Do NOT buy the Hollyland Mars M1 Monitor

The Mars M1 has many flaws and drawbacks when using it alone and in conjunction with your smartphone as a wireless monitor. Unless you use two Mars M1's for both on and off camera monitoring, I recommend purchasing a cheaper monitor like the Atomos Shinobi and using the Monitor Plus app for wireless monitoring. The HollyView app has NO camera control and an abundant amount of software issues, lack of tools, and terrible user interface. The app is free, but at the cost of a $549 monitor that boasts the capability of transmitting to your smartphone devices, I expect it to be better or at least up to par with other cheap wireless monitoring apps. Using two Mars M1 Monitors can be beneficial and allows you to work around the need for the poorly designed app, but at the cost of an additional $450.
0:00 Intro
0:21 Issues with Monitor
2:58 Issues with HollyView App
6:14 Monitor+ App Comparison
8:47 Conclusion/Recommendations
UPDATE:
The Mars M1 Pro 7" Monitor was announced at the NAB show on April 17th, 2023. It seems the UI has changed a lot and potentially fixed some of these issues.
No announcement for updating the Mars M1 with the same software or UI.
No announcement for updating HollyView App.
This is a review on the Mars M1 Monitor and corresponding HollyView app and not be indicative of the Hollyland company as a whole. They produce many other great products and I have experienced exceptional customer service with them personally!
CONS:
- LUT is not automatically applied when monitor turns on
- Awful Focus Peaking
- The on-camera focus peaking is much better
- No focus peaking when using the zoom features
- The Zebra display slider does not show the values of the numbers, so you have to guess or eyeball it.
- The False Color is accurate but the colors used are not very helpful: 2 different Grays, 2 different reds.
- The colors on the chart don’t match the colors on screen
- When you try to adjust the opacity of the Aspect Mat, you have to cycle through each ratio again
- Terrible App for iPhone
- Not color accurate
- Terrible color banding
- Focus peaking has no limit on the threshold, so you don’t know what is accurate.
- Not able to get rid of center dot or cross
- No camera control
- When recording footage from app, it only captures log footage.
- Only screen grabs captured have the LUT applied
Software Issues/Bugs:
- A red line appears on the side of the monitor whenever Focus peaking is on
- When switching between LUTs, the log profile flashes for a half second. Not a fluid transition between LUT selection.
Camera: Sony a7s3
Lenses: Tamron 28-75mm f2.8, Sony 90mm Macro

[@coltonmonroe9824]

Thank you!

[@alexpott1893]

Nice, honest review. A few things are subjective - but does seem to fit the trend of companies using their customers to beta-test software.

[@theopats2660]

helpful video

[@geoffreyzziwambazza7862]

Thanks for saving me the trouble

[@markowens8255]

Thanks for this review very helpful, can you tell me the name of the other app you purchased.

[@cameronellis]

Glad it was helpful! The app is called Monitor +

[@kidcoma1340]

I just found out why the false color looks off, when you use a LUT, the color shift also applies to the false color :'D