If you ever wanted a larger LCD on your DSLR or camcorder, your wish is about to come true.

Sony recently announced the CLM-V55 External LCD Monitor that should work with any DSLR or camcorder that has HDMI output.

It’s a 5-inch field monitor with 800x480 resolution and it plugs into your camera via the supplied HDMI cable (there are two words we rarely find together: “supplied” and “HDMI”).

It’s powered by AC or an optional battery pack, and comes with a removable hood to facilitate viewing in bright sunlight. As you can see from the image above, it attaches to your camera’s hot shoe and can be swiveled into a comfortable viewing position.

I haven’t had one in my hands yet, but it sounds great. Quoting here from Sony’s press release, this feature alone will make it worthwhile to me:

“Pixel magnification mode assists with accurate focus confirmation, giving an enlarged pixel-perfect view of a selected portion of the Full HD image. It’s complemented by a color peaking function that highlights the edges of accurately-focused areas of the video image.”

This means my tired old eyes will have a larger image to work with, even when I’m in the field.

The CLM-V55 will be available in February and will cost around $400.

—Jon Sienkiewicz