How to connect and use an external monitor and electronic viewfinder
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GUIDE Sony a7S II Guide

How to connect and use an external monitor and electronic viewfinder

In the following video I’ll show you how to connect and setup an external monitor and electronic viewfinder for field use (It was made with the a7S, though the same applies to the a7R II and a7S II): Download Video Here are some additional tips: Always have charged batteries handy. It’s easy to forget charging […]

In the following video I’ll show you how to connect and setup an external monitor and electronic viewfinder for field use (It was made with the a7S, though the same applies to the a7R II and a7S II):

Download Video

Here are some additional tips:

  • Always have charged batteries handy. It’s easy to forget charging these while under stress.
  • Get hoods and a black cloth. Sometimes, glare and sunlight make monitoring impossible.
  • Protect your monitor using an acrylic shield (like the one SmallHD provides) or use scratch-resistant film.
  • I prefer a 7″ or 8″ monitor over 5.6″ for a single-person shooter. The larger the better. To truly get the advantage of a 4K view, you need 19″ or more. Please read my detailed guide on selecting monitors here.
  • My favorite monitoring tool is the waveform and sometimes vectorscope. Both of these are rarely found on low-budget monitors, though the situation is changing.  The next best thing is false color and zebras.

FAQs

These are important topics raised by subscribers that shed more light on this lesson.

Q. How big a monitor do you need to focus for 4K?

A. If you have a pixel zoom feature you can do okay with a 7″ monitor. There’s no easy way to tell without looking at a 20+” monitor, preferably a UHD one. What looks focussed on a 7” screen might turn out to be unusable on a 65” display – especially at T1.5 or so!