Dimensions, Mounting Options and Power. Sony a7 II Camera with 28-70mm Lens and Accessories Kit – $600 Discount.
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!. Buy link: Sony FX9 Bundle Was: €12.725,64 Now: €12.401,64 (Savings: €324).
For a while now I have been following the development of micro four thirds cameras. To be specific, I bought my first one exactly 10 years ago, the Panasonic LUMIX GH1. In October 2021, Manfrotto introduced a new PRO Light camera bags lineup for photographers and filmmakers. So I was very eager to try the Manfrotto PRO Flexloader L backpack for various reasons. First, it is one of the biggest carry-on camera-specific luggage on the market. Also, it’s Manfrotto’s second generation of PRO Light backpacks. So did the company improve what was already an excellent lineup of products? Let’s find out!.
According to the company, they had to use “an off the shelf 0.8A x1 or 0.6A x 2 PCB for the charger to sit within the Micro USB specification (2.1A x 5V = ~10W total, minus the loss in efficiency).” This results in long charging times. To fully charge two batteries, it took me close to eight hours. The PortKeys LEYE is not the company’s first try at making an EVF. Indeed, last year, they released the OEYE-3G EVF with SDI/HDMI input ports and a very high 1080P resolution.
From what I saw, it looks like the system is very responsive and not laggy at all. This is good news for all RED Komodo users, who now have another affordable option for wireless camera control via an onboard camera monitor. This monitor has its limits for sure, but it is an excellent monitor if you want to step up your game and start working with a product that offers professional monitoring tools.
The two included straps are made from nylon and metal and are high-quality; you can easily trust them to hold a bit of weight. The PortKeys HS7T has both HDMI and SDI inputs and outputs. Source: PortKeys.
RED Komodo Update – First Cameras Shipped, Footage Samples, Accessories. But, you’ll have to handle all that extra tripod weight on your back, the unbalance, and the Flexloader L will flip over when you put it on the ground. Also, it’s not very practical to access the bag’s camera compartment.
The Z CAM E2 M4 is a new addition to the Z CAM line. It is basically the original Z CAM E2 without some functions in a new body and with a lower price tag. For more information about this interesting modular Micro Four Thirds camera, make sure to check my article from its launch. Besides the camera body, this bundle further includes the PortKeys BM5 MKII Monitor (which can control the camera) and Hawk-Woods DV-F990 Battery. Also, the (now discontinued) Manfrotto PRO Light 3N1-36 PL has been part of my kit for some years now. It’s been a joy to travel with, but I now retired it as my “wireless video system bag,” which is a bit overkill, as this backpack can carry a ton of equipment.
Edit: Phil Holland was kind enough to share with us a download link for footage taken with his new camera. You can obtain it by clicking here. If you remove the pouch that comes with the bag, you can put a monitor – in this picture, the PortKeys PT5 that I reviewed here – and some SSD hard drives.
The Volta Cinema Top Handle is the company’s first product, designed with a simple goal in mind: create a top handle that can power camera accessories or even your camera via a D-Tap port. I had the chance to play with it for one month, and here are my findings. In terms of battery life, I’d say it’s a massive improvement over a Sony NP-F 970 battery on the back of an on-camera monitor. On the SWIT CM-S75F, one Volta36 battery gave me close to four/five hours of continuous runtime. On the PortKeys BM5, my four hours shoot was over, and the top handle’s battery wasn’t dead.
CVP Buy link: Panasonic LUMIX G9 Camera Body Was: €1,100.86 Now: €941.78 (Savings: €159.09, Free accessories, Free 25mm f/1.7 lens, and Free 3-year warranty). B&H Buy link: Canon EOS 6D Mark II Camera Body with Accessories Kit Was: $1,599.00 Now: $1,199.00 (Savings: $400.00).
Brightness, contrast, saturation, tint, sharpness, color temperature. you know our site and our competitors and follow them regularly.
By shopping at our partner’s store, you are supporting CineD through our buy links, as we get a small affiliate commission (at no extra cost for you) when a purchase is completed. Let’s take a look at the deals!. The great thing about the BM5 and HS7T is that they are equipped with both HDMI and SDI inputs and outputs. 4K video signals up to 30fps and FullHD up to 60fps are supported over the HDMI, while the SDI connections only support 1080p signals up to 60fps.
