Accsoon CineEye - Anyone Using?

DDort said:
Finally got a chance to test the Accsoon and must say I'm impressed. There is some latency but for the price it's a great value. Very cool being able to stream to your phone and tablet at the same time.

Regarding the loose bits inside, it does sound more like a shift of the internals rather than something floating around unattached.
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Cool. It is pretty useful for the money, isn't it? I've very glad I bought it, I couldn't justify thousands for a real wireless video system as that is just not usually budgeted for in my client world. If I could line item one out, I'd love to have a Teradek
but at least with Cineeye, I can hand clients an iPad and they see what I am doing without having to charge them for it. We live in interesting times. The latency, for clients just viewing is fine, although you couldn't pull focus with it. But I rarely do
shoots with ACs on the crew.
 
Reviving this thread. Wondering what you ever decided Paul (OP) or if you purchased any of these systems talked about in this thread?
I ended up purchasing the Hollyland 400S about a month ago when it was in the deal zone at B&H. Used it today on it's 2nd shoot... and have to report that it has worked very flawlessly so far - knock wood. Today was industrial type b-roll - very much run-n-gun - and used with a small handheld monitor - mostly so producer could keep an eye out for proper PPE while I was filming. We moved about large areas of big plant much quicker because of it. And while I noticed the channel would change in certain places in the plant, it did so without me having to do anything - so automatically finding the best signal.

The fan noise is a bit louder than I hoped (have not used it yet for interviews, etc) but other than that negative - I like it. The tools for viewing on an iPad or phone (I'm iOS) are actually pretty good and could see myself using the waveform / false color, etc in a pinch on certain shoots. Also really like that it can cross-convert signal from SDI / HDMI. Makes compatibility more likely down the road, I hope.
 
Mark, would be interested in some opinions as well. Ordered the CineEye last year, but returned it after a shoot since the signal was just too unreliable. Couldn't get it to work on Android devices at all and the iPhones (older models) all had frequent signal cutouts. Saw that Hollyland is offering the Mars X at a similar price point and they seem to have a better brand reputation. I also came across the Inkee Benbox. Its significantly cheaper and smaller than the CineEye, plus it supports streaming to laptop which I think could be super useful, as those have longer battery life and a screen that seems more useful for monitoring.

Ordered to Benbox, but will return it if it has the same issues as the CineEye. Unfortunately for all of these lowcost devices there do not seem to be a lot of honest reviews online, mostly sponsored Youtubers that are being paid to praise the product without properly testing it.
 
Paul Jonathan said:
Mark, would be interested in some opinions as well. Ordered the CineEye last year, but returned it after a shoot since the signal was just too unreliable. Couldn't get it to work on Android devices at all and the iPhones (older models) all had frequent signal cutouts. Saw that Hollyland is offering the Mars X at a similar price point and they seem to have a better brand reputation.
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I've been using the CineEye for quiet some time now, and only had the signal drop when doing my initial "Let's see how far I can go with it" tests and when the battery dies of course;)
Could you elaborate on your set-up?
I don't think this thingy is meant for anything more than sending a livefeed a couple of meters away from the camera for people in the same room/immediate area.
 
My CineEye has been solid too, but I've mostly been using it like Spartacus has, transmitting to phones and tablets in the same room. They seem to be constantly updating the app and improving reliability. Curious to hear more about how it has been failing you.
 
Spartacus said:
Could you elaborate on your set-up?
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QuickHitRecord said:
Curious to hear more about how it has been failing you.
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As I mentioned this was a super low-budget production where we didn't have a normal monitoring solution via Teradeks and a bunch of monitors on set. So I got the CineEye in order for the director (and a few others) to get a sense of the framing whenever they couldn't stand right next to the camera. They were all using older iPhones, since we couldn't get any Android phones or tablets to work with the app. However, this was September last year, so the app might have improved since then and support more devices.

The receiving phones were never more than a few meters away but there were frequent signal cut-outs (maybe like 5-10 times over the course of a shooting day) and those required a restart of the device and the app. Also sometimes the transmission rate would drop dramatically without cutting completely, leaving them with pixelated images that made it especially hard to judge framing when the camera moved. Perhaps I had a defective unit, perhaps there was also an issue with the receiving devices we were using. But in the end I decided to simply return it after the shoot instead of trying to trouble shoot this further.
 
Paul Jonathan said:
As I mentioned this was a super low-budget production where we didn't have a normal monitoring solution via Teradeks and a bunch of monitors on set. So I got the CineEye in order for the director (and a few others) to get a sense of the framing whenever they couldn't stand right next to the camera. They were all using older iPhones, since we couldn't get any Android phones or tablets to work with the app. However, this was September last year, so the app might have improved since then and support more devices.

