- Today, we're talking
about wireless transmitters for video cameras.
Talking about the Hollyland Mars 300,
and the Accsoon CineEye, and we're gonna see
which one is better, and which one
that you should get to be able
to monitor your video signal wirelessly.
(intense electronic music)
So for me, wireless video is something
that I need on my bigger shoots,
so I typically will have client monitors
somewhere else in the room and another room
so that the director, the producer,
or the clients can all see what it is that I'm shooting,
and they don't have to be over my shoulder,
and also, just for playback,
I can have bigger monitors rather than having
just my camera and my little monitor,
or my Ninja V that I use to monitor
off of the GH5S.
Guys, if you're new here, my name is Jeven Dovey.
I do a lot of filmmaking tutorials,
product reviews, and also, I like to do YouTube training,
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So typically, when I am sending my video signal
from my camera to the client,
what I'm doing is, I put a big HDMI cable between,
usually 50-foot HDMI cable,
and I have it coming from every camera.
I typically shoot with two to three cameras
on my bigger shoots.
So if you're doing, like, an interview,
you might have two cameras.
If you're doing something bigger,
you might have three cameras,
but when you start introducing all these cables
into your workflow on set,
it starts getting really messy really fast.
So you could have your power cable,
your HDMI, your audio, all of it could be running
to your camera, and it just causes issues
when you need to move cameras around,
and you need to be a little bit more free,
so that's where wireless video transmission comes in.
So basically, this is my setup.
I use a GH5S with a Ninja V that I stick on here,
and then I have a whole rail system
that allows me to build it out,
and I can put a wireless video transmission system
on this whole setup.
So I use small rig gear to basically mount up
my entire camera, but the less that I can have
coming off of this, the more that it makes it free
for me to use this in different ways.
And so, for me, on set,
the reason that I need things free is when I need
to go handheld, so I can pull this off,
and just run around with this handheld,
or if I need to put my camera on a gimbal,
or if I'm using something like a motorized slider,
then having less cables means
you just have to worry more about battery life than cables,
so it is a trade off to some degree.
Now, we're talking about the Hollyland Mars 300,
and this is a very simple wireless transmitter and receiver.
So you have two boxes.
One is a transmitter, and one is a receiver,
and basically, each of these have HDMI,
and you can put Sony batteries on the backs of these,
and you turn it on, and it sends a wireless signal.
It's actually a very simple system to use.
Now, the other wireless transmitter
that I've been working with is the Accsoon CineEye.
Now, these are very different.
Even though they're, like, the exact same size,
they work very differently,
and I'm gonna kind of explain
why I would choose, say, the Hollyland
over the CineEye or vice versa.
Now, when it comes to this Hollyland Mars 300,
this is a $500 system, and what you get
with the Hollyland is one transmitter, one receiver.
It transmits a signal from 1080p
up to 60 frames a second.
On your transmitter, you have an HDMI input,
and you have an HDMI loop out,
which is important for anyone
that needs a loop out in their system.
On the receiver, you have two HDMI outputs,
so this is good if you need
to send it to multiple monitors.
So there's times where I'll send it
to my audio department as well as sending a signal
to the client monitor, so there are times
where you might need two outputs for one transmitter.
Now, with this, it uses Sony L-Series batteries,
or you can do just a house power,
and one of the big selling points is that it's zero latency,
so yes, there is gonna be some latency,
but it's so minimal that you barely even see it at all.
So with the Hollyland, it actually works very well,
and I've been using it nonstop
on all my shoots recently, and I really think
that you need to test a product
and use it in real world settings
to really get a feeling for how a product works.
So I've been using this on all of my productions recently.
I've been putting it on one of my cameras,
and I've been testing it as, like, an AB test
with just an HDMI plugged in, racing across the room.
Now, in terms of setup, it's super simple.
You just have to make sure
that you have batteries charged.
I've used a range of batteries, small and large,
and typically, these don't really draw that much power,
so I only have to switch the batteries out once in a while.
Now, on a full day of shooting,
I would say, the majority of the day, these stay connected.
There's definitely times where it's not perfect,
so, as you can see, it would get out of sync,
or it will start causing a delay,
and then what you'll need to do
is just switch channels,
or you'll need to turn off, turn it back on,
and kinda just fidget with it a little bit.
So that's one of the downsides
when it comes to just wireless transmitters in general.
When you're working with them,
they're not always perfect,
and these have been pretty strong across the board.
They're not perfect always,
and I don't think there's any system
that's ever gonna be perfect all the time,
but the majority of the time, these stay connected,
and you have a clean signal that,
when you put it next to your other monitors
that just has an HDMI plugged in directly,
you can watch them side by side,
and there's not really a difference
between each monitor, so they are synced up,
there's zero latency.
