When a monitor is more expensive than the camera.

SmallHD is a premium line of camera monitors, essentially the best any professional realistically needs. The cine line is better than the indie series but beneath the ultra line. The cine monitors house a metal construction, buttons, I/O ports and a brighter screen. SmallHD is known for having some of the best image reproduction, but at $1500-$2500 are these monitors really worth more than the camera you’re using?

Features

There are a ton of features that make SmallHD better than the competition. The images are brighter, the monitor is quieter and has more ports and functions. One of the main reasons you want to use SmallHD is for its software. PageOS allows you to seamlessly swipe between multiple pages and settings, whether you want to utilize monitoring LUTs, focus peeking, exposure tools, framing guides, you name it, it has it all. Unfortunately SmallHD really only has camera control for a few cameras like Red, Arri and premium Sonys making them less useful for lesser known cinema cameras like the Sigma FP. Without camera control, you probably won’t feel the need to utilize all the tools as you mind end up using the camera’s tools instead, which will usually be more accurate. For example, the FP has a notorious issue with highlight monitoring that looks clipped when monitoring but not in camera, which we can confirm with Sigma’s internal false color and EL Zone. However if you were to use EL Zone or false color on the SmallHD, those falsely clipped highlights would be monitored as clipped because it reads the monitored image, not the actual data. As a result I don’t really utilize Page OS except for framing guides and zooming.

scopes / waveforms / histograms

false color / EL zone / zebras

framing guides / aspect ratio / anamorphic

teradek / wireless transmission

monitoring LUTs / overlays / image capture

calibration / focus assist / everything you'd need

The greatest assets of this expensive monitor are the image fidelity, accessibility and functionality. The image has more contrast and thus saturation than what you would normally see on your LCD. This makes it aesthetically pleasing as it’s closer to what your final grade would look like. The contrast also makes it easier to focus, which is important for a 5” monitor. You can precisely tune the monitor to be as accurate as you want, but even if you’re lazy like me and leave it on factory settings it accurate enough. There is a slight color shift with the default setting compared to my Sigma FP and Blackmagic, but once again you can calibrate it to your exact preference. I’m not sure which is more accurate to the actual footage, but I believe it’s somewhere in the middle and it depends on which camera you pair it with. If you’re working in log or RAW, then it becomes even less relevant if you’re off 300K as you’re usually not looking at the final image from your monitor even if you use a monitoring LUT.

The buttons are very welcome if you use gloves or don’t want to smudge the screen, but I always forget about it and just use the touch screen with no problems. You can screenshot with your monitor, record in case you want to do some content creation, it is surprisingly customizable allowing you to put monitor in any quadrant you’d like. One of my favorite features is how you can upload your own idle background, which I use my own logo and banner. Battery life is pretty good but does make the monitor warm at times. The fan doesn’t really get too loud with normal usage, but if it does then there’s a setting to have silent fan noise by lowering the brightness.The brightness maxes around 2000 nits, which is useful for daylight glares but you will usually be fine around 40% brightness. I would suggest NPF 750s as the 950s are far too large and don’t have enough space to allow you to have the monitor face directly up.

It’s the little things in life that bring joy.

Although you have good mounting points, I’d suggest getting a screen protector and monitor cage, which allows you to protect the monitor, which although is metal can damage easier than you think. It also allows for more mounting points. The monitor is actually kind of thick and not weightless, but it really shouldn’t bother you unless you use the heavier NPF 950s. With the batteries, it can get heavy enough to fall down and hit your lens so make sure you tighten the swivel. The biggest lifesaver for me has to be the ports, including lemo, SDI and HDMI. Some of the cameras I use don’t have LUT monitoring or SDI, which make it a nightmare to hook your camera rig up to a wireless transmission for professional work. But the SmallHD allows you to monitor out for bigger productions when you need to impress the clients.

5 or 7 inch?

