Portkeys LH5P is an on-camera monitor that has been on the market for a while, but the latest firmware update makes it more powerful. Sony A7 III is a very popular camera in wedding shootting, but it has a problem, whether it is connected to the stabilizer’s USB control, wired connection to other remote controls, as long as the HDMI output, it will cause problems, good news is that Portkeys uses wireless Wi-Fi connection to solve the parameters of the HDMI output and control the body at the same time!
This video below is to demonstrate and test the performance of this monitor.
We’re unboxing the new firmware for the PortKeys LH5P monitor, which I’m sure most of you know is not a new monitor. We’ll review the PortKeys LH5P to see if it’s convenient to control the Sony A7III’s screen wirelessly. This update he also added another way to control the Sony A7III wirelessly through WiFi control! This is undoubtedly a very good update for some professional filmmakers who use the Sony A7III to shoot.
How to connect and control Sony A7 III
First of all, we will go to the “MENU” tab, then go to the [Ctrl w/ Smartphone control]. Turn “Ctrl w/ Smartphone” On, then choose the connection. Press the (Delete）button, select “Connect via password” to connect to the LH5P monitor.
Secondly, we can scroll down the menu on the Portkeys monitor to get to our Wi-Fi settings screen, then select Wi-Fi settings > Add New Device. This is where we can find the Sony A7M3 and enter the password which just displayed on the camera screen.
Next, how do we verify that they are connected? After we click on the screen, we will see our Wi-Fi indicator turns yellow, which means we are successfully connected. If it is not connected, it will be a white screen.
Camera control access via wireless connection
You can set your shooting mode, aperture, shutter, ISO, white balance, exposure compensation, and shooting format.
How to connect and control the BMPCC 6K
We need to open menu first, go to the settings, find the Bluetooth interface, turn Bluetooth on.
Then, go to the LH5P monitor and scroll down to find the Wi-Fi menu, then select the BMPCC (BLE) option, tap on the Bluetooth icon on the right > Add a new device. Then you will see the corresponding name of your device. Then, after selecting it, the passcode will appear on the BMPCC. Then enter the passcode (the six-digit password provided by the camera after turning on Bluetooth). After the paired successful, the Bluetooth icon will be displayed in yellow.
Camera control access via Bluetooth connection
Adjust our aperture, shutter, ISO, frame rate, white balance, our red and green tones, shooting code and our format size
Actual Test Results
In actual test, we find the response is actually quite immediate, when you do some simple numerical adjustments in the screen, the speed is quite fast.
Next, since it is wireless control, you may want to know how far it can reach the longest distance under wireless control? After actual test, whether it is indoors or outdoors or even go to the road with building interference or in the opening park, the infinite distance is about 5-6 meters, if it exceeds this range will be directly disconnected, whether it is using WiFi connection A7III or Bluetooth control BMPCC. their connection distance is probably about the same.
Then, in terms of the distance of wireless control, the length of 6 meters is relatively awkward. If you want to achieve a more stable wireless control effect, we recommend connecting the monitor directly to the camera for use.
Comparison with the mobile app
First of all, Sony company has launched their own ImageEdge APP, which can be used to directly wireless control your camera parameters settings. You can also see the image of camera. But this App is actually often delayed. The problem is relatively inconvenient and will be greatly affected.
At this time, you can control Sony A7MIII wirelessly through LH5P monitor. You can do both wireless control of the value of the settings and real-time image transmission is relatively comfortable to use again is the part of the BMPCC, there are some other App can be controlled by wireless control method such as BlueConnect he is still in the speed of wireless control is smooth, but because he We can’t see the screen and we still have to go back to the machine to confirm the value after each setting, which is not as convenient as using lh5p directly.
Practical application
In general, when we use the stabilizer, if we want to set the parameters of our camera, we need to put the stabilizer to sleep or standby first. The second thing is that the LH5P screen itself has a high brightness of 1700 nits, so when we are shooting outdoors in the sun, I think we all have the experience that you can’t see clearly what is on your camera when the sun is beating down, and it is difficult to adjust the parameters.
But if we can use the LH5P external screen, we can actually see all the information on the screen clearly, and we can even adjust the parameters we want directly and easily, and if you want to shoot some low angle or more special angle today, you can also use the external screen to make it easier. This firmware is the only one on the market that can control our A7 III’s screen wirelessly, although it brings a lot of convenience.
Disadvantages
But there are still a few drawbacks, and we think that if we can update it in the future, we can have a better experience. First of all, the first drawback is that when we use the camera to connect to the screen, the screen does not have a clear display of the connection status, or even the progress bar of our connection. Sometimes we simply do not know whether we have successfully clicked on the button, and then in the case of repeatedly clicked. This may accidentally cause the screen to crash!
The second drawback is that the A7SIII and FX3 are still the most popular devices for commercial photography, and if future updates are available to support these devices, I believe our experience will be better.
I believe our experience will be better. In summary, the Portkeys LH5P is a new firmware that brings some convenience to our special shooting.
If future updates can solve the shortcomings we mentioned last time, I believe that the above should be more useful when shooting the LH5P is a simple review of this.
