Hands On With The SmallHD FOCUS 7

Earlier this week SmallHD introduced a new member to its growing family of FOCUS monitors – the FOCUS 7, the first 7″ FOCUS monitor (SmallHD already has a number of higher-end 7″ monitors).

So what is new with the SmallHD FOCUS 7. Well, apart from the obvious size increase (7″ instead of 5″) we have increased resolution – 1920 over 1200 pixels which is very welcome, the monitor is still HDMI only although this time around we have a full-size HDMI instead of the annoying micro HDMI (which we hate). The max accepted resolution is still 4K 30p (it would be nice to see 4k 60p this time around) and there are two slots for Sony style L-batteries which will give you a LOT of juice for running this monitor as well as (optionally) a camera via a dummy battery. There is also a 3.5mm headphone socket (on the lower part of the screen – which is not ideal if you are using an arm) as well as USB and SD for inserting lUTs.

For some reason, the new monitor has no top 1/4″ 20 but all other sides of the monitors do and if you will be using the arm (optional) it will flip automatically – a feature we really liked on the original FOCUS.

Besides the size and resolution, the main feature SmallHD promotes here is the brightness – 1000 nits – good enough for most daylight shooting situations. The panel itself is 10bit with a color Gamut of 75% DCI-P3.

The monitor is larger of course but weighs only 13.6 oz / 386 g which can still be considered pretty lightweight for a monitor this size.

As for pricing, the SmallHD FOCUS 7 sells for $700. This will be a hard sell with so many good options on the market at the moment (including some monitors/recorders at prices which are not too far from this one).

The official SmallHD video on the SmallHD FOCUS 7

Last year we published a review of the original FOCUS (5″) monitor which you can read- here. As it seems SmallHD integrated at least some of the suggestions we had after working with the original monitor.

One point which is not mentioned in the official press releases comes up in the review of the monitor by Philip Bloom (see below) who mentioned that in a future firmware update the monitor will be able to perform “focus by touch” which is a fantastic feature that many users will love to see (we actually would love to see a fully working camera interface on the monitor – something that can certainly be done by connecting the camera via USB).

SmallHD FOCUS review by Philip Bloom

We will be looking into several monitors in the near future so stay tuned for that. If you don’t want to miss any new photography product be sure to check out our product photography section.

Iddo Genuth

Iddo Genuth is the founder and chief editor of LensVid.com. He has been a technology reporter working for international publications since the late 1990's and covering photography since 2009. Iddo is also a co-founder of a production company specializing in commercial food and product visual content.