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. Two little pins inside the handle make the connection between the battery and the D-Tap port. These pins slide back and forth inside the groove when you adjust the handle back and forth.
PortKeys has just announced the launch of a new 5.5″ on-camera monitor: the PortKeys LH5P. This HDMI-only (in/out)monitor is made out of aluminum, it is daylight-viewable with a maximum brightness of 1700 nits, and it can control your Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4K/6K wirelessly. Let’s take a closer look at it!. The idea behind the Volta Cinema Top Handle was born out of frustration. As Tudor told us.
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The list of built-in monitoring tools is quite impressive and includes 3D LUT monitoring, waveform/false color/zebra, peaking and zooming, HDR support, and framing guides/grids/aspects. I think soon we will start seeing third party accessories for Komodo from other manufacturers as well.
PortKeys is also teasing a new version of the LEYE with SDI and HDMI input ports: the LEYE SDI. This version should also have a built-in Canon LP-E6 battery plate. The F7 PRO is an HDMI-only monitor. The HDMI input and output support 4K signals up to 60fps.
To know more, you can check some of our previous articles – news post with specs, Johnnie’s review, or Philip’s 75-minute review. In this bundle, you will get the camera body, Atomos Ninja V (which can record 12-bit ProRes RAW with this camera), and SmallRig 3007 Cage. Unfortunately, after the rolling shutter, the next disappointing fact was revealed: by the way how the stops are distributed in the Z-Log2 profile (which is the obvious choice for highest dynamic range readings), the noise floor is completely cut off.
CVP Buy link: FUJIFILM X-T30 Camera Body Was: €827.09 Now: €680.96 (Savings: €146.13 including Cashback). Batteries, memory cards, and a ballhead.
The PortKeys P6 is a lightweight – 0.28lbs/130grams – entry-level monitor for filmmakers looking for a compact on-camera display. The P6 features an 8bit 5.5″ 1080P display with a 500nit brightness and 1000:1 contrast ratio. This monitor is much more affordable than their PortKeys BM5 that is a workhorse entirely made of aluminum – the P6 is made out of ABS plastic. I guess that most filmmakers will be covered. It is also possible to connect the LH5P to a Tilta Nucleus N/M wireless follow focus to pull focus via the monitor.
Enabling WIFI on the Z Cam E2C allows a full-screen image preview on your smartphone using the Z CAM app. A quick word about the dummy battery that came with the top handle. There’s nothing revolutionary here, it’s a classic D-Tap to Canon LP-E6 dummy battery, but the cable has the perfect length to power a monitor attached to the monitor mount.
The LH5P is powered via a Sony NP-F battery, but you can use the USB port to feed the monitor from a V-Mount/AB external battery as well as a battery bank. Right side: an 8V power output port with a barrel connector and a 1/4-20″ mounting point.
payment is based on the amount of articles written and on success and reach (not a full time employment, it’s supplemental income but has the potential to become a considerable sum that you can profit from long-term). I loved how lightweight the PT5 is; it weighs nothing with a Canon LP-E6 at the back, so your camera rig stays easy to operate handheld.
Judging the brightness, color accuracy, or Delta E of the Portkeys LH5P with a spectrophotometer did not make a lot of sense. Indeed, numbers are just what they are: numbers. I prefer to judge a product by its feeling and the overall perception of an image. Volta Cinema Top Handle Review – Elegant Way to Power Accessories.
Once you short press the power button, the monitor takes around five seconds to boot up until it is operational, which is pleasant. However, and this is something to keep in mind while you’re reading this entire review, the is only $89, and it’s an entry-level on-camera monitor. At this price point in the filmmaking world, you usually can’t buy many products, especially monitors or products with any electronics inside.
Also, don’t forget that you can put a light stand, a camera tripod, and two small LED tubes on the sides/front of the bag, as well as your gimbal and laptop at the back. It means that an entire shooting kit can fit inside/outside the Flexloader L. proficiency in filmmaking – you know your stuff in one or more areas of filmmaking (producing, editing, directing, cinematography, post-production …).
