PLEASE DONT BUY THIS MONITOR! - Portkeys BM5IVWR Review

Thanks to portkeys for sending out this monitor for review.
if you want to buy it here is a link.
www.bhphotovid...
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All footage, images & Music were used for educational purposes only.
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Please. help us with captioning & translate this video!

[@staples7762]

The DCI thing was brutal 🙃

[@TheFilmGuyOfficial]

@@staples7762 we were shocked!

[@12yfilms]

Thank God! I was about to give up on YT over nonsensical reviews. Thank you for being real about a product that was sent out to you for review. Portkeys makes good stuff that people love. I know a few of their 7inch monitors are popular within the Komodo Facebook community. Maybe they just need to spend more time on the firmware on this particular model. I'm turning on notifications on your channel going forward. This was refreshing. Thank you again.

[@ShaneVanLitz]

Thanks!

[@TheFilmGuyOfficial]

@@12yfilms thanks for the comment, we can keep our fingers crossed but from the conversations we’ve had it doesn’t sound like they can make many more improvements with the image quality at least. I would say it’s unlikely will see improvement unless they change the panel .

[@letsmakepixels]

Thanks so much for this. Our monitor has been having the same issues but no one was mentioning it at all online. Returning it straight away

[@MassimilianoPrelli]

A workaround to get the correct aspect ratio on DCI would be to use the anamorphic mode. It should be something around 1.07x assuming 1.9(DCI)/1.78(Widescreen). Shouldn't come down to this, but at least it might be helpful to those who are stuck with the purchase.

[@TheFilmGuyOfficial]

low key genius!

[@YourStoryStudios]

I just picked up this monitor and have had very limited testing time with it so far. I've got a SmallHD 703 Ultra Bright for my A-cam (Sony FX6) and I've picked this monitor up as a "cheaper" monitor for my social media content creation rig, which is currently a Sony a7r5, but looking at swaping that out to a Sony a1ii. I mainly got this monitor for the touch auto focus feature and the 2000nits brightness. I've got another Portkeys monitor on my gimbal, and have been satisfied with the image quality. I purchased the Hollyland M1 monitor when it first came out and returned it because I wasn't satisfied with the image quality. It had noticable banding on walls, which when I compared it to my Atomos Shinobi, it was far worse. The distractingly bad image quality was enough for me to send it back and get a refund. However, I mainly purchased the Portkeys BM5IV for the touch auto-focus feature and high nit count, not necesarily for the best image quality. Hopefully I find the image quality not too distracting! Thanks for the heads up.

[@TheFilmGuyOfficial]

@@YourStoryStudios I would implore you to go to rental shop and try a decent small HD. You’ve only used Bad monitors. It’s hard to tell the difference but we got better image quality out of the $200 freeworld

[@YourStoryStudios]

@@TheFilmGuyOfficial I've got the SmallHD 703 Ultra Bright on my FX6. I'm doing some tests now with my a7RV and there are a few deal breakers I'm finding with the monitor. The Wifi connection keeps dropping out and when I want to reconnect for camera control it won't reconnect. I have to delete the device and then re-add it, only to drop out again. Plus when I flick from video to photo mode it breaks the wifi connection. Maybe it's user error and I'm doing it wrong. Kind of wishing I just saved and got a SmallHD Ultra 5 instead and forgot about the touch auto focus tracking.

[@lukasEgg]

We need more reviews like this. Where people talk about real negatives!

[@TheFilmGuyOfficial]

@@lukasEgg we will keep doing our best to be honest and precise with our reviews.

[@kerwinbrackbill]

I wonder this is an isolated issue to the new 5 inch? Because I own the bm5 iii wr and the new bm7 ii and don’t have this issue on either monitor 🤔

[@kerwinbrackbill]

I will say that one frustrating thing about the older version of the 5 inch is not being able to change the color gamut settings.

[@TDCIYB77]

Damn, CineD has a ultra long written Review but nothing about the problems you mentioned. Glad that i stopped waiting for this release and just got the BMD 12G HDR 5".

[@MrJayclas]

He’s pretty accurate with what he said. I see the same things on my LPH7, but I still like it. They do come is 16:9 format.

[@OrenArieli]

Good, solid, honest review...which is all too rare when a company sends a product out for (hopefully forgiving and somewhat hyperbolic) reviews.

[@TheFilmGuyOfficial]

Appreciate the comment. At the end of the day we try to keep whom a product is for in mind. And we can’t speak to anyone else. But we really just couldn’t get past the issues on this especially with the price increase, therefore it’s not for anyone.

[@harrylee8387]

Appreciate your honest take. If they used better displays they could be the go to budget monitors.

[@TheFilmGuyOfficial]

Hopefully, they’ll improve the screen for the next one!

[@JamesPero]

I have the BM5 III WR and was hoping this would have been a viable replacement, it sounds like it's not quite there yet. Thanks for the honest review!

