when we were shooting on film and am used to looking at really expensive equipment with a lot of detail (b/c scratches on film ruin everyone's work).

  • Anyone with experience with this monitor and a Marshall 5.6"? Can you say how this one holds up against the marshall?

  • Does anyone know of a similarly priced monitor with peaking that does not have overscan? Thanks.

  • Not likely. As far as I understand it most of the issues like overscan and stretching are to do with the hardware not the firmware.They told me that a chip/board would need to be replaced. The latest email from them suggests that the "upgrade" may not even be the same monitor. However, I only know the little that they are telling me just now. If they are on track I will hopefully have a monitor to test within the next 2 weeks.

  • Just to add my 2 pence. I bought my monitor from Camgeeker on ebay

    It also has substantial overscan. Another problem is that there is a bug with the colour settings so that each time I switch the monitor off and on the colour resets to default and then if I increment the saturation and decrement it again, the colour goes back to how I set it. Wierd.

    Any hope of firmware update?

  • They say they will be sending me the updated monitor at the end of this month. I'll do a write up on it when it gets here.

  • Is there any news about getting screen updated / fixed by manufacturer?

  • Problems remaing with current model. manufacturer still promises to make some fixed new model. We'll see.

  • did anybody have any new info about if the problem still remains with any monitors that were sent or resent recently??

  • I'm keeping on at these guys. My monitor arrived back with them yesterday. I'll keep nudging them and see what happens. If they send me a replacement I'll redo the test.

  • has the factory given you a response?

  • @animanus

    Thing is that we work with factory directly. They told that it is fixed, but it was false, in fact.

  • According to Camgeeker the problem is now fixed..

  • So there is a possibility to send the screens in and get the problems fixed? I bought two some weeks ago (via PV deal), needed them since they arrived for several projects. Now there might be time left to send them over.

    If yes: What about customs? I dont want to pay 50€ again...

  • @Animanus - If you don't mind that your footage will be stretched from 16:9 to 16:10 and you don't care that you're losing a chunk of pixels left and right of the image then it's fine to order.

    For me it's not suitable. I want to use this monitor for composition as well as focus, so to me it's as useful as a brick if it doesn't show me exactly the same image that I'm getting out of the camera.

  • So is ordering a monitor a bad idea? Better to wait and see what happens?