I would say, yes, this is a solid product,
and I actually will continue
to use this on shoots moving forward.
Now, a lot of people are interested in the CineEye.
So, the CineEye's interesting,
and I did a whole review on this product individually
when it first came out, and this is cool
because the CineEye is like an all in one.
It's a transmitter, but what's cool is,
this sends a signal to your smartphone,
so you actually don't need a receiver.
Now, this is good and bad depending
on what type of shooter you are.
If you're just running on, like, a gimbal,
and you need something quick and easy,
and you just want to send the signal really quick,
then this would be the one to go for.
Because this does work, you could hook
up to four different devices to this,
so you could have, like, two tablets and two smartphones,
and you get a pretty decent signal out of it,
and it has an internal battery of four hours.
So this is just a USB-C on the side.
Plug it in, charge it up, and you're ready to go.
Now, when it comes to bigger shoots, longer days,
I usually run, like, a 10-hour shoot day,
this is not gonna stay charged the entire time.
Now, one thing that does work with it,
that you can plug in and keep it powered.
However, now that kinda defeats the purpose
of having this wireless transmitter,
'cause you're gonna have it plugged in.
Even if you're using a battery pack,
you have something else hanging on your camera,
so really, this is more useful for, like, short term things,
when you need it mounted on something
and be able to see the shot from a distance,
but it's not like you're using it
entirely throughout the day, and I'd say
that's, like, a major difference between the two.
The Accsoon works great.
However, I did take it on a few
of my bigger shoots.
I took it to New York with me
because it was so small, and when I was in New York,
I had a chance to test it over seven days of shooting,
and I had this plugged in.
It doesn't have a loop through.
So there are times, especially when you're using gear
like the Shinobi, which is a small monitor,
perfect for gimbals, but then,
if you're trying to add a wireless to that system
and have someone else monitor,
then you're gonna need a loop through
somewhere in the system.
Like I said, I used it over the course
of seven days, and after day two,
I ended up not using it anymore,
and the reason was, it's not a stable connection.
So, with the CineEye, I have to keep trying
to reconnect to the system.
Like, it'll work for a period of time,
and then it might just drop out,
and so you have to restart the device,
or restart the phones, restart the app.
There's more things involved that could go wrong,
and the app could just freeze up,
or the signal's not sending correctly,
and what I found is that we ended up just ditching it.
So I was using two to three monitors on set.
The client had one, Rachel had one,
and then I had one that I was monitoring one
of the cameras from, and the signal would work
for, like, 20, 30 minutes,
and then I'd have to kind of play with it.
The issue is, when you're on set,
when you're working with clients,
you don't have time to always fidget with gear all the time.
Now, when it comes to the Hollyland,
I never really have to do that when I'm on set,
so working with this over the last couple weeks,
I've noticed that the signal is pretty stable
throughout the entire day.
Now, once in a while, I'll have to fidget with it.
Like, maybe once a day, the signal might start skipping,
or it might start dropping out
like I was showing you.
However, overall, the signal's pretty clear,
especially if you have a clear line of sight.
This is up to, like, 300 feet, clear line of sight,
you get a crystal clear picture.
It works great to just be able
to see the footage that you're shooting.
One other huge difference is
that the CineEye is around $200,
so you're talking a $500 system
versus a $200 system.
I think, what it comes down to, if you're looking
to get a wireless video setup, you have to think
about, how much time do you want to spend
fidgeting with your gear?
If you're doing quick shots, and you just need
to set up and go, then the CineEye works great,
but if you're using it over long periods of time
throughout the entire day,
and you're gonna have it on throughout most of that day,
then you're gonna want to go for the Hollyland
because you can swap out batteries,
and also, the signal is much more stable,
and overall, the picture is much clearer on the Hollyland.
I had a lot more issues working
with the CineEye in general,
but, if you're on, like, a gimbal,
if you're, like, quick, go, and you just need
to mount this on the top of your camera real quick,
well, it's pretty light, so you could just kinda rest it
right on your camera.
You're not adding a ton of weight to your setup.
Obviously, if price is a huge factor,
you're gonna want to go for the CineEye
'cause it's about $300 cheaper.
However, in general, I need gear to work,
so I'm gonna go for the Hollyland Mars 300,
and that's gonna be the wireless system
that I'm gonna use on my shoots moving forward.
All right, guys, I'd love to hear your thoughts
about these two wireless systems down in the comments.
Do you have one of these?
What has your experience been working with this?
I'd love to hear from you
if you've had a better experience working
with the CineEye, or if you've had
a not so good experience working with the Hollyland.
Let me know down in the comments.
All right, guys, that's it.
I'll see you on the next one.