Great picture quality, well made.
By Jim
Rated 5 out of 5
Date: 2023-02-01
This dual rackmount monitor is excellent. Fits in a 19 rack slot perfectly. Let me start with the picture quality, I'm very impressed by the images on these monitors. Colors are crisp and accurate, and the image is sharp. I usually use monitors this size as just reference monitors, but because these monitors give such a good image and color accuracy, I trust to use them as an accurate guide to assist my shots, exposure and color decisions. Being able to rack mount dual monitors is so helpful and allows a variety of uses. I could send a different image to each, which would probably be the most common use. But since this set up has both in and outs for each individual monitor, it gives me the option to loop the same video to both. This way one monitor can show a clean feed and the other could have the scopes/waveforms/tools etc... I love this option. It's fantastic and super helpful. Speaking of tools, these come with a bunch of different monitoring tools including waveform, vectorscope, false color, histogram, and zebras. That is incredible and makes my job so much easier and, if used correctly, foolproof. Which is what I want from my gear, it should make my job easier. And this set-up does that. You can also load up LUTS, which again is incredibly helpful and advantageous. Both monitors have SDI and HDMI in/outs, so they are flexible, and looping is a breeze regardless of input. Like all the Elvid gear I have, the build quality is good. The case is metal construction, the buttons are responsive and well-made and the ports are made of quality materials. They have assignable function button for each monitor, which is a nice feature. I do not have a current need for this, but it also includes a DB-15 Tally Connector and Ethernet Software Control which is great for a studio scenario and good additions. On a side note, I love that they are small and light. I have plans of possibly buying or building a case so they can go on the road too, if I so desire. [I have received this product in exchange for my honest review]
Has everything I want!
By Art Video
Rated 5 out of 5
Date: 2023-01-15
I primarily trust the monitor screen that is built in on my cameras, a C300 Mark II, Canon R3...
I'm using the R3 in this case... the first thing that REALLY pleased me was the accuracy in color and contrast that I saw in the Elvid StudioVision Dual 7 Rackmount Monitor. Straight out of the box, no need to tweak barely anything, all set to factory default! Many external monitors, I often find the need to tweak it a lot or it just won't give me that accuracy in colors at all! This monitor shows me 95% what I see on the LCD of my R3. PERFECT!!!
The way the image looks from these monitors, it slready makes it very easy to judge exposure without using any tools, false colors, zebra, histograms...but this monitor has it all. It has Zebra built in, being my favorite approach to set exposure. It comes with the Zebra set as factory default to 100 IRE. Mimicking the R3's zebra settings, I had to set it to 69 IRE. It now matches exactly what I'm seeing on the R3's Zebras, set to 85 IRE. These settings, I will have my white levels to perfection every time. You should try these settings. The whites are perfect. Not too dark not blown up. 100 IRE in general is not sensitive enough in my opinion.
These two side by side monitors work completely independent, or, you can also loop the signal from screen 1's HDMI OUT to screen 2 HDMI IN from a monitor to another, if you want to have the first screen "clean" and full while on the second screen, with a vectorscope / Histogram etc, all separate.
If you don't need to loop, you can even utilize the individual HDMI outs from each monitor to send the signals to 2 bigger monitors for your director / client while you view your cameras from the Studio vision Dual 7".
There is no touchscreen, but fumbling with the menus and arrow buttons, to me, is intuitive enough. I can change settings very quickly and easily. You'll get the hang of it quickly.
On thing to note is... the BH description says these are matte finish screens, but both screens are high gloss. I actually prefer high gloss. Somehow, to me, it gives bolder colors and higher detail. Matte finish, the contrast is too low even if setting to high. So, glossy it is!
Another thing I LOVE about these Elvid monitors (I also have their 15" and 28") is the fact that, if I'm shooting Ultra Widescreen 1:85:1 for example, it has the capability to mask out anything outside the frame aspect ratio. That means, you set on menu to level "7" (max) as total blackness so I only see what is supposed to be part of the the 1:85:1 frame and I can shoot "careless" not having to pay attention to just a "line" simulating the aspect ratio. To me that's MANDATORY in a monitor! But if you don't like black frames, you can set to full 16:10 transparency while having just a 1:85:1 line... Your preference...
I currently don't have a dedicated 3U rack for this unit but the monitor stands on it's on, on a table, even without a rack. I can even tilt it slightly and gently at an angle as the DC power cable will act as a "leveler". But I highly recommend that you get a 3U rack mount. BH sells 3 that I've seen.
Plus, since the DC power widely accepts from just 10 to 24 VDC, you can also supply power from a regular V-Mount battery via D-Tap, which they usually output about 16V and change...I even found the same exact 2.5mm barrel plug DC cable online that ALSO features the same screw locking system as the original DC adapter that comes with this unit.
This monitor features a Tally option and an Ethernet port which allows you to connect the monitor to a LAN to adiust the monitors and select views and scopes via a software interface. I don't need any of those but it's there if you need.
Video monitoring: There's virtually NO LAG on the video and about 1/8 of a second delay when monitoring the audio from the monitor's headphone jack educator is expected in all monitors I own and have seen.
The headphone jack, it's plenty loud to monitor anything even in noisy environments. Each one of the two headphone jacks are completely independent! You're looking at two separate monitors in one body. And it also features audio levels so you can see exactly where you are with sound levels. This monitor supports up to 8 channels of audio. I'm not sure how to do that but I only need 2 channels (stereo) for each monitor, so I'm good.
You can assign the "FN"button to anything you want.. zebra, or peaking, and a lot of other options as a shortcut. Same with the arrows near the menu button. Everything can be assigned. What else would you want on a monitor?? This thing has it ALL. 160 degree viewing angle... you can easily see what's going on from the side, including up and lower angle viewing, but for dead accuracy in contrast and brightness, I recommend that you look at it straight like any other monitor. But that flexibility of viewing on its side is there.
This monitor will also adjust to fit any camera that the HDMI out supplies a signal other than full screen especially old DSLRs such as a Canon 5D Mark II. I remember how painful that camera was regarding this... good thing is, most cameras today will output the proper full video to fill any TV set or monitor.
Most cameras that film in 4K, you probably notice that the 16:9 ratio is slightly skinnier than an HD signal. The Elvid monitor will also adjust it for you by mimicking exactly what you see on your camera's display and in post.
I'm very pleased with this monitor! And most of the time, for interviews and other things, most filmmakers will use 2 cameras for that kind of job. All I need is to bring the Elvid StudioVision Dual 7 Rackmount Monitor, which fits in the tightest setups where big monitors won't fit.
Super happy with this monitor!! It's light, made of aluminum, independent screens (or not), tones of tools inside, accurate colors.
I also included pictures with this review. Don't forget to check them out!
[I have received this product in exchange for my honest review].
