I’ve been using that little dirt cheap monitor for a number of months,but it finally took a fall from 10 feet and abruptly decided to stopped working. The size has made it one of the most used monitors in my collection. Manly because it easily fits in my camera bag and runs all day on a single 6800 mAh battery.  Even though it’s very cheap to replace I thought it might be time for an upgrade to something with a little more screen resolution.

I jumped on Amazon the other day looking around and they had one Sony CLM V55 5 inch monitor delivered by Amazon for $299.  Same resolution as my Lilliput monitor, but with focus peaking and a number of other great features. I was going to hold out for a samllhd DP4 monitor but I couldn’t pass up the $299 price tag. I may still end up with either a DP4 or DP6 monitor in the future but I thought I’d give the Sony a try for the price.

The CLM v55 came with some nice extras, including the sun hood, adjustable cold shoe mounts, and hdmi cable, but I was disappointed that Sony decided not to include batteries or power cord with the monitor. Thankfully I have a number of spare batteries laying around from previous cameras that fit the monitor, but that could end up being a hidden cost for many people.

When you stack the dirt cheap monitor on the Sony CLM V55, there is only about a 1/2 inch difference around the edges between the two monitors. Also having a proper battery mount on the back of the CLM v55 and a nice 1/4 20 set of threads on the bottom makes it more convenient then the dirt cheap monitor.

The included sun hood is very handy and seems to be a great way to protect the monitor. It’s also nice to see that Sony included a rubber cap for the hdmi and headphone ports. Over all the build quality is good for the price, but i’m guessing the aluminum frame of the SamllHD DP4 might be a bit more durable.

Although the sun hood does seem handy, it just about doubles the thickness of the monitor. The hood (top) and Monitor (bottom) snap together with a few plastic clips around the frame. The small indents used for mounting the sun hood around the front of the monitor do look a little strange when you look at it from the side.

One other thing that is a little disappointing is that there is no way to upscale the output of the t2i in record mode to full screen on the monitor, but I knew that going in. Over all the Sony CLM v55, so fare, seems to be a pretty good bargain for the price. Once I get a chance to spend a little more time with it, I’ll post a full review.


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