[@evgeniy9582]

What camera are you using to record your videos talking? The image looks amazing

[@ShaneVanLitz]

Thanks! My Canon C400 😅

[@christo256]

I have the same issue with colour on the 7 inch version too

[@TheFilmGuyOfficial]

@@christo256 that’s very disappointing to hear!

[@EdProsser]

I have one of the older models the panel has always been a bit iffy in terms of image quality which is a shame it looks like the same story here - it’s fine as a basic monitor but not for higher end work… like you say would be great to see a bit more innovation at this end of the market

[@TheFilmGuyOfficial]

@@EdProsser for sure we have owned a couple of models, but for whatever reason this is the worst of all of the ones we’ve owned in terms of image quality.

[@ShaneVanLitz]

@@TheFilmGuyOfficial Possibly because it's doing more / offers more features and it's stressing the panel more.

[@scottievee330]

Canon C400!!! I’m a little bummed to hear this about the Portkeys. I am chewing at the bit for a larger monitor that has camera control for the C400. And usbc connection. Canon needs to get with Blackmagic and let their monitor work for canon. That’s a win win! Great content. Your C400 review was fair and accurate.

[@ShaneVanLitz]

Thanks! We would also love Canon to support the BM USB-C monitor but the data pinout isn’t standard hdmi/displayport on the canon so it’s highly unlikely 😢

[@Fredo.heavyy]

Own and regularly use Portkeys monitor (LH7P and the BM7 II DS) and they’re great monitors. Have to admit that I use them more for framing and composition than checking color accuracy. My biggest issue is that the BM7 II DS doesn’t have OSD flip feature of the cheaper unit and they need to add more compatibility for camera control (LUMIX S9)

[@TheFilmGuyOfficial]

@@Fredo.heavyy hey mate, welcome. I have to ask, have you used other monitors before?

[@Fredo.heavyy]

@@TheFilmGuyOfficial Professiaonly used Atomos, Freeworld, SmallHD and Andycine but again mostly for framing and composition never for color accuracy. and also just commercial work that ends up in social media (ads, reels, shorts, organic marketing type) Not anything like movies or Cinema.

[@TheFilmGuyOfficial]

@@Fredo.heavyy fair enougth man. each to their own!

[@redfoxcreatives]

Any monitor recommendations in place of this? It cost me like $550 to get this monitor, not sure if there’s anything better in the price. El zone, smallhd type os, ability to calibrate the monitor, all these were great, but I also noticed the banding. For now living with it, till it makes sense to get a cine5

[@tomkao4907]

Try Shimbol's monitor

[@ShaneVanLitz]

Yeah, my usual monitor is the Video Assist 12g 5”. Similar price, maybe not all the features but much better image.

[@TheFilmGuyOfficial]

Ask me in a week or so I just purchased a new one.

[@TheFilmGuyOfficial]

I can’t recommend Atomos products

[@redfoxcreatives]

@@tomkao4907 I have a shinobi, the portkeys is better imo.

[@deovid]

Interesting. Wonder why no one has talked about this before. I’ve had 3 Portkeys monitor, having been charmed by the features and the price but none of them offer great image quality with a consistent lack of contrast esp. in shadow areas. It’s really hard to judge exposure when using these monitors. Also, despite the firmware updates the software is still a bit laggy and convoluted. Shame because it seems they have real potential.

[@ShaneVanLitz]

Hopefully they can improve things with firmware!

[@michalsiegel6717]

Why it is surprising you ger color banding? It is not true monochrome sensor it is reproducing, just colors desaturated to 0. Those bands will still be there, I mean maybe I'm looking at it wrong but isn't it obvious? Looking forward for anyone to clarify.

[@ShaneVanLitz]

It’s an issue unique to these monitors as far as we have seen.

[@michalsiegel6717]

@ShaneVanLitz okay thank you for the feedback, appreciate it!

[@ononearts]

“What’s DCI?” is enough to turn me off of Portkeys. I will be looking to BM for my next monitors.

[@danbrockettDOP]

I'm not sure why anyone's buying any PortKeys monitors? I've owned two of them and they were awful. The competition is too good, my Osees, Atomos, even my cheap Viltrox are just better monitors for a fraction of the cost of the PortKeys. Their build quality is sketchy, their menus are arcane and they don't look that great.

[@TheFilmGuyOfficial]

@@danbrockettDOP I have had issues with my Osee 7 inch but have heard this small one is great. And although the atomos is definitely a better monitor, I don’t recommend them. I really just don’t like how inaccurate images are and how the UI looks

[@gezzabomb]

Atomos have way more variability and QC issues across their range of monitors. They were forgivable when external recording was required due to lack luster internal codecs... but these days when most cameras shoot 10b422, I can't really see the benefit of buying anything from atomos. I've got a BM7 II and I think it's a pretty good monitor. No issues with it at all so far. Made much better by the new firmware update. Good range of tools too.