Four SmallHD Monitors for Focus Pullers

As focus gets more critical, you may want more pixels or a larger screen. Here’s a rundown of 4 SmallHD Monitors for Focus Pullers and other people. These monitors are not just for Focus Pullers, of course — DPs, Camera Operators, Directors, DITs, Producers and Clients love them as well.

SmallHD Cine 7 Monitor

Cine 7 is a lightweight, very bright, 7” HD touchscreen monitor that also accepts 4K and HDR video. It’s a monitor to mount onboard a camera or attach to your your wireless FIZ hand unit.

Simon England focusing on “News Of the World” with his SmallHD Cine7, Teradek Rx, custom sling and batteries.

Two BNC connectors provide two 3G SDI inputs, with the second input doubling as a video pass-through out. There’s also an HDMI input and pass-through output. 

You can power the Cine 7 with dual on-board Sony L-Series batteries,  add a Gold Mount or V-Mount battery plate, or connect to accessory power or a D-Tap using a two-pin cable. 

 

Familiar SmallHD PageOS software offers frame guides, focus and exposure assist, 3D LUT overlays, histogram, vectorscope, waveform, and EL Zone.

Attach a Teradek Bolt RX Monitor Module for cable-free HD, 4K and HDR wireless video from any Bolt 4K transmitter. 

 

Upgrade with software licenses for RED, ARRI, and Sony camera control. The Cine 7 touchscreen can control camera functions and project settings such as Start/Stop Record, frame-rate, shutter angle, ISO, color temperature, white balance, clip playback, etc. 

Cine 7 Monitor Specs

  • Display: 7″ 1920×1200 (7.2″ diagonal)
  • 1800 nits, 10-bit processing (8-bit panel)
  • Backlight Type: LED
  • Gamut: 100% DCI-P3
  • SDI: 2x 3G-SDI in, 1x doubles as a 3G-SDI out
  • HDMI: 1x HDMI in, 1x HDMI out
  • Power Input: 2-pin Locking 
  • Weight 20 oz.
  • Dims: 7.09” w x 4.67” high x 1.32” deep
  • US$ 2,199.00 with optional Camera Control software licenses for RED,  ARRI, and Sony cameras and additional options for Teradek Monitor Modules.

 

SmallHD Cine 13 4K High-Bright Monitor

 

Gaggles of geese don’t stop for focus marks.

The SmallHD Cine 13 is a compact, brilliantly bright, light, UHD 4K monitor. 

This is the monitor most often seen on a stand in front of a focus puller or attached to the controls of a remote head. It’s unobtrusive on crowded sets and small enough to fit inside a car or helicopter.

The Cine 13 was launched in June 2021. It weighs 6.8 lb. At 1500 nits, it is bright enough to view in full sunlight or in front of an 18K HMI. 

There are four 12G SDI inputs and outputs, and one HDMI in and out. The rugged unibody aluminum chassis has an Arca-Swiss style rail at the rear to slide on Gold Mount or V-Mount battery plates. Two Lemo 2-pin connectors provide power for accessories. Of course, SmallHD PageOS software is built in.

 

Cine 13 Monitor Specs

  • Display: 13″, 3840 x 2160 (13.3″ diagonal)
  • 1500 nits, 10-bit
  • Backlight Type: Edge-lit LCD
  • Gamut: 100% Rec.709
  • SDI: 4x 12G-SDI in, 4x 12G-SDI out
  • HDMI: 1x HDMI 2.0 in, 1x HDMI 2.0 out
  • Power Input: 1x 4-pin XLR
  • 2x 2-pin Lemo power outputs
  • Weight 6.8 lb/3.09 kg
  • Dims: 13.2″ wide  x 10.1″ high x 2.3″ deep (without feet and handle)
  • VESA attachment threads
  • US$ 4,699.00

SmallHD Cine 18 4K High-Bright Monitor

 

SmallHD introduced the Cine 18 4K High-Bright Monitor in April 2022. It addresses the sweet spot between the lightweight, portable Cine 13 and the larger Cine 24. As focus gets ever more critical (here’s looking at you, Full Frame at T1.4) more real estate on screen enables accurate   focus. And it’s a lot nicer than a magnifying glass attached to a Noga Arm in front of a puny display.  

These are the shots that try focus-pullers souls. ECU, 4K, Full Frame, 135mm prime wide open at T1.4. Which eyelash do you focus on? Your 7-inch monitor is great, but seeing such fine detail requires the eyesight of an eagle. What you may want is a larger 4K monitor of size and resolution to guide you in the realm of eyelash-thin, millimeter depth of focus. As depth gets smaller, focus-pullers get larger monitors. The new SmallHD Cine 18 4K High-Bright Monitor might be positioned between your favorite Cine 13 on a stand and a Cine 24 that sits on an Inovativ cart. 

