On 8 September Sony announced two units that, on paper, change the way you work behind the camera: the RM-DP7 and the RM-DP5. These aren’t field monitors with a few extra tricks. They’re camera controllers that happen to include the monitor, screens you actually drive the camera from. Both make their debut at IBC 2026 in Amsterdam, 11-14 September.

What they actually are

The panel runs the BIG6 home screen, the same logic as the Cinema Line bodies: ISO, shutter, iris, white balance, ND and codec under your fingers, with no walking around the rig to reach the camera’s buttons. From there you pull focus on compatible autofocus lenses, drive zoom on power zoom glass, and tap the screen to refocus.

  • RM-DP7: 7-inch Full HD panel, up to 2,000 cd/m², 12G-SDI in and out with bidirectional SDI/HDMI conversion, HDMI in and out, USB-C, Ethernet, headphone jack, SD slot. Powered by BP-U, USB Power Delivery or DC.
  • RM-DP5: 5-inch Full HD panel, same brightness, HDMI in and out only, BP-U or USB PD power.
  • Both: aluminium body with dust and moisture resistance, control knob, multi-function dials and assignable buttons, up to 16 LUTs in .cube format (17 and 33-point grids), six monitoring presets, waveform, vectorscope, false colour and zebra.

The detail we care about most is calibration: every panel is individually calibrated at the factory and then continuously compensates for chromaticity and colour temperature drift. On a monitor that sits in the sun for eight hours that isn’t brochure filler, it’s the difference between trusting the image and not trusting it.

Wireless, and who gets left out

Beyond the wired connection, Sony states wireless operation through Hollyland Pyro Ultra and Teradek Bolt 7. The idea is clear enough: the controller becomes the focus puller’s or the director’s station, with picture and control travelling together.

The catch is the compatibility list. At launch they work with the FX5, FX3, FX2 and FX30. FX6 and BURANO arrive in the second half of 2027, via firmware update. The two bodies that actually shoot in full production configuration on Italian sets have to wait more than a year.

Price, and why we’d rent it

Availability is set for January 2027: the RM-DP7 at 3,300 euro ($3,099), the RM-DP5 at 2,500 euro ($2,299). Those are camera-body numbers, not monitor numbers. For scale: a DP7 costs about what a clean used Sony FX3 goes for.

On the ground we always run the same maths. A 3,300 euro accessory you need on three shoots a year never pays itself back, so you rent it. If you’re using it twenty days a month, buy it. And there’s an extra catch here: anyone buying a DP7 today for a kit built around the FX6 and BURANO is buying a firmware promise with a year of waiting attached. We’d rather see it running before we put it on the list, and for the video village a monitor plus a Teradek Bolt 6 750 still does the job without tying a production to a single camera brand.

A note for anyone shooting in Abruzzo: two or three days on location, with the light shifting hour by hour between the coast and the Rocche plateau, is exactly the scenario where a well-calibrated 2,000-nit panel earns its keep. It’s also the kind of job that comes around a handful of days a year, which is precisely why rental exists. In the meantime you’ll find everything else in our equipment catalogue.

Official source: Sony Cinematography. Verification and specs: CineD.