The compact and extremely efficient SmallHD 500 Series on-camera monitors just became better and more versatile tools. Along with the Full HD 1080p resolution, 3D LUTs support, and HDMI/SDI cross conversion (502 only) now the iPhone sized monitors also receive customizable Waveform, Audio Meter, and Anamorphic De-squeeze as part of the newly released free firmware update 1.0.
Now you can even change the built-in color calibration of your monitor using your 3D LUT file which is another great add-on to the already existing ability to apply 3D LUTs to the live video feed of your camera. The SmallHD 501 and 502 models also get Image Overlay, Image Flip, and Canon DSLR Scale mode. Here is a quick video walk-through of the new features.
Now you can not only add multiple tools to a single page, but you can also add a particular tool to all of the pages. The Luma and RGB waveform are fully customisable providing the option to change its position, width, height and opacity on the screen.
Furthermore, the audio meter supports monitoring of up to 8 audio channels with adjustable size and location as well. If you are a Canon DSLR shooter now, you can fill the whole screen with the image out of your camera. And, if you are shooting with an anamorphic lens or adaptor you can apply 1.33x, 1.66x or 2x de-squeeze of your image in real-time.
Here are some of the known bugs that you may experience with Firmware 1.0
- Anamorphic de-squeeze does not interact well with image overlay or guides.
- Image capture – all images are stretched to 1920 wide.
- Exposure assist (i.e.,. false color) Acts on Lut Data when a Lut is in use instead of raw image data
- If you use peaking and zebra at the same time, the zebra can have some false readings.
- Histogram – when incoming data is YCC, the RGB histogram display can be slightly inaccurate.
- Signal issues – Very rarely 1080p 50/59/60 through HDMI may have trouble locking on – disconnecting and then reconnecting HDMI cable should fix the problem (This can occur with 1080i signals as well from time to time).
To install the new firmware download the .zip file by clicking here. Extract the files on your computer and drag and drop the .bin file on a freshly Fat 32 formatted SD card. After inserting the SD card and switching on your SmallHD 500 series monitor, go to the Settings Menu and navigate to firmware update and follow on-screen prompts. Once the firmware is installed, you need to reboot your monitor.
However, it’s important to note that you have to remove the power source and then re-attach it to reboot as the power button will not work in this particular situation.
SmallHD 501 and SmallHD 502 come with a retail price of $899 and $1,199 respectively.
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