The receiving phones were never more than a few meters away but there were frequent signal cut-outs (maybe like 5-10 times over the course of a shooting day) and those required a restart of the device and the app. Also sometimes the transmission rate would drop dramatically without cutting completely, leaving them with pixelated images that made it especially hard to judge framing when the camera moved. Perhaps I had a defective unit, perhaps there was also an issue with the receiving devices we were using. But in the end I decided to simply return it after the shoot instead of trying to trouble shoot this further.
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Based upon my experience with our unit, I would say you had a defective unit. I've used ours with iPhone 5, 7 and 8 and we use it with our iPad Mini (4) and it's worked flawlessly. I've had it for about a year now and it's came in handy for so many things like when
I have had a camera placed high on a stand for overhead shooting and I couldn't see the camera screen. I've never tried it with Android as I don't have an Android phone but I've heard that the Android app sucks.
 
Paul Jonathan said:
Mark, would be interested in some opinions as well.
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I haven't used the CineEye - so can't comment on that. The 400S was on sale for $449 ($200 off msrp) when I bought it - so decided that for a little extra cash, the convenience of having SDI and cross-conversion, plus being able to use with both a monitor and phone / iPad at the same time, it was worth it. Again, so far, I'm happy, still early days. But I've used much pricier Teradeck's on industrial jobs - where I've gotten about 50% use from the signal. So far, I'm batting 100% with the 400S.
 
Has anyone tried a wifi extender with one of these wifi based systems? Sound guys usually run ethernet cable to bring video from the village to their cart. I'm wondering if it would be possible to extend the range of a wireless unit by placing battery operated wifi extenders at strategic points.
 
Spartacus said:
I've been using the CineEye for quiet some time now, and only had the signal drop when doing my initial "Let's see how far I can go with it" tests and when the battery dies of course;)
Could you elaborate on your set-up?
I don't think this thingy is meant for anything more than sending a livefeed a couple of meters away from the camera for people in the same room/immediate area.
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Just wanted to add to my comment that my CineEye won't charge anymore and is now a paper weight. So no signal dropping but a dead build in battery or charging circuit, well...
 
That's the downfall of internally batteries. They are guaranteed to fail, so why do they put them in a sealed unit and not make them replaceable? It's probably pretty easy to open up and find a replacement.

Now they have a pro version. Longer range and more than twice as expensive. It uses Sony NP batteries or external DC. It adds camera control.

New devices are coming out every couple of months. It's hard to keep up with.
 
I'm also in the market for a phone/tablet system but am heavily leaning towards the hollyland mars 400s at this point.

I really didn't want to go down this path but I think the usefulness of having non-production people tap into the picture is worth it.
 
The 400S is attractive. But be aware of comments on the B&H website about fan noise - From B&H:

"The fans make quite a bit of high pitch noise. Beware. I would not recommend these for using in a quiet studio, or anywhere near a mic. If you have a Ninja V , these make a lot more noise than the Ninja. Just so you get an idea."


"Yes it does. There is a cooling fan that runs all the time but the real question is it noticeable. We use these on remote cams for sporting events where the ambient noise is high enough that it is a non-issue. If you are going to use an on camera mic in an interview you will be able to detect it. With all that said we are very impressed with the quality and distance of this unit. We will be buying more."
 
Paul F said:
The 400S is attractive. But be aware of comments on the B&H website about fan noise - From B&H:

"The fans make quite a bit of high pitch noise. Beware. I would not recommend these for using in a quiet studio, or anywhere near a mic. If you have a Ninja V , these make a lot more noise than the Ninja. Just so you get an idea."


"Yes it does. There is a cooling fan that runs all the time but the real question is it noticeable. We use these on remote cams for sporting events where the ambient noise is high enough that it is a non-issue. If you are going to use an on camera mic in an interview you will be able to detect it. With all that said we are very impressed with the quality and distance of this unit. We will be buying more."
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Good to know, thanks Paul.
 
Paul F said:
The 400S is attractive. But be aware of comments on the B&H website about fan noise - From B&H:

"The fans make quite a bit of high pitch noise. Beware. I would not recommend these for using in a quiet studio, or anywhere near a mic. If you have a Ninja V , these make a lot more noise than the Ninja. Just so you get an idea."


"Yes it does. There is a cooling fan that runs all the time but the real question is it noticeable. We use these on remote cams for sporting events where the ambient noise is high enough that it is a non-issue. If you are going to use an on camera mic in an interview you will be able to detect it. With all that said we are very impressed with the quality and distance of this unit. We will be buying more."
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I mentioned that in my quick review earlier in this thread. Last week, I used my 400S for a bunch of interviews. And fan noise wasn't an issue. Granted, since Covid-19, all my interview set ups are done with as much distance as possible, with boom mic rather than wireless lav. The fan on the 400s is louder than I wish it was, but I don't think it will be much of an issue.
 
Spartacus said:
Just wanted to add to my comment that my CineEye won't charge anymore and is now a paper weight. So no signal dropping but a dead build in battery or charging circuit, well...
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This happened to me yesterday. Emailed support and they said depress the tiny reset button on the side of the CineEye. I held mine for about 10 seconds and it's charging again. Just wanted to throw that out there.
 
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