I recently have looked into purchasing a Steadicam Jr. to add to my filmmaking arsenal and was wondering if the used one I found was a good deal. The person is selling it for $120 and say that the only thing that does not work is the monitor, but the Obie light appears to work so its just the monitor not the power source.

The question I have is that is it that vital to use the monitor that comes with it or could I use the viewfinder on the camera? Does this seem worth it to buy since a new one costs $800 and it might even cost less than that to fix the monitor?

Depending on what camera you are using, it could potentially be very awkward to manipulate the steadicam and look through the viewfinder at the same time.

I would most likely be using either a PDX-10 or a TRV-18 (which I would need to calibrate depending on which I used). Looking at the setup it doesn't feel like a huge problem unless I don't plan out my shots.