Hi, all,

I am considering moving from Nauticam viewfinders (180 and 45) to an external monitor. Size is a major consideration so I’m focused on a 5”. Cost is also a consideration. Ideally I am looking in the $2Kish range. $5K is out of the budget.

I’ve looked at the Kraken 5” v2 due to both cost and compact size. Cable failures seem to be an expectation of any monitor, although I am told the new v2 is noticeably better than the original Kraken cable design. I am, however, hearing issues of button failures, which is concerning. This may be from users not cleaning their gear as well as I do, but it is concerning.

One proposed solution is picking up a pre-owned SmallHD 502 Bright monitor (1000 nit) and Nauticam NA-502B housing. Both seem quite solid with pre-owned prices to be around $2500 total. The cables are stronger and the Nauticam buttons are solid. The package size is about that of the Kraken 5”. Battery life with 2 Canon batteries is about 3 hrs. The downside is it is no longer being supported by firmware updates, but probably not an issue as it works well as-is.

The SmallHD 503 Bright is still supported with firmware upgrades, but is substantially thicker and heavier than I prefer.

For those with solid monitor experience, what say you???

Thoughts, comments, recommendations?

I am using with a Nauticam Sony a1 rig. I’d appreciate whatever you can share.

Thanks!

Chip

Edited October 19, 2025Oct 19 by ChipBPhoto

All I have ever used is the Small HD 502 so I can't compare it to anything else, but I have been very happy with mine.

Somebody tried to make a recent underwater monitor market comparision table, but I do seem to find it anymore in the forums? 🤔

38 minutes ago, Adventurer said:

Somebody tried to make a recent underwater monitor market comparision table, but I do seem to find it anymore in the forums? 🤔

Found it 🤦‍♂️
https://waterpixels.net/forums/topic/2417-list-of-underwater-monitors/?&do=getNewComment