Hollyland Mars M1 Review: 3-in-1 On Camera Monitor 

Ayy! Pumped to have you here Chad! Thanks for subscribing! I’ve got some new stuff including the C70 in the pipeline for next week👍

Good to know! I'll keep that in mind for future videos! Thanks for checking it out!

I can’t tell you how much I appreciate you saying that! Thanks Jelan! I’m having a blast over here making these vids!😁

Pumped to have you here! Thanks!

Great question! I don't think it has been asked here, but I have definitely asked it myself! (That would be an AWESOME feature) I haven't personally found a way to pull it off and I don't know that it is. Each M1 transmitter uses its own unique wifi signal, and you need to pair a phone to said wifi channel to monitor the signal in the app. Without a way to pair a phone/tablet etc with two seperate wifi signals I think we'll be out of luck on this one unfortunately. Thanks for the great question!

Thanks for the comment and the kind words! Yea that's a pretty cool cable (much thinner and flexible than most). I'll include a link below for the cable I'm using from NanoSecond: www.amazon.com/Nanosecond-Super-Extreme-Speed-Cable/dp/B00LEELPTG

@@TroyMairs Amazing, thanks for the reply! This seems to be a top choice for gimbal use.

I was really surprised to find this as well! Truthfully I didn’t know there was a delay until I did this freeze-frame test, so it hasn’t been detrimental to my work. Unfortunately I don’t have any new information about it! It’s not a deal-breaker for me given the benefits I get from it, but it is there!

@@rossfarr766 Hmh, great question! I believe you can only monitor one angle/video at a time

That’s my understanding! I unfortunately don’t have any other Hollyland transmitters here to verify, but I remember listening to an interview with Hollyland that they said it would work across other devices. So my inclination is yes, but I can’t confirm. Hope that helps a little bit😂 thanks for checking out the vid!

Oh interesting! Thanks for sharing that I had no idea👍 I suppose it stands to reason that maybe it’s an “ode” to the old days? I was actually just chatting with someone from Hollyland today, I’ll ask him and see if I can get us some insight! Thanks for joining the conversation!

Monitors can be a little bit deceiving when it comes to their bit-depth. Many "10-bit" monitors are really a 10 (8+2 FRC) Panel. Which takes an 8-bit panel and incorporates a bit of tech to approximate a 10 bit image. I'm not sure if the Shinobi is true 10-bit or a 10-bit FRC, but the Mars M1 is listed as an 8-bit monitor with 10-bit scopes. Purely from the perspective of monitoring your image, I think you'll get great results from both. It really comes down to the value of integrated wireless control. On my Canon C70, there is no way to use an app to view/control the camera, so having that wireless feed was really important to me and having it built in makes it even better! :)

@@TroyMairs Thanks, appreciate the quick response!

Sure thing! Thanks for joining the conversation!

I suppose it could by all technicality, but it might not be the best tool for the job. Hollyland (and a few other companies) make dedicated transmitters and receivers that might work better (like the Mars 4k perhaps). I do something very similar to what you’re looking for in my studio using a Roku 4k and I stream my laptop screen to my studio TV and can use it as an extended monitor👍 Hope one of these options help!

Thanks for the reply. Will look up your suggestion. Wish you Happy New Year!

Great question! Most of my personal Slow/Fast Recordings are at 60/90p, so with that experience I can say that yes it does play back on the monitor! (It does take a few seconds for the image to pop up but it will play back!) So I’d been inclined to say 120p should be just fine as well! I’ll test that when I get to the studio tomorrow and update you here if it doesn’t play back!

@@TroyMairs great, thank you!

It’s a great question really! I was as surprised as you were to find that out. Truthfully I’m not sure why that would be, I’ll run a few more tests and see if I can get to the bottom of it 👍

The camera do need some time to get the job done to send the picture via hdmi out... so that really debends on the camera you are using. Expensive cinema cameras (alexa) of course do have less latency than cheap ones (blackmagic)

Great question! Thanks for asking! The app on a phone or tablet is not going to be recording anything of significant quality. It seems to be closer to a screen-recording of the signal the app received. Unfortunately, I don't think there will be much use for these app-based recordings in post, I'd suggest using them more for playback/review purposes if you're not right next to your camera or it is out of reach. I hope this helped answer your question! Let me know if you have any other thoughts and thanks for joining in the conversation!

@@TroyMairs yeah I think this is a much smaller solution compared to other setups Like from Atomos I only Wish Hollyland would offer camera 2 Cloud in the future. With the coming Resolve App for iPad I Hope I can use the recordings from the Hollyland App to make a proxy cut and then continue on PC with that timeline File and swap it to the high quality files from the camera.

Ohh what a cool idea! I'm really looking forward to some of the cloud-based editing capabilities that Resolve has in the works! I was recently considering their Cloud-based external storage solution. But I love your idea for the proxy cut on a iPad, that would be SLICK!

Not just you! I made a mistake in my export, rendering out my 24p timeline at 30p and now we’ve got the glitch😂 my mistake! Sorry about that!

