As you can see, the P6 is fully packed with all the essential tools. The only drawback of PortKeys’ monitors is the user interface, which is not the most intuitive near beautiful out there, but it gets the job done.
The Manfrotto PRO Light Flexloader L is one of the biggest carry-on camera backpacks available on the market. In this review, we’ll take a look at the bag’s build quality, features, and how much gear it can hold. If you’re looking for one of the best solutions money can buy, let’s take a closer look at the Flexloader L!.
Temperatures in the Indian jungle would be as high as 45°C, the climate is very dry hence exposing the gear to the bumpy, dusty roads in an open jeep got me a bit nervous. Would the cam and the monitor survive?.
Also, at the front, you’ll find the two zippers to fully open the main compartment.
In short, blacks are not black anymore, but more on the grey side, and the picture starts to be a little washed out. On the , even if it has a “low” maximum brightness of only 400nit, you can see that the image shifts quite a lot when the backlight is at 100%.
The sun hood consists of two parts: a plastic sun hood and a mounting bracket—the bracket clips onto the monitor, and the sun hood attached to it via some velcro.
Note that with the 4k DCI settings and 1.9 crop factor vignetting can occur at the widest setting of the Olympus lens.
I think the Black Mini has a tiny little fan on the inside that you can only hear if you put your ear at the back of the monitor. In short, you won’t hear it, and the monitor is 100% silent.
A good monitor is nothing without great monitoring tools. These tools allow you to judge your exposure, focus, white balance, and so on. This is useful to make creative decisions and adjust your camera settings.
Open the lock, put the main compartment’s zippers through it, lock it, and you can be sure that nobody will be able to open your backpack.
I got away with around 3 hours of battery life at the maximum backlight setting. To me, this is a decent battery life for an on-camera monitor powered by a small battery. However, if you do the maths, a big Sony NP-F970 battery could theoretically run the PT5 for more than 12 hours!.
The team at PortKeys is moving fast, and two weeks after the announcement of their latest P6 monitor, they just released a new product. However, this time they are not back with a display, but with a camera handle. This handle is a new kind of product for PortKeys, but it features the same leitmotiv as their monitors: affordable, innovative, and high-quality.
Apparently, this design is becoming quite popular. In fact, the new FEELWORLD F7 PRO has a very similar feature, which makes it a good director or 1st AC monitor on a budget. Let’s take a closer look.
This cover also features all the mounting points: a built-in NATO rail and three 1/4″-20 mounting points with ARRI locking pins.
B&H Buy link: DJI Osmo Action Was: $379.00 Now: $279.00 (Savings: $100.00).
If you already have a PortKeys monitor – including the BM5, BM5 II, HH7, HS7T, OEYE-3G – the company just released several firmware updates on its website. Here are the firmware update details:.
CVP Buy link: FUJIFILM X-T3 Camera Body Was: €1,314.19 Now: €1,041.41 (Savings: €272.78 including Cashback).
Then, you can clip the sun hood in the brackets, and you’re ready to go. The quality of this sun hood is okay, but I’m not sure it will last very long, and you’ll have to be careful with it.
I’ve used bags, cases, rolling bags, and fly cases from various types and many different brands. The quest to find the perfect storage/carrying solution that combines build quality, storage capacity, total package weight, and functionality is endless.
Atomos has just announced that the Atomos Ninja V 5″ HDR monitor-recorder will support ProRes RAW recording from the Z CAM E2. The Ninja V will be able to record 12-bit Apple ProRes RAW at up to 4K60p. We caught up with Dan Chung from Atomos to learn more about it.
As I mentioned previously, the PortKeys LH5P has one 1/4-20″ mounting point at the bottom. This is the monitor’s only mounting point, which is a bit of a letdown. I like to have multiple options for rigging a monitor to my camera, at least one on the left or right side and one at the bottom. There is nothing but an exhaust vent on the monitor’s right side, so I guess it would have been probably possible to put another mounting point here.
As I already mentioned, the screen is hard to see if you’re shooting outdoor. But, on a cloudy day, it can get the job done with the included sun hood.
However, I’ve been able to try the camera control features with my Panasonic GH5, and it worked flawlessly. I’m not a massive fan of big camera setups with tons of cables, so I tried it to see if it work, but I don’t see myself using it. It’s nice to have these camera control capabilities; it works perfectly fine, it’s great to have it, and I’m sure it’ll fit a lot of filmmakers’ shooting style.
Sharpness, chroma, brightness, backlight, tint, color temperature adjustments.
Portkeys also showcased camera control for the Canon EOS C70, but you’ll need a dedicated LANC cable.
One full-size HDMI input on the right side that can take signals up to 4K30p.
Not all monitors are created equally, and the quality of the display behind them may vary significantly. A great on-camera monitor must be as color accurate as possible and as close to “what you see is what you get” as possible.
