Review: SmallHD 502 FullHD On-Camera Monitor

Multiple Displays

Each of the displays accessed with the joystick mentioned earlier is a little bit different. One has audio levels, another one has just the raw display, one is a thermal display, and one has peaking on it to help with focus.

Each one can be customized very easily by pushing in on the joystick to add a new tool. You can choose from all several different categories: aspect ratio, safe zone markers, crosshairs, cross-hatching, exposure assistance, focus assist, peaking, zebra patterns, histograms, and waveforms. Histograms and waveforms are really important these days because you need those to be able to tell good exposure when you've got these unreliable LCD screens that are built into DSLRs and camcorders. Of course you have a vectorscope as well, plus image overlays, audio meters, and SDI metadata.
Adding focus assist gives you a bright color showing you what's sharp, and you can customize it with whatever color you like. You can adjust sensitivity, and because some people swear by black and white for focus, you have that option as well.

The customization of this monitor is just fantastic. You've got so many different options you can choose, so many ways you can set it up, and if you're not happy with any of those and you don't want someone else's settings to be bugging you, just go to your settings and load your profile from your SD card. That way, you can always be set up just how you want and when someone else needs to use it, they can have their own profile on there and they can set it up how they need it.

Usability and Versatility

The interface on this is gorgeous. You can tell that a ton of thought and a ton of work has been put into this. Another great thing about SmallHD is that they're always putting out firmware updates to their hardware, so when you buy this monitor, it's a huge investment because it's not a one-and-done device. They're going to be supporting it for quite a while after you've purchased it, and you'll get firmware updates that'll increase some of the features that you've got on here.

Operation of this device is so smooth that it’s more like using a great phone than a monitor. Monitors have a reputation for being pretty basic. You get what you get, and it's for one purpose: to look at your image, and have it be as clear and accurate as possible. SmallHD has taken it a few steps further by putting so much into the technology of this device that it’s in a class of its own.