Recently I won an ikan V5600 HD LCD monitor courtesy of ikan Corporation and Dave Basulto from the indie filmmaking website filmmakingcentral.com. Dave puts on an annual live Christmas show for his Filmmaking Central podcast. I happened to be at the right place at the right time, and received the ikan monitor from Santa. This is great timing for me since I’m accumulating DLSR cinematography equipment for an upcoming film project.

ikan V5600 HD LCD Monitor

Although the ikan V5600 monitor appears to have a blue tint in the pictures shown, that’s an exposure artifact from the Canon G9 used to take the pictures. The screen real estate not showing video is actually dark as one would expect. The ikan V5600 package includes the monitor, AC power adapter, component breakout cable, AV breakout cable, and a shoe mount. In the picture below, I mounted the V5600 onto a Canon 5D Mark II. The monitor attaches to the shoe via a ballhead mount, allowing much flexibility in positioning the V5600 for viewing.

ikan V5600 Attached to a Canon 5D Mark II

Although two different break cables are provided, I opted for a third party HDMI cable for displaying the camera video. The ikan V5600 has a standard HDMI connector, but the Canon 5D Mark II requires a mini HDMI. This was the first time I’d encountered a mini HDMI connector, so I had to scrounge the right kind of cable to make things work. I did not test the AV or component breakout cables.

Attach to Mini HDMI Connector

The standard HDMI cable attaches to the back of the ikan V5600, as well as the AC power adapter. For untethered usage, ikan provides an optional battery adapter plate. You can see the two threaded screw holes for the battery plate in the picture below. Having the ability to power the monitor is great for indoor work, but I’ll have to consider the battery power option for remote shooting. The YUV connector is visible on the back, and the AV connector is located on the right hand side facing the back of the monitor.

Back of ikan V5600 LCD Monitor

Once I got the correct cables hooked up and the the ikan monitor powered, I turned on the 5D Mark II’s LiveView mode and immediately noticed the video does not fill out the monitor real estate. I toured the setting buttons on the front of the monitor panel, but there is no way to adjust the video for HDMI input. The ikan V5600 is expecting HD 1920×1080 resolution video, but the HDMI output of the Canon 5D Mark II is something smaller. This behavior is the same for the 5D Mark II’s recording mode as well. Live video coming from the HDMI port of the Canon 5D Mark II will not fill out the screen on the ikan V5600 monitor.

LiveView from Canon 5D Mark II

However this really isn’t an issue in my opinion. The video displayed by the ikan V5600 is still much better quality then the video visible on the LCD display of the camera. With the Canon 5D Mark II, setting focus before recording is quite easy. However, once recording has started, pulling focus is much harder when flying by the LCD on the camera. The ikan V5600 is a far superior way to view the live video coming from the camera. I’m sure it’ll help me avoid the focus and intruder issues I’ve had with the camera LCD in the past.

Playback of Recorded Video in Full HD Resolution

Although live video coming from the camera does not fill out the monitor screen, playback of recorded video does fill out the screen real estate. This is great for providing immediate feedback of completed shots. And with the ikan V5600 conveniently attached to a ballhead shoe mount, it’s easy to adjust to monitor for optimal video playback viewing. This is far more user friendly then disturbing a locked down camera setup to preview the last set of shots.

Ever since I started shooting video with a Canon 5D Mark II, I’ve felt the need for a better way to preview test shots and review completed shots. Although I’ve managed to get by with the camera LCD display, the ikan V5600 HD LCD monitor is a wonderful addition to my indie filmmaking toolkit. The ikan V5600 won’t improve my screen writing or light scenes for me, but it will help minimize onset shooting errors that would have been caught had I taken the time to properly review completed scenes.

Thanks again to the ikan Corporation and Dave Basulto from filmmakingcentral.com.