This interesting bundle includes the newest APS-C mirrorless camera FUJIFILM X-T4 (our review). With its 26.1MP sensor, the camera can record up to 4K 60P uncropped video in 10-bit in F-Log. It offers nice ergonomics, good IBIS, and flip-out screen. The bundle further includes the 5″ 1000nit monitor/recorder Atomos Ninja V and SanDisk 128GB 300MB/s SDXC memory card. Backlight settings from 0 to 100.
Canon EOS R6 Bundle – €144,82 Savings. In 4k DCI mode (4096 x 2160) the crop factor of the Z CAM is about 1.9, using the speed booster gives a crop of 1.35 approximately.
Now, this was a major deciding factor for me to take the Z CAM E2 cinema camera on my trip – 4k DCI ProRes HQ in a small but durable package – despite the risk of taking a new, unknown camera with me I just couldn’t say no. 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 so you can make creative decisions and adjust your camera settings. On the PortKeys LH5P, here are the built-in tools.
Rolling Shutter of the Z Cam E2C Cinema Camera. However, for the past four years, I finally found some solutions that work for me. I purchased and used Manfrotto rolling bags – including the Pro Roller Bag 70 and Reloader Air-55 Pro – and they’ve been real workhorses. They’ve been a joy to use and what carries all my camera equipment 99% of the time. The Windows vs. macOS debate is as big as the backpack vs. rolling case one, but both solutions have pros and cons.
The PortKeys LEYE electronic viewfinder was first announced back in November 2020. This 4K HDMI-only EVF had a nice and compact form factor (106 x 70 x 78 mm) for a weight of 300g. In addition, the LEYE features a 2.4-inch display with a resolution of 1440 x 900, and can take signals up to 4K at 30 frames per second. Once you switch the power button on, the monitor takes around five seconds to boot up until it is operational.
On the left side, you’ll notice the USB input/output port. You can use this port to load your own LUTs to the monitor’s memory. Also, this USB port doubles as a “streaming out,” which means you can connect the monitor to your computer that will recognize it as a webcam. You can navigate inside the menu via the touchscreen or the buttons at the top of the Black Mini. At first glance, the user interface looks a bit outdated, but in the end, it is straightforward to navigate inside and find what you’re looking for.
The PortKeys LH5P is a 5.5″ monitor that came out in January 2021. This 1700nit monitor features an HDMI input and an HDMI output port, and it supports resolutions up to 4K DCI. With a very aggressive price tag under $400, this small on-camera display can even control your camera wired or wirelessly. Let’s take a closer look at it!. In addition, the Z CAM app essentially gives you full control over all the camera settings – very nice!.
The Manfrotto PRO Light Flexloader L’s design is sober; it’s light black with a couple of “Manfrotto signature red” touches here and there. DJI Osmo Action is still a relatively new product and it is the most serious contender to the GoPro. It is a very capable action camera with 4K 60fps video recording and brilliant stabilization. Even better then Hero7 Black’s HyperSmooth – here is our comparison of these two cameras. Make sure to also watch our Osmo Action review.
The PortKeys P6 will start shipping at the end of December, and it retails for $169.00. You can pre-order it on PortKeys’ website, we will update this article with links to B&H and CVP as soon as it becomes available. If you want to use this camera for live streaming, in a locked-down scenario which is not demanding in terms of dynamic range, it will work very well.
Edit: just after completing this review, Z CAM introduced a new firmware update (V 0.88) featuring ZRAW (internal RAW capture, partial debayer, supports up to 4096×2160@30fps initially). We might take a closer look at this ZRAW firmware in the near future. The new Z CAM E2’s will be available in October 2019. To me, pricing is impressive, for cameras with that many features.
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%. For the camera part, all the exposure tools (zebra, false color), as well as focus peaking, work very well, although the focus peaking is very strong – I would prefer an option to adjust this in the menu (not available currently).
The HDMI ports are located on the left side of the monitor. There’s also a 3.5mm headphone jack in the middle of the ports. On top of the LH5H, you’ll find four customizable function keys, a power switch, and four buttons to access and navigate inside the menu. At the bottom of the monitor, there is one camera control mini-USB port (more on that later) and a 5-pin motor camera control port that doubles up as a DC 7-24V power output port.
