As many DSLR and mirrorless cameras are turned into video recorder with powerful video capacity, the topic of camera monitors gets much attention. A functional camera monitor can effectively boost the experience of the recording process, and post-production as well. Especially, an experienced filmmaker can take the advantages of a camera monitor to ensure better frame control. In this review, we are going to introduce a convenient camera monitor which the Gizmochina video team used frequently, the Pergear A6 Plus.
Display & Design
The Pergear A6 Plus is one of those on-camera monitors that is easily operated for beginners and even most people. It has a 5.5-inch 1920×1080 Full HD IPS LCD panel with 10000:1 contrast and 8-bit colors, which allows users to have a more vibrant and more accurate rendition of what the camera sensor sees. The A6 Plus features a touchscreen for menu operation and ‘pinch to zoom’, which is convenient to check your frames with correct detail. Otherwise, for better user experience, the A6 Plus provides a menu handwheel, which also can bring a shortcut to access any options of the menu without touching the screen.
Appearance
The Pergear 6 Plus is one of the lightest over 5-inch on-camera monitors that we have ever used. 230 weight, 21mm thickness and 5.5-inch size will allow you to take it as even a Vlog accessory anywhere.
As we have used it as our main monitor for weeks, the screen presents a good strength and durability. As Pergear describe, it applies OCR full-fit technology to reach a high strength and uses a scratch-resistant, impact-resistant glass. In practical scenarios, it does have above-average durability without obvious marks. One problem is that it does collect fingerprint, but it will not be a problem if filming it with a screen protector.
Power supply & Battery
The 6 Plus leaves a flexible dual-purpose battery plate, which is compatible with Sony F970 and Canon LP-E6 of lithium battery. It guarantees long-session working durability under outdoor conditions. If you are filming indoors, it also supports a DC 12V port for power input without battery.
Ports
Another surprise of hardware is that in such a small body, it has various ports to achieve multiple functions. The ports information is as below:
| 3.5mm audio output | Monitor audio recording quality |
| 1×HDMI Input; 1×HDMI Output | Support up to 4K signal input and pass the signal to a second monitor simultaneously (usually used in teamwork). |
| DC 12V power input | Monitor works with wired power |
| DC 8V power output | Interface for power your camera with a separately available DC coupler via adaptor. |
| SD card slot | For 3D LUT upload and firmware upgrade |
3D LUT support
The A6 Plus supports built-in LUTs such as Vlog, Slog2, Slog3, Logc, which covers most mainstream DSLR and mirrorless LUT setting. In addition, you can also upload the 3D LUT file through SD card to preview your movie with post-production effects. If you still want to have a second color adjustment when shooting, you can also have brightness, contrast, sharpness, hue, saturation, and color temp adjustment in the menu. For color adjustment, it has reached almost all the functions that a professional monitor has and brings you more possibilities to have better images before you go to the post-editing.
Software features
Besides the rich features of hardware, the Pergear 6 Plus provides various built-in features to reduce errors to the most extent.
| Focus assist | Red, green, blue, white, yellow five peaking colors optional |
| Zebra | Convenient to guide light using when shooting and post-production |
| False Color | Convenient to guide light using when shooting and post-production |
| Anamorphic Mode | Recreate the original aspect ratio on the viewing screen |
| Monochrome | Gray, red, green, blue |
| Image Flip Horizontal & Vertical | Get correct view direction with the body auto flip |
| Histogram | A quantitative tool to inspect the image brightness, to guide the post-production |
| Safety marker; Center marker; Marker Mat | Ratio: 70%, 80%, 90%, 16:9, 16:10, 5:4, 4:3, 1.85:1, 2.35:1 |
| Pixel to pixel | Each pixel received is mapped to a single native pixel on the monitor |
Included important accessories
| Tilt Arm | 180° of tilt for convenient monitoring at nearly any angle.
With a cold shoe |
| Sunshade & Sunshade frame | Sunlight readable |
| Storage Box |
The 6 Plus has 3 1/4”-20 thread points for connection to the hot shoe mount. With the included Tilt Arm, it can reach almost any angle for monitoring. It’s flexible when shooting some special scenes.
Language
The A6 Plus supports 8 languages including Chinese, English, French, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Japanese and Korean, which covers a global user variety.
Conclusion
Though compared with those professional on-camera monitors, it does not support 8-bit colors and internal record with SSD, it already prepares the most important functions for general users under various use scenarios. And if you only have a limited budget, considering the 4K signal support, the price of 229 USD probably is one of the best choices. During these weeks shooting video with it, we probably will continuously take it as our first monitor under most conditions, especially for outdoor filming. And we also recommend it as your first on-camera monitor if you are a new player who wants to produce wonderful movies.
The Pergear A6 Plus monitor is available for $229 on Amazon, get it via this link.
