For this years Glastonbury festival I chose to use a combination of a Sony A1, FX3 and FX30 (we also used a DJI Pocket 3 and a Wirral wire cam). These are all small cameras and the screens on the back of them really rather small. So, I wanted to use an external monitor to make it easier to be sure I was in focus.

I have been aware of the Portkeys monitors for some time, and in particular their ability to remotely control the Sony cameras via WiFi. So this seemed like the perfect opportunity to try out the LH7P as it would give me the ability to control the cameras touch tracking autofocus using the monitors touch screen. So, I obtained a demo unit form Portkeys to try. Click here for the Portkeys LH7P specs.

I have to say that I am pretty impressed by how well this relatively cheap monitor performs. It has a 1000 Nit screen so it’s pretty bright and overall the colour and contrast accuracy is pretty good. It won’t win any awards for having the very best image, but it is pretty decent and certainly good enough for most on camera applications. 

The LH7P is HDMI only, but this helps keep the weight and power consumption down. While mostly made of plastic it does feel robust enough for professional use. But I wouldn’t be rough with it.

The monitor is very thin and very light. It runs off the very common Sony NP-F style batteries or via a DC in socket that accepts 7 to 24 volts, a surprisingly large range that allows you to use it with almost any battery found in the world of film and TV. It uses very little power at around 9 watts, so the larger NP-F type batteries will run it for at least 3 or 4 hours. 

It’s a touch screen monitor and the touch operated menu system is quite straightforward. One small issue is that if you are using the monitors touchscreen to control the cameras touch autofocus you can’t also use the touchscreen to access the menu system or change the cameras other settings, it’s one or the other. When connected to a camera, to use the monitors menus or access the camera settings you must have the touch tracking focus control turned off. If you are using the touch tracking controls there are 4 assignable buttons on the top of the monitor and you can assign things like peaking, zebras, false colour etc to these, so most of the time having to choose between touch focus or touch menus isn’t a big drama as these switches can be used to turn on and off your most commonly used exposure and focus tools. But you do have to remember to turn off the touch tracking if you want to change another setting from the monitor.

When you are using the monitor to control the touch tracking it is very responsive and because there is very minimal latency due to the direct HDMI connection to the camera it works well, just touch where you want the camera to focus. The only downside is that you don’t get a tracking box on the monitors screen. This is because Sony don’t output the tracking box overlay over the HDMI.

As a result there may be times where you do need to look at the LCD on the back of the camera to see what the camera is tracking. When I used it a Glastonbury I didn’t really find this to be too much of a problem, f I was unsure of what the camera was focussing on, I simply touched the LH7P’s screen where I wanted to focus. 

Pairing the monitor with the camera is simple, but you do need to make sure the cameras wifi is set to 2.4Ghz as this is the only band the monitor supports. To see how to pair it with an FX3 please watch the video linked above. Once connected I found the connection to be very stable and I didn’t experience any unexpected disconnects, even when the venue at Glastonbury was completely full.

I have to say that this low cost monitor has really surprised me. The image quality is more than acceptable for a 7″ monitor and controlling the  camera via the monitors touch screen is a very nice way to work, especially given the small size of the LCD screen on a camera like the FX3 or A1. I haven’t had it all that long, so I don’t know what the long term reliability is like, but for what it costs it represents excellent value.