Pocket Field Monitor vs Parallax Monitor
Parallax Monitor is a shipping $19.99 monitor, controller and multicam station for Nikon bodies. Pocket Field Monitor is monitor first, with a Gyroflow log for every take.
What Parallax Monitor is good at.
Parallax Monitor ships today. Here is what it does well, in its own terms, before any comparison with ours.
- Ships today at $19.99, covering monitoring, camera control, multicam casting, stills tools and LUT viewing in one app.
- Host and client casting sends the live view from the connected device to other phones and tablets, for a director or client monitor.
- Runs on Android as ZR Ctl.
- Supports the Nikon ZR, Z8, Z9, Z50 II and more.
Price: $19.99. Parallax Monitor website
Side by side.
Row by row, with our own column written the same way we would want theirs written.
| Capability | Parallax Monitor | Pocket Monitor |
|---|---|---|
| Availability | Shipping on the App Store, $19.99 | Coming to the App Store |
| Camera control | Yes, a full control station | Yes, over USB and the ZR's Wi-Fi access point |
| Design philosophy | Many tools in one app | Monitor first |
| Live view monitoring | Yes, with exposure assist and LUT viewing | Yes, a Blackmagic-style HUD over the clean feed |
| False colour | Yes, X-zone false color | Yes, stop-defined, encoding-aware |
| Focus assist | Focus tools | Edge detection, five colours |
| Scopes | Exposure assistance tools | Waveform, vectorscope, RGB parade, histogram |
| Multicam | Yes, host/client casting | No |
| Gyroflow logging | Not listed | Yes, every take |
| Android | ZR Ctl | No |
| Supported cameras | Nikon ZR, Z8, Z9, Z50 II, and more | Nikon ZR |
Can I use both?
Nothing here is an either-or choice.
Yes. The two apps are not mutually exclusive, and mixed toolkits are normal on real sets. Cast to the director and the client with Parallax Monitor, and keep Pocket Monitor on the phone mounted to the rig for the monitoring tools and the Gyroflow log. Neither app stops the other from running.
Questions about the two apps.
- Is Parallax Monitor worth $19.99?
- For the breadth of what it does, yes. Monitoring, camera control, multicam casting, stills tools and LUT viewing in one $19.99 app covers a lot of ground. Pocket Monitor is not competing on breadth; it competes on the depth of the monitoring surface and on the Gyroflow log it writes for every take.
- Does Pocket Field Monitor do multicam like Parallax Monitor?
- No. Pocket Monitor talks to one camera at a time and has no host or client casting. If a director monitor or a client monitor is part of the job, Parallax Monitor is the stronger choice.
- Is there an Android version of Pocket Field Monitor?
- No. Pocket Monitor is an iPhone and iPad app, and the Gyroflow log it writes comes from the Apple device’s motion sensor on the rig. Parallax Monitor has an Android sibling, ZR Ctl, if the phone on your rig runs Android.
Where Pocket Monitor fits.
A Blackmagic-style HUD over the ZR's clean feed, exposure tools defined in stops from an 18% card, nineteen camera settings over USB or Wi-Fi, and a Gyroflow motion log for every take. Read the roundup of all three apps if you are still weighing them up.