The dividers feature Manfrotto’s M-GUARD technology to protect your equipment. M-GUARD dividers are made of high-density EVA foam and are “50% slimmer with 50% greater shock absorption” compared to previous Manfrotto dividers.
At the back of the monitor, there is a Sony NPF-style battery slot to power the monitor. As I mentioned, you can use the USB port to feed the monitor from a V-Mount/AB external battery as well as a battery bank.
This rolling shutter result of 36 ms is the highest I have ever measured in the lab. Compared to the very good 11.1 ms of the sister Z CAM E2 camera, it renders the E2C a very delicate candidate for handheld work.
In the photo above, you can see that the PT5’s case is bigger than the one included with the Portkeys BM5 III WR (pictured) or the LH5P. That was one of the main complaints I had with these previous small cases. Indeed, you could only store the monitor inside, which is a bummer, as you’ll always want to carry at least video cables or some accessories along with your monitor.
For sound, I took a Sennheiser MKE 440 with me, using the 3.5mm audio input on the Z CAM E2 – mounted to the side, which was not ideal. Also, the recorded sound quality via the 3.5mm input leaves a lot to be desired. I hope Z CAM can improve on the audio part in the future.
The PortKeys LH5P retails for $399.00/€449.00, and it is available now. Compared to other options in the market, I’ve been really impressed, and it’s a solid daylight-viewable on-camera monitors for under $400 if you don’t need SDI input/output ports.
Another feature is a gigabyte ethernet connection for control of the camera and live streaming. The WIFI (with the included antenna) of the cam allows the use of the Z CAM app that features a full-screen image view – essentially, if you accept some lag (see the video above) you can use your smartphone as a monitor.
The next bundle includes the newer flagship full-frame mirrorless camera from Panasonic – the LUMIX S1H (our Review, our Lab Test). The camera can record up to 6K 30P or a wide range of 4K modes. It offers nice ergonomics, good IBIS, and relatively clean images with high ISO.
To power the camera, you can use Sony NP-F batteries or use the DC 12V 5A LEMO power port. Finally, there is an ethernet port for control/setting/live streaming, a Wifi antenna port, a USB port, and an HDMI output. Also, you have full camera control (including monitoring) through a phone application.
The next thing I’m a bit skeptical about is that each time you exit the menu and re-open it, you’ll always come back to the first page/first tool. That’s frustrating and I would like for it to stay – or at least have the option – on the same page/tool I just tweaked.
At NAB 2018, we already had a chance to take a look at the original Z CAM E2. In case you are not familiar with this compact camera, it is built around a Micro Four Thirds mount and sensor with 10-bit color support, 13 stops of Dynamic Range (16 stops when set to WDR) and can shoot in 4K DCI at up to 120 frames per second.
You can power it via Sony NP-F style batteries, or the DC 12V 5A 4-pin LEMO connector.
The R6 is one of Canon’s two newly introduced mirrorless cameras. It is the lower-resolution more-affordable sibling to the Canon R5. It offers internal 4K60p video in 10-bit with no crop and with AF.
We use a strobe light at 300Hz to reveal pairs of black bars that occur due to the read out nature of CMOS sensors (the rolling shutter). Each pair represents 3.3 ms of rolling shutter.
As I mentioned previously, you can navigate inside the UI via the touchscreen or the physical buttons. But, you can also turn off the touchscreen by long-pressing the power button. It’s nice to have that option if you want to avoid fingerprints on your display!.
Various picture profiles available including Rec.709 / Z-Log2 / FLAT / HLG.
Last but not least, there is one user-assignable Function button to turn On/Off your favorite tool quickly; that’s great. But, to activate/deactivate all the other non-assigned built-in tools, you always have to go inside the menu, do your thing, let the menu disappear, and so on. It is a bit of a letdown if you’re often switching between different tools, which is a bit of a disappointment and can slow you down.
Is the Volta Cinema Top Handle perfect? Of course not, and like most products, it could be improved. But, I have mixed feelings about it. While the product feels incredible when you use it, many small details (the stickers, battery charger, monitor mount, etc..) make me a bit worried about its longevity.
Future firmware updates should increase the handle’s capabilities. I like the versatility of such products.
I am left a bit puzzled about possible use cases for this cam – by its very name it implies the use as a cinema camera which I definitely cannot recommend because of the mentioned extreme rolling shutter and the limited dynamic range.
Fast forward 10 years and I have the new cinema camera Z CAM E2 from the Chinese manufacturer Z CAM in my hands. A micro four thirds camera capable of shooting 4k DCI using a LOG profile (Z-LOG2) recording ProRes HQ 10bit 4:2:2 internally up to 60fps (4k H265 up to 120fps, 160fps in 1:2.4 mode). Wow!.
There are several ways to attach tripods or light stands to the Flexloader.
possibility of taking you to major trade shows like NAB in Las Vegas, IBC in Amsterdam, … if we are really happy with your work and if you work well under time pressure (we always take some selected team members to shows around the world).
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