Making an external display for my Sony A7 II
This is another project that kind of ended in disappointment ha (too dim)))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))) <- that’s my Durgod Hades 68 keyboard flipping out, had it for like 2 years though.
I have had this project in mind for more than 8 months. Finally got around to doing it. Told myself I could not go outside to do photography until I did this. Going outside is therapeutic in a way, it feels great seeing the sunny sky and green trees/grass.
Background
I chipped the display on the A7 II’s display one day, I think an unsecured lens hit it in my backpack. So I decided to completely disassemble the body to replace the LCD which it turns out you didn’t have to. The ribbon cable snakes through a few boards so it is hard to mess around with. Anyway every time I would take it apart/readjust it I was tempting a burn out and it finally happened. I damaged something on the camera board itself since any other display I would attach was dim/no backlight. So I decided to make this project.
You can see on the right that you can get external displays too that mount on the attachment points. It’s just too big for me. I probably should have sourced a better small HDMI display. This one was cheap/plug-n-play. That’s a thing I’m learning to avoid, cheap.
So I design the body and size everything up, get it printed, takes over 7 hours to print.
That’s how it’s setup, it’s pretty straight forward of a build.
How does it perform?
Bad… I mean it works but you can barely see the display unfortunately. Meanwhile I can look at my phone and it’s “clear as day”.
I really like the black/white contrast though. It looks cool although I wish it worked better. It uses a suction cup to attach to the body lol.
Anyway I look forward to summer, this is one of the projects I had to get out of the way before I could take breaks/go outside.
The other one is to design a stand for my DLG that makes it easier to carry it. I recently fixed it after I snapped it in half when flying in January. Also looking forward to flying high again (Ozzy).
It’s funny I have like 5 drafts of this story, finally it’s done.
Video of it in action
