Today we are looking at an interesting product that was recently announced by the Chinese manufacturer Accsoon which allows you to use any recent iPhone or iPad as an advanced monitor and recorder as well as a live broadcast unit for your camera called Accsoon SeeMo.
About Accsoon
Accsoon has been developing wireless video transmission systems. We also reviewed their wireless F-01 follow focus recently. Today, we’re looking at the new Accsoon SeeMo HDMI to iOS adapter which works in conjunction with a simple iOS app for both monitoring and recording.
Camera monitor/recorder/streamer with your iPhone and camera –Â Accsoon SeeMo
Concept
The Accsoon SeeMo is a small accessory that allows you to use your iPhone (or a compatible iPad) as a feature-rich on-camera monitor by connecting the HDMI out of the camera and feeding the signal out through a USB-C cable. It also doubles as a recorder and a live broadcast tool all using a simple app.
Larger and brighter than your camera monitor
In the box
Accsoon ships the SeeMo kit in a small box that includes the adapter, a phone clamp, a tilting hot shoe holder, and data cables.
Design and build
On the front of the SeeMo there is a sturdy phone clamp. It’s made of plastic but feels strong enough to stand up to the frequent back-and-forth activations.
The back part of the accessory is the adapter itself with an L-type battery mount. The back part is also detachable for use off-camera, like with an Ipad. There is an HDMI-in port and two USB-C ports, one for video out and one to power a small accessory. Unfortunately, the video USB port doesn’t charge the iPhone/iPad while it’s in use.
The unit also features a plastic cold shoe on the top and a metal ¼’’ connector on the bottom. The on/off button and battery indicator are on the side of the unit. These are pretty dim, so you kind of have to look for them.
The L battery can’t be used to charge the camera/Phone
Setup
To mount the unit onto the camera hotshoe, screw on the tilting holder. We were happy to see that Accsoon included a locating pin to this setup to avoid twisting. The thumbscrew also features an interesting lever to easily tighten it in place. Nice touch.
With the iPhone/iPad in place, run the HDMI cable from the camera to the SeeMo and the USB-C cable from the SeeMo to the iPhone/iPad. Turn on the unit and it will prompt the iPhone/iPad to open the App Store if the Accsoon Go app hasn’t been installed.
The on/off button and (very dim) charge lights
Features
The app is pretty straightforward. It connects very quickly. The feed stats are on the top of the screen. On the bottom, there are toggles for video assist tools. There is also a setup option for these tools on the bottom right.
Tap the screen to hide the on-screen controls. You can also pinch to zoom in, but since it’s only a 1080p feed, it doesn’t really help that much, we’d rather use the camera screen zoom to check focus.
One of the most appealing features of this app is the ability to broadcast live. The live button is on the right of the screen. Just paste in the stream code and go live.
The app also allows you to record on your phone independently from the camera. It’s a great option, but we encountered a couple of issues here.
First, the button is really small and it would be great if Accsoon added a more visible tally light during recording. The other issue was that sometimes phone notifications cut off the recording. Make sure to set your iPhone to airplane mode when using the app.
Use cases
In use, the SeeMo is pretty seamless. Thanks to the iPhone’s bright screen, it’s definitely a lot better than the on-camera screen. It comes in very useful especially when recording yourself on a camera without a flip-out screen or in bright sunlight when the camera screen is too dark to see from a distance.
Because this setup is really light and compact, it can be useful in most shooting scenarios in the field. Since it can also be used with an iPad, it makes it even more versatile. There have been plenty of situations on shoots where we wished we had a bigger or brighter monitor on hand, and the iPad is still more compact than other monitors with a comparable-size screen (if not larger, depending on the specific model).
Conclusion
In conclusion, the Accsoon SeeMo is a great device with a few shortcomings. We feel like Accsoon could have another Pro version of this device, made out of metal and with charging capability. In all, it’s definitely very useful thanks to its portability and versatility, and affordable price tag.
Price
Talking about the pricing, the SeeMo HDMI to iPhone/iPad adapter sells for $179.
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Why should you trust us?
Thanks for all you do. Our newest Accsoon SeeMo Pro comes in a metal case that charges your iPhone while in use.
below link is SeeMo Pro
https://accsoon.com/accsoon-seemo-pro/
By the way, Invite you to review latest Accsoon SeeMo Pro, please contact me
Please let me know if you are interested.