However, comparing the E2 to other cinema cameras in this sensor class the competitor BMPCC4k cannot be neglected. The BMPCC4k is significantly less expensive, has a large build in screen (5”) and allows internal ProRes as well as 12bit RAW recording (Blackmagic raw). Also, Blackmagic managed to squeeze out 0.8 stops more dynamic range. The Z CAM E2 cinema camera is a great new addition to the line of micro four thirds cameras, and got so many things right in the first place – first and foremost the image (audio via the 3.5mm input leaves a lot to be desired though).
When it comes to storing, transporting, or flying with film equipment, I think the creative world is divided into two categories: those who don’t care and those who are obsessively looking for an even better solution. Needless to say, I fall in the second category. In terms of direct comparison, the Soonwell PH70 battery handle retails for $279.00; it has double the Volta Cinema Top Handle’s capacity, but you can’t change batteries, and it is a lot bigger. Plus the Soonwell handle we have at our CineD headquarters can’t be turned on or charged anymore after it wasn’t used for about three months. For the price, it’ll be hard to beat the Volta Cinema option.
In essence, you could use your smartphone instead of a monitor if you accept some lag between the recorded and image view. Indeed, the Volta36 batteries are 36Wh/5A batteries; that’s a lot of juice in such a small package. In the graph above, you can see the capacity to weight ratio compared to other battery solutions.
The menu itself is straightforward and well structured, also custom presents for the function buttons are available. However, some of the settings require deeper dives (changing the frame rate for example), hence doing that in the heat of the action does not work so well. The PortKeys BM5 camera remote functions are compatible with the Z Cam E2, Sony/Canon/Panasonic cameras. Full list below.
B&H Buy link: Sony a6000 Camera with two lenses and accessories Was: $998.00 Now: $598.00 (Savings: $400.00). It is entirely usable in bright daylight conditions, but the battery life will take a severe hit. You can see what you’re shooting, sunlight’s reflections are not bad, but I wouldn’t judge my exposure by just looking at the picture without any monitoring tools (and I guess you shouldn’t do that with any monitors anyway).
Out of the box, the colors and images coming out of the are totally off. So it’ll take you some time to get something I would call acceptable. Most on-camera monitors are set at 6500°K, but even with multiple tweaks, I had to put the Black Mini to 7500°K and make some brightness/tint adjustments by hand to get in a somewhat accurate ballpark. The PortKeys LEYE is available now for $399. It comes with a right-angle HDMI adapter, a sponge eye mask, a USB thumb drive with the user manual, and a D-Tap to barrel connector cable.
Full-frame 12MP sensor, UHD in up to 120P, Full HD in up to 240p, all modes available in 10-bit 4:2:2 internally, no overheating, (almost) no crop, flip-out screen, full-size HDMI… This camera seems to tick a lot of boxes. The PortKeys LH5H features a 5.2″ touch screen display with a maximum brightness of 1700nit. Usually, an on-camera monitor with more than 1500nit is daylight-viewable.
Future firmware updates should increase the handle’s capabilities. I like the versatility of such products. Finally, there’s a 7.4/24V power input/output port with a barrel connector that you can use to power the PT5. Unfortunately, a D-Tap or any other powering cable isn’t included in the kit, but you can easily find one at an affordable price. Last but not least, this port can feed a 7.4V camera accessory if you power the monitor with a Sony NP-F/Canon LP-E6 battery, but I did not try it.
But there’s even more for BMPCC 4K/6K users: The LH5P has a built-in Bluetooth module, which means you can connect your camera and monitor without the need for a cable. I loaned the monitor to a friend that has one, and it worked perfectly with his BMPCC 6K camera. We are using a new test method based on a high frequency, quartz & microcontroller based strobe light at 300Hz. As the sensor readout happens from the top to the bottom, we are getting a sequence of black and white bars from the strobe.
Disclaimer: As usual, let me first say that I am not a VideoGear Ambassador. Like every other article on CineD, VideoGear, or any other brand, did not pay us to write this article. However, the company approached and sent us the product to review for free. Top Black Friday Deals for Filmmakers – Part 1: Cameras, FilmConvert, MZed.
I used the LH5H for three months and a dozen shoots in various shooting conditions before writing this review. I can say that the image coming out of the LH5H and LH5P is excellent for the price, especially in an interior situation. The PortKeys LH5H is available now for $299.00. At this price-point, and with so many features, this is one of the most affordable daylight-viewable monitor that I can think of.
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