Budget Studio Monitor Shootout

This is a great option if you’re looking for a budget 4k monitor!

50 feet. They get the job done for a small budget minded studio.

This is a quality product and a great start to studio lighting for those on a budget.

The perfect monitor for the Mac Studio.

Now my rolling studio monitor can be placed anywhere.

I was on a budget for my first light. This was a great buy. I'm really happy with the fill it gives my natural light studio.

We have used SEVERAL brands of omni headset mics. These and the DPA mics topped the list, in a shootout of several mics, topped the list in quality and clarity. All I use at this point are these mics. They are cheap, easy to repair, and sound great!

The hinge is solid and well built and the board itself is very well designed. Used for the first last during the scifi film shootout here in Roswell and after so many claps from newbie 2nd ACs that don't respect other people's equipment its still going strong.

I found a USB interface shootout online, and listened to the recorded samples for multiple units. I really liked the sound of this SSL and had heard good things about the Black Lion Audio Revolution, so I ordered them both to compare. I ended up preferring the sound of the SSL. The Black Lion sounded oversaturated to me while the SSL was more my style: an honest sound, without being clinical. I like it without the 4k setting, but that's a nice option to have, and the RCA outputs are actually perfect for my amp/monitor setup. The pre-amp gain is clean, though I add a Cloudlifter between my sE ribbon mic and the interface. My Senn mics sounded great through the SSL too. Finally, I love that there are two headphone outs! Would recommend this interface, it's a great value.

I find the optical quality quite outstanding for the price. I did a shootout with my 50/1.8 AIS manual focus nikkor (which I used to find extremely sharp in the film days). This lens had similar sharpness. Note that this lens was practically wide open at f5.6 whereas the MF nikkor was in its sweet spot at f5.6. If you throw in an excellent zoom range and VR (which improves handholding by a couple stops), and this is really very convenient. I compared with the 18-200 zoom, but this really handles much better on the smaller nikon bodies like the d5100. I have heard that the plastic mount on the lens is fragile; keeping my finger crossed. I got the Grey version of this lens; seems fine. I'm happy to save $100.