@DrDave You can make the monitor correspond to the GH2 highlight function because the alert zones are configurable. Two functions correspond to what you want :

• CLIP GUIDE shows in real time the highlights in vivid blinking or static purple but also the shadows in dark blinking or static purple.

• FALSE COLORS shows in real time much more information, including highlights and shadows in static vivid colors.

Apart from having more functionalities than the GH2/GH3, these features are also available in ANY of the GH2 (or GH3) modes (photo or video, manual or automatic).

(see attached photos, the purple on the shadow image is subtle)

@slacklaporte Colors are pretty accurate. In the attached photo the red book on the table has the right color and it is closely matched by the color from the Neway monitor straight from the HDMI output of the GH2, without any in-monitor color correction (there are 3 knobs to change brightness, contrast & chroma). The color from the GH2 monitor is off.

Damn I wish the made this monitor in the 5" version!

7" just seems too big to use connected to the camera… 7" or 9" would be great for a tap feed to a director, or on larger production for focus puller.

Of course, you can think as you like, but practice and nature also exist. 7" is usually more handy as external monitor. 5" monitors are rarity, 5.6" monitors are not much smaller, and using their high resolution to their advantage is harder :-)

I meant 5.6" like the $900 Ikan one with all these features. I guess I can't have the best of both worlds! :) I've worked with a 7" monitor for awhile now from the workhorse Marshall with peaking to 4 different versions of Lilliputs and just wanted something a little smaller for handheld stuff. Every little ounce helps after a 10 hour day doing handheld! I'm sure it's great and for the price, even better!

@pwc, what battery option are you using?

Thanks @pwc looks like a very cool monitor.

Ordered this, really great monitor, great resolution, light weight and handy, 5 working days (Hong Kong - Paris)!, ( Miss Cole from Neway is very professional ) , review soon...

The first thing I did was setting language to english, I can't remember how exactly, guess if you will follow this link and follow the menu setting you should get there! http://www.neway.me/products_detailed.aspx?Flag=1&ID=593 you

Well that was easy. Thanks for the link manstok. I just followed the menu in the link you gave and changed it in about 2 minutes. This was truly an incredible deal.

I'll let you know later this week, as I sold my identical Marshall (except without pass through HDMI - only one socket) so that I could buy this Neway HDMI for £100 less than my second hand Marshall went for.

I am expecting pretty much the same feature set with considerably higher resolution, false colour guide at the footer of the false colour image (handy!), tally lights (I won't use them), 2xHDMI slots (potentially useful) and similar build quality.

My Marshall was calibrated meticulously, but I never managed to achieve an accurate vibrant purple on the colour bars for some reason, so hopefully that will be better with this monitor.

The only downside I see is the resale value should I ever need to part with it. A Marshall is easy to sell, Neway...we'll see. :) I hope that despite the unknown brand, this could be much better than the old marshall.

@Joshua_Cadmium

It is better monitor compared to Lilliput. And no they do not use "same panel", just resolution is the same.

Also Lilliput is not cheaper in it's advanced version that can be compared to Neway.

REVIEW

So, I got my monitor today. After I managed to change the system language to English, I gave it a good old explore, and I'm very happy indeed.

One of the first things I did was calibrate it to a set of SMPTE colour bars, fed from my computer. Almost nothing needed adjusting at all. The 1-99 settings for colour, contrast, brightness, tint etc. were all bang on at 50, the factory setting. The colour is more accurate than my Marshall 7" V70 HDMI

The sharpness is absolutely exceptional. More than 720p in such a small monitor leaves no ambiguity as to sharpness when focussing. It makes the need for pixel to pixel and focus assist a bit redundant, in my opinion, but they are there, nonetheless, and actually I guess pixel to pixel is quite handy for short dof situations in 1080p.

The monitor is very light compared with my Marshall. It balances better on my rig. Having 1/4"-20 nuts on all four edges also really helps me fit the monitor on my rig properly.

The false colour is excellent and includes an on-screen colour guide, without which I always found false colour a bit useless in the past. With the guide it is very handy for consistency.

The knobs on the front actually don't seem to control anything. These settings are made in the menus in fact, and the knobs don't seem connected, which I actually prefer, because in my opinion, they are not something that needs constant tinkering - they should be calibrated and then left well alone IMHO.

The four function buttons are really handy. I have mine set to FALSE COLOUR, FOCUS ASSIST, PIXEL to PIXEL and DSLR framing, for when a friend uses his 5D with it, but I use it on my GH2s.

The frame guides could be more comprehensive, in my view. I'd like to see horizontal lines for a 1:1.85 crop and a 1:2.4 in post, for example. No big deal though.

The power supply is pretty poor, with a very short (1 metre?) lead, but presumably you'd be wanting to battery power this guy, either with Sony NP-F960/970 type batteries on the supplied battery holder, or from a V-lock or Anton Bauer. Power in is very versatile though, with a 4 pin XLR and a little barrel power input, both taking a range of voltages.

The monitor hood is good, and comes with velcro sewn on it, and a strip of velcro for the monitor, but I have very poor personal experience with velcro on monitor hoods and won't be using it. Fortunately they also suppled it with 3 holes to correspond to the side and top 1/4"-20 fixing holes, so if you get 3 thumb-screws, you're laughing! It's quite rigid and will stay on my monitor the whole time, as it protects the screen well, and is useful a lot of the time.

The monitor comes with a nice quality soft neoprene case, a nice quality hotshoe mount, and a well produced manual with pictures and clear instructions on all of the features.

I paid £256 plus £25 Import VAT, and for that, this is a bargain. This is also sold as an Ikan VX7, and it is in my view better in every way than an equivalent Marshall V70 at twice the price and perhaps nearly as good as the SmallHD AC7 LED (very similar actually).

Highly recommended! No regrets so far.