Hey Cam thanks for checking out the video! It’s comparable for sure! I really like that all of the tools you may need can be accessed without leaving the preview of the image. Some monitor operating systems have you swipe through pages or dive in to a menu and I was never a big fan of that. So I do like the interface in the monitor quite a bit! Thanks again! I appreciate you!

@@TroyMairs definitely. Did you get the chance to test the monitor outside in direct sunlight? Also you mentioned that the App was getting less latency then the M1. Would you say the M1 is good for Focus pulling? If so, maybe best to do it from app?

@@Cam_Nation Interesting idea! I wouldn’t have necessarily considered pulling focus off the app. Could it be done? I mean, yea probably! Having focus peaking available in the app probably makes that even more possible. Generally speaking, a WiFi signal sent to an app is usually not as reliable as one sent to a dedicated receiver but my unscientific test does show its atleast fast enough for it! I’d wager that having two M1 monitors would be IDEAL for focus pulling. One sending and the other receiving. That’ll be my move👍 As far as direct sunlight goes, it gets the job done. I could always ask for more brightness, but I have found it usable out in the sun👍 Great questions! Thanks for asking!

Oh interesting! Thank you so much for the insight!

I think you’re right on, it’s great for directors/clients and I’ll throw in solo creators trying to monitor a second camera! Crewed productions with a 1st AC such as yourself are the ones that will reach notice the latency and actually be able to benefit from a “Zero latency” of something like a teradek system! Thanks for joining in with your experience! Outside of the latency, what have you thought of the monitor?

@@TroyMairsactually writing my review of it rn so I have a lottt to say but here are some of my thoughts - Love the build quality, very solid, really appreciate that they included SDI and HDMI, screen quality looks decent and is fairly bright overall, wireless range is very good. As far as what I wish they had done/could improve for the next iteration wish the HDMI ports were on the back (seen so many side ports on monitors get damaged), wish there was an SDI pass through, would have loved to see 12G SDI but those are expensive so I get it, want 2 pin lemo to power, barrel connectors (especially non locking) pop out way too easily on camera builds so I’d be nervous with it - at least want locking barrel for power, found there’s a good amount of input lag even when monitor is hooked directly up to the camera (via either SDI or hdmi) a lot of lag over wireless as we already discussed. Interface is alright but I wish they had submenus on the icons instead of having to tap the icons repeatedly to get what you want, don’t know why the color temperature of the screen is on the “hotbar” on the bottom and not in display settings lol

Really great thoughts on the monitor! I agree with every one of those points, especially having the HDMI ports on the back! I have always hated having cables jutting out of the side of the monitor. Where can I read your full review of the monitor when you finish writing it??

@@TroyMairs Gonna be a video on my channel! Finishing up the script today and (hopefully) will be posted by next Monday! :)

Oh perfect! I love RU-vid lol😂 I just subscribed, looking forward to your vid!

Thanks for commenting! Scrub to 16:47 in the video and you’ll get to check out the latency between the phone app and the monitor in my test. It ended up being about a 2 frame delay is all👍

@@TroyMairs Thank you so much!!

@@TroyMairs But if I connect more then one app device, it would be more delay?

Happy to help! I haven't run a specific comparison in that regard, but I would expect similar results. The M1 can transmit up to 4 different mobile devices (phone/tablet/etc) running their app. So you should see pretty good results within those confines!

I must have missed that process! My mistake!

It’s been great! My past experience has been with Atomos, Portkeys, and SmallHD (the lower tier Action 5). None of which had better color reproduction, atleast to my eye. Hollyland says it comes out of the box Calman Color Calibrated for what it’s worth👍 I also understand they built their own screen in house. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the color reproduction, most notably with the use of internally stored LUTs!

Thanks for joining in Austin! For what it’s worth, I don’t think a cage will be a necessity with this monitor! The rubberized exterior and short antennas are going to go a long way in keeping this thing from breaking! I usually opt for a cage as well, but in this case I feel comfortable without. Saves a little space and weight too! Thanks again for commenting, pumped to have you here!

Great question! The Mars system is able to transmit up to 4k/30p, unfortunately I’m not sure what the listed bit rate is going to be for the transmission. Sorry I couldn’t be more help here!

The transmission bit rate of the MARS M1 is 12Mbps.

Thanks for sharing that bit of info! I do enjoy it as an all-in-one client monitor as well!

Then I’m glad you were able to see it here before committing to it! 💪I personally don’t find it to be a deal breaker in the time I’ve used it. Thanks for commenting !😁

I hear that. There are definitely times that I'm sitting longer than I'd like to be for it to boot up. Which means I find myself leaving my camera on more frequently as a result. Fortunately the C70 has great battery life (especially with the BPA-60 that I use to power the monitor) but it is a bummer. I'm trying to get in the habit of turning the monitor on first before I turn on the camera to combat that. Do you have an external monitor you're using that wakes up a bit sooner? Thanks for joining the conversation!

Thanks Jacinto!👍