iKan D5w Waveform monitor: Thoughts?

[Michael Romano]

iKan (With whom I have not been previously impressed) has just released this monitor.
http://www.ikancorp.com/productdetail.php?id=498

B&H currently has it for $1,079.00.

Has anyone else used it? I'm not at all concerned about image quality (its just 1280x800) but rather responsiveness of the RGB parade and vectorscopes. Lag and choppy WFM drives me nuts. I'm also wondering if it properly displays extended range signal as it doesn't seem to mention this in the posting. At this price point, it would make an excellent add-on to my lighter kit when the Leader isn't available.

I understand that this certainly does NOT have all the functionality of a Leader LV5330 or similar but for simple RGB parade, WFM, vectorscope and false color, it might seriously be worth it at the price point.

If anyone has picked it up, I'd love to hear your thoughts on its operation regarding functionality I've mentioned or anything else that you appreciate or dislike about it.

 

[Sam Negrete]

Hi, i have played a bit with ikan's D7w... It's pretty cool. a bit heavy probably because of the aluminum case. But it feels solid and has great picture quality. The waveform rgb parade and vectorscope seem to run in real time. as far as menu navigation, it's rather simple. It also has 4 shortcut buttons that can be customized with your favorite functions.
Although i agree, It's like comparing apples to oranges when looking at a Leader LV5330. The Ikan is 1/4th of the Leaders price, with 3/4ths the functionality.
Try it, I think you will like it. If you do please keep me posted, I'd like to hear your two cents.

 

[Michael Romano]

Thanks, I'll likely pick one up and post my thoughts.

 

[Dustin Cross]

Did you ever get the D5W? How are the scopes on it? How fast do they refresh? How accurate?


Mahalo,
Dusty

 

[Dustin Cross]

Just got the Ikan D5W monitor.

I got it for small dedicated scopes on my DIT cart since lots of productions don't want to spend money on scopes. Pretty good so far.

The refresh rate of the scopes is slightly faster than the built in scopes on my Flanders 1770, which is good.

Accuracy of the scopes. They pick up more fine detail than the 1770 scopes, but it shows up as noise that kinda hides the meat of the data in the waveform. I prefer the 1770 waveform that seems to ignore outlying fine detail compared to other scopes. The data is there and seems fairly accurate on first inspection.

The image quality is noting special, but I am really only interested in the scopes.

So far I am pretty happy with what I got.

Will post some pics when I can.


Dusty

 

[Dustin Cross]

Here are some pics of the monitor:

image of the Ikan

image of the Flanders 1770

Ikan waveform

Flanders waveform

Ikan parade

Flanders Parade

Ikan vectorscope

Flander vectorscope

Ikan all scopes on scree,

Ikan all scopes lower 3rd

With all the scopes on the screen they are pretty small on this little 5" screen. The 7" Ikan might be better if you want to view all scopes at once.



Dusty

 

[Michael Romano]

Thanks Dusty! That is exactly the kind of write up I was looking for. Is there a way to decrease the WFM intensity on the iKan? That would clean up the detail a little bit.

 

[Adrian Jebef]

I ordered the 7" iKan last week. It should be here tomorrow. I'll post my thoughts in a day or two...

 

[Matthew Conrad]

Are the scopes fully live on the ikan?... I know the flanders only updates every 4-5 frames

 

[dradikan]

Are the scopes fully live on the ikan?... I know the flanders only updates every 4-5 frames

to answer your question, Matthew, the D5 refereshes its scope data every 1-3 frames. It's one of the fastest refersh rates of monitors similar to this at this feature/price point.

regarding the sensitivity of the scopes and dialing it down a little to reduce the noise, I'm not sure--but i can find out. Let me see...

Ccheers,

Ryan

**ADDENDUM** I wanted to mention, for those interested in the 5" or 7" model--if youre looking for image quality and clarity of image, because of size and contrast ratio the 7" will do you better. in this sense, as well as its aluminum construction, its worth the difference in cost if you have it.

 

[dradikan]

Thanks Dusty! That is exactly the kind of write up I was looking for. Is there a way to decrease the WFM intensity on the iKan? That would clean up the detail a little bit.

Just checked on this--sounds like the current firmware allow for sensitivity control of the chart output but the feature is tabled for the next firmware update to the monitors (which is in progress).

Hope that helps.

--Ryan

 

[Adrian Jebef]

So I just used my new iKan D7w on a job yesterday. The picture is really, really nice. Much better than I thought for the price point. The added features are great and for the most part work extremely well. Peaking, focus assist, false color, pixel-2-pixel, frame guides, DSLR scaling, waveform/vectorscope. I can see the false color mode being really popular for a lot of users. And I think the focus assist function turns the D7w into a great Assistant monitor. The picture / contrast / resolution is just great for a 7" panel. I was really interested in the full-screen waveform / vector function. It works OK, delay is not bad, but as others have said... there is too much noise / detail. It would be fantastic if iKan can clean up the waveform function a bit in their next firmware update.

We're counting on you Ryan! If you guys can clean up that waveform display just a bit you're gonna have a lot of very happy future customers!

 

[hoylecd]

While you can come across a lot of garbage on reduser (any forum for that matter) you also find gems such as this. I've been interested in doing the exact same thing! Well done to everyone involved, I can't tell you how excited I was to go through this excellent conversation. I too own a Flanders (2461w) and while I absolutley love the monitor, the scopes have too much lag.

For those of you who own a D7W (or D5W) is the consensus that the scopes are real time, or in other words they appear fluid vs the very choppy nature on a Flanders?

Also, I just emailed Ikan with regards to adding an intensity option, I'll post their reply.

Chris Hoyle

 

[Dustin Cross]

Ryan,

If you guys are working on the firmware it would be nice for the Waveform to be adjusted so it goes from -10 to 110. I have never heard of a scope going from -40 to 120 for video. That extra room gets confusing sometimes and never gets used.

Also the ability to adjust the sensitivity would be awesome.

Question: Do you know why the Parade is clipping my blue channel at 100%? The red and green channels go above 100%. And the blue channel on the Flanders goes above 100%. Both monitors were getting the same feed.



Mahalo,
Dusty

 

[hoylecd]

ikan tweets

ikan tweets

Great news, I was able to contact ikan through twitter and just received these responses.

I had asked whether ikan was working on a firmware update to the D5W / D7W and if it would include intensity control and -10 to 110 IRE for the waveform. I also included a link to this forum discussion.

 

[Brian Pascale]

I pick up the D7w and am happy with it. I choose if over the small HD 7" because they were back ordered.