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GH4 — Use iPhone as wireless monitor
  • As suggested by @Vitaliy_Kiselev I've moved this into it's own topic, originally here. @lenuisible Thanks for the original work on the GH3 Web Controller.

    Maybe someone here uses the GH4 for filmmaking and wants to use their iPhone as a wireless monitor. In that case you're like me, but lucky enough I'm a developer ... so I just wanted to let people know that I'm working on a viewfinder app just like that.

    It's still a prototype for now, but if you're interested in following the development I suggest following this topic.

    Video of prototype in action

  • 153 Replies sorted by
  • nice initiative! I'll be keeping a close eye on the development! Thumbs up!!

  • @Grimor: Please Marcus ( @mjas ) ad anamorphic de-squeeze in phone.

    I will absolutely do that.

  • Nice! Ipads as well, I suppose

  • I request these feature to many android developers, and nobody seems to have interest in that thing. Ipad would be a great wireless field monitor

  • @davjd @Grimor

    iPad yes, but the quality will not be great. The feed is compressed 640x480* ... and the iPad is giant in comparison. But maybe low quality is better than NO quality. ;)

    • It's actually less ... it will fit the UHD, DCI 4K or anamorphic image into that resolution. So for UHD which is 16:9 aspect ratio it will be 640x360.
  • Critical focus point can be done with viewfinder or lcd in camera, but for composition we need de-squeezed image.

  • Would love to beta this when it's ready.

  • Another thumbs up! Please keep us posted!

  • Can you please explain here how you did that ?

  • There is the Lumix Image App that previews the GH4 as well as you can change almost all settings in the phone.

  • @Grimor @discomandavis @brilliant If you are interested in beta testing—direct message me your email.

    @gabilourson I did it by examining code from the GH3 Web Controller, and then I translated it to iPhone. I will release an app on the App Store soon.

    @AKED Yes, that's true, but you cannot see the image fullscreen. On iPad or iPhone 6+ maybe the size is OK, but on iPhone 5 or 6 the display is too small to be useful. Compare the images below.

    GH4 to iPhone5.jpg
    2000 x 1496 - 969K
    hqdefault.jpg
    480 x 360 - 17K
  • @mjas take in mind that we are shooting in 4:3 and 3:2 ratios for a 2x Anamorphic lens. So the calculation may be different. Many people from Eoshd forum will pay a few bucks for an app like yours.

  • Are you saying that the resolution is capped out at 640x360 though? Because it would be great if it was able to utilize the phones/iPads higher resolution screen.

  • @Panamedia Yes, the 640x360 is the max size coming from the camera over WiFi (as far as I know). But that image can be stretched. It's not going to look pretty, but can be useful for composition.

  • looks good, is there enough hp there to add lut capability.

  • @Walkaboutcamera I will need to look into that at some point. At the very least it should be easy enough to add some simple image controls (contrast, saturation, brightness, etc ...).

    Right now I'm working on getting the early beta (well... alpha) out to the people who've signed up to be beta testers. If you're interested, send me a PM with your email.

  • @mjas Would it be possible to add focus peaking? Could maybe get the code from reverse engineer that new Mavis video editng app? I have no idea how any of that works. lol

  • @GravitateMediaGroup There's already focus peaking in the GH4. Why add it again? :)

  • @mjas

    If you have camera on gimbal you can have screen hidden, or it is on jib even.

  • Progress update

    Here's a short demo video of connecting the app to the camera.

  • All beta testers

    Scopes 1.0 build 1 has been released for testing. You should receive instructions on how to install via your email.

    Known Issues

    • There's no UI (the above video is from the next build)
    • Only supports iOS 10 (I have iOS 9 support working, and it'll come in the next build)
  • I've received a question about why I need email.

    Apple requires me to add your email to their Testflight software. Then Apple will send you instructions on how to install the app, and it will notify you when there is a new version to install. I am not using using your email for anything else than adding you to the Apple Testflight beta testing program.

    Read more here: https://developer.apple.com/testflight/