Dave Bredbury, Product Manager for CS Cine, explained, “The Cine 18 is a lightweight, rugged, daylight-viewable 4K  monitor that fills the critical size gap between the Cine 13 and Cine 24 in the SmallHD 4K monitor line-up— highly portable, daylight-viewable, and adaptable. It’s a next-level replacement for SmallHD’s popular 1703 P3X HD Monitor, but with significant upgrades in sharpness, resolution, and ergonomics.” 

Cine 18 is a UHD 4K high-bright monitor in a lightweight aluminum unibody chassis with an 18″ edge-lit LCD screen. As with the Cine 13, there’s an Arca-Swiss rail system at the rear for  hot-swappable battery power, two 2-pin Lemo accessory power connectors, cheese plate mounting points and PageOS software.

If you output 4096 x 2160 4K 24p from a camera’s SDI connector, will the monitor auto select 3840 x 2160 — or do you have to set the camera output or monitor input to UHD rather than DCI 4K ?

Dave Bredbury replied: “It is automatic, it adds letter-boxing to make the aspect ratio 16×9, and then downscales to UHD to fit the screen. If the user wants to see the image 1:1, they can use pixel zoom.  The first pixel zoom will zoom just a smidge to make everything line up 1:1, which drops the left and right edges of the DCI 4K image.”

So, here’s a new monitor light enough to work on set on a C-Stand, large enough for Video Village, bright enough to view in bright sunlight—for ACs, DPs, DITs, Directors, Producers and Clients.

Cine 18 Monitor Specs:

  • Display: 18″,  3840 x 2160 (18.4″ diagonal)
  • 1100 nits, 10-bit
  • Backlight Type: Edge-lit LCD
  • Gamut: 100% Rec.709
  • 1,000:1 contrast ratio, 240 PPI, 178º viewing angle
  • SDI: 4x 12G-SDI in, 4x 12G-SDI out
  • HDMI: 1x HDMI 2.0 (4K60) in, 1x HDMI 2.0 out
  • Power Input: 1x 4-pin XLR 12-34 V DC (210W max.)
  • Weight: 12 lb /5.05 kg
  • Dims: 18.4”w x 12.7”h x 2.5”d  (without feet and handle)
  • VESA attachment threads
  • US $ 5,999.00 
  • https://link.cs.inc/cine18-pr

SmallHD Cine 24 4K High-Bright Monitor

SmallHD’s Cine 24 arrived in August 2020. Initially intended as a nimble DIT and video village monitor, lots more are showing up on focus pullers’ carts and are light enough to be mounted on stands using the built-in VESA mount attachment points.

Whereas the Cine 13 and Cine 18 have a Rec.709 color gamut, the larger Cine 24 is 100% DCI P3. 

Like the 13 and 18, the Cine 24 is a high-bright (1350 nits) UHD 4K 3840×2160 monitor. 

The chassis is familiar, with an Arca-Swiss rail system at the rear for  hot-swappable battery power and two 2-pin Lemo accessory power connectors.

Cine 24 Monitor Specs:

  • Display: 24”,  3840 x 2160 (24.1” diagonal)
  • 1350 nits, 10-bit
  • Backlight Type: Edge-lit LCD
  • Gamut: 100% DCI-P3
  • Contrast ratio: 1,000:1 
  • 178º viewing angle
  • SDI: 4x 12G-SDI in, 4x 12G-SDI out
  • HDMI: 1x HDMI 2.0 (4K60) in, 1x HDMI out
  • Power Input: 1x 2-pin XLR 12-34 V DC (210W max.)
  • Weight: 16.5 lb /7.5 kg
  • Dims: 23.”w x 15.8”h x 2.4”d  (without feet and handle)
  • VESA attachment threads
  • US $ 6,999.00 
  • https://smallhd.com

 

SmallHD PageOS 5 Software

PageOS is SmallHD’s operating system software. The latest version, PageOS 5, will include  Multi-View (up to 4 cameras, quad split, etc), calibration with Calman software, Lookaround Camera Control on all pages, Tetrahedral LUT interpolation, improved HD upscaling, and best of all, the EL Zone exposure tool. PageOS 5 will be a free software download. Find the latest PageOS updates at downloads.smallhd.com.

EL Zone

This is a big deal, a very important addition. SmallHD PageOS 5 includes EL Zone — invented by Ed Lachman, ASC. In collaboration with Ed, SmallHD developed EL Zone into their monitors. EL Zone, at the push of a user button, displays specific colors for each stop above and below 18% grey. The colors are intuitive as a rainbow—remember ROYGBIV— to easily see exposure zones on the monitor in useful T stops, without having to translate IRE values. If you can’t remember ROYGBIV, there’s even a legend of colors and corresponding T-stops. You might call it a better False-Color tool. But isn’t False-Color a confusing term? It’s not false. EL Zone is even better. It gives you an accurate, intuitive zone system based on stops of exposure. 

Calman Calibration

Connect a Calman Portrait Displays Colorimeter probe and a computer running Calman software to a SmallHD 4K monitor via Ethernet. The Calman software will auto-calibrate and upload a calibration LUT directly into the monitor.

 

 

 

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