No matter whether you get the 5 or 7 inch, you will at times regret your decision. If you have a 7”, you’ll inevitable have a moment thinking it’s too large and want the 5. If you have the 5, you’ll think you can’t nail critical focus when you’re on a tripod or monitoring at a distance. The general rule is 7” is better for tripod work especially if you are doing a talking head and need to film yourself. The 5 is nearly impossible for that unless you have eagle vision. 7” is necessary for people with bad eyesight as it will always be easier for critical focus with a larger screen. I would say I don’t have very good eyesight but still don’t have problems with the 5” monitor at f1.4, but sometimes trouble at f5.6. If I were to put the camera rig at an extended arms length away, for example a low angle shot while running, I wouldn’t feel confident in confirming if I was in focus. I believe if you do those kinds of shots often then that should give you a rough idea if 5” is large enough. But for 80% of handheld cases I think it’s fine. I have a small camera rig and having a smaller monitor is much nicer for handheld and portability. 5” has a more comparable width with smaller cameras and makes it so you don’t have to disassemble each time you put the camera rig into your bag. It’s traveling moments like these where you’ll want a 5”.

In summary, I recommend 7” as the default and to just deal with the portability issues. A larger monitor is all around better for professional work with tripods and filming yourself. You can consider 5” if you really value travel portability, run and gun handheld or a fast style of shooting. I would not suggest choosing one of these sizes based on budget, the size is the whole purpose of using a monitor over a camera’s LCD. If you really want the 7, I’d consider the indie 7 if budget was so constrained and deal with the compromises in brightness.

Considerations

This is close to a perfect product, yet fails in one crucial aspect. The biggest con of this monitor is there is no camera control for many cameras including my Sigma FP, which already has a big issue with monitoring out resolution. Combined with the smaller 5” screen makes monitoring very difficult particularly for my main camera. It would also be so nice to be able to record, change iso, white balance or control other camera settings. Without this control, you are kind asking what is the point? It ends up just being a very expensive and accurate screen, which actually costs more than my Sigma FP. The bezels on this 5in monitor are massive, making it more than an inch wider than it needs to be. On the 7” it would probably be less annoying due to the proportions. But if you wanted to get the 5” because of its smaller footprint, the large bezels kinda disappoint in that regard.

When I first got my monitor there were a few bugs and I wasn’t able to use some of the buttons when I first turned on the monitor unless I first swiped to a new page. Upgrading the OS to version 6.0 fixed that. It’s pretty smooth to use and interact with, but for people used to 120hz phones, you may find the motion to be ever-so laggy. Boot up time is okay, around 5-10 seconds, which is slower than all my mirrorless cameras. It’s just a little annoying because I always like to save power by turning everything off when not in use, meaning I end up leaving the monitor on most of the time and only turning it off when I’m certain I won’t be filming for a while. Small grievance, because I never run out of battery leaving it on. It can last half a day with 2 NPF 750s continuously on equating to 2-3 traveling days if you manage its brightness and conserving the power on and off. I wish it could indicate battery percentage and not voltage, which can be misleading at times but that is more of a battery issue.

Final thoughts

This is a piece of equipment that has yet to return its full value because I can’t utilize many of its functions. For cinema cameras that can take advantage of camera control, you still need to buy a license and the proper cables. Why monitors still don’t allow us to do this in 2024 really confuses me. Because I will eventually be upgrading to better cameras, this makes it a good investment as I won’t ever need to be buying a better monitor in the future. However, for those that never plan on getting a Red, Arri, or premium Sony, you really don’t need this. It has the best image and works exactly as it should and never gives you anything to complain about, but costing more than your camera makes it not a good choice unless you regularly utilize page OS and camera control. Also as good as this monitor is, there can be improvements and upgrades down the line such as more camera control and a better screen. This could still be all you will ever need.

dashboard settings

input configuration

calibration

rotate

image capture

user buttons

personalize

firmware 6.0

That being said, having a good monitor is the difference between enjoying your filming and hating everything you shoot. It will take using a really bad budget monitor to make you appreciate using a nice one. Having a nice image to look at while recording everything makes filming fun, like watching your own movie live. I’d say the SmallHD makes your image look even nicer than it looks by default with the stronger contrast, which is better for your confidence and motivation. Sometimes all it takes to finally go out shooting and stop being consumed by equipment mental blocks is to free your mind from hassles. It’s not just a monitor, it’s your eyes, and it’s up to you to decide how much having more inspiration and convenience is worth.