The Portkeys BM5WR initial thoughts from experienced users, Perter Choi, who use Portkeys BM5WR to harness the power of RED Komodo. Camera Control for KOMODO will enable access to RED KOMODO’s menu settings and operations. Peter Choi is from Washington, DC, and now lives in Singapore after living in Tokyo for 8 years.
Let us look at his story with Portkeys BM5WR. As a travel photographer and editor, he said that what he values more is the monitor’s control function, brightness to beat daylight sun, and robust metal build. BM5WR is a professional camera control monitor with a brightness of 2200 nits, it has a resolution of 1920 x 1080 and a contrast ratio of 1000:1. It is a WLED display and the panel is 10-bit (8+2 FRC), and richer details. The most intuitive feeling is that the picture quality is really great. In addition, it can take video signals up to Full HD at 60 fps. One SDI output port can output an image with 3DLUT and a peaking.
The Portkeys BM5WR Initial Thoughts from Experienced User
The following content is transferred from Peter Choi’s in RED User Group.
- Very nice to have good image quality while still controlling via Wi-Fi. Feel like it mixed the best of both worlds w/ being able to use the phone app while keeping the image quality of a monitor.
- Not as much lag to control as I expected.
- 2200NIT high brightness is nice. I’ve long wanted a 5.5″ monitor that’s bright, light, and color-accurate, and I think this is as close I’ve seen to what I was hoping for.
- Love that I can keep the EXT port free for other accessories, or my primary run n gun (trigger side handle).
- UI has improved over the BM5 II which I returned after being disappointed. Happy with this monitor and will keep it. Still not as slick as Small HD’s UI, but very easy to use and straightforward. The iPhone app still is way ahead.
- Touch Sensitivity is very good, not like iPhone but much better than the BM5II screen.
- Color accuracy I still feel slightly lags behind my cine7, but then again, they are completely different prices. Just based on my quick observation of running both sides by side/back-to-back – not scientific. This is 500x better than my Feelworld Lut6s.
- Tap to focus AF works great on my RF lenses. I wish there was a bit more feedback though, like a box that indicates where I tapped on the monitor, though I do see it pop up on the Komodo screen.
- The physical improvement I’d like to see: the Wi-Fi antenna is very flimsy. It can easily come off and not sturdy when screwed in. They do provide two, but both the same…
- Software improvement I’d like to see- I really like the Small HD interface because when using sliders to adjust things you can see what setting you’re at along the way. (i.e., if I want to go from iso 400 -> 1600 via slider, I can see what iso settings I’m passing). On the Portkeys, its just blank and you have to release your finger to see where you are and then adjust again. This should be easily fixable.
- The thing I probably most cared about and find most irritating is when having to reconnect Wi-Fi devices with the hassle. I’m very happy that the BM5 WR connected to the Komodo very quickly the first time around, after that, it was very quick/easy to reconnect after turning both devices on/off. a breeze.
I’m very picky about monitors. After buying and selling multiple monitors the past 6 months I’m happy to settle with this as my 5-5.5″ monitor, to pair with my iPhone and Cine7. I do hope they can fix the control sliders to show a bit more info, and also add a box indicating where I tapped for touch-to-focus. — should be a very easy fix.
I chose the Portkeys BM5WR for the Komodo mainly because of its compatibility with the camera and for the display brightness. I power it via a multi-pin connector (not D-Tap) from a SWX Core “gold mount” battery adapter plate on the back of the camera. I have no complaints so far. It’s bright, sharp, dependable and contains more tools than I need. The magnify tool is what I use the most. I programmed that tool into one of the monitor top buttons. Very easy. Brightness is more than enough even outdoors in the day. I downloaded RED LUTs to the monitor and can quickly select them based on the project. This allows me to view what the final footage will look like while shooting in (flat) log. The product build is solid and professional. I had a couple questions for PortKeys and they responded promptly.
Thanks!
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