The title isn’t clickbait. After messing around with the PIXYS monitor, the BMMSC 4K G2 and various USB accessories, I found a bog standard USB-C touchscreen monitor from Amazon that provides the same functionality as the PYXIS. To be fair, I tried two other 1080p touchscreens and neither worked, so it’s not universal compatibility.
Here’s the product, but it’s not an affiliated link nor am I shilling for the brand (which has a silly name anyhow): PeakDo 7 inch Portable Touchscreen etc..
All that being said, the PYXIS monitor does have a much better look and feel than a cheap alternative, and advantages include a locking USB port, 1/4″ mounting threads on 2 sides, a sunshade, and 3 function buttons on the back that are extremely flexible (you can assign them to do most anything).
IMO if budget isn’t an option and a 5″ monitor is good enough for you, go with the PYXIS. It’ll probably be less pain in the log run. Then again, maybe go with an HDMI or SDI monitor, because the monitor won’t work via a USB hub (I tested 3 of them and none worked, anyways), and if you occupy the BMMSC 4K G2’s single USB-C port with the monitor *you can’t record to external media*.
So you’d either need the PYXIS as well as an HDMI/SDI recorder, or something like a Video Assist 5 or Atomos Ninja to monitor and record.
When used in a studio, I’d think a cameraperson would prefer a monitor larger than 5″.
If Blackmagic Design added another USB port to the camera, it would solve many problems. Or enable the Video Assists to work with USB for camera menus. IDK, either way it seems like a hole in BMD’s product line that they probably want you to fill with a PYXIS camera (or URSA) rather than making the BMMSC capable of fully competing with those when rigged out.
Part 2 of this video shows one way to add WiFi connectivity to the camera. It’s slightly convoluted in that it uses a WiFi bridge device which essentially passes networking from the wireless network to an Ethernet port. That Ethernet cable can then be connected to a USB-C Ethernet adapter attached to the camera. (There may be other WiFi bridges that have a USB Ethernet adapter built in. IDK, this is the one I found.)
The reason for using a bridge is that you can’t just connect a USB WiFi adapter directly to the camera. There’s no way to configure SSID and password (or etc.) in the camera’s interface. However, the camera does natively recognize a USB Ethernet adapter and will (by default) use DHCP to grab an IP address.
Original Micro Studio Camera 4K G2 video: https://youtu.be/mnxk3HuJukY
