Digital SLR cameras in the last few years have been slowly moving towards video. With that in mind there's also a slew of various accessories to make the job easier.
As all other Pixel products, the packaging follows a similar motif and very efficiently packed. It comes with plenty of bubble wrap which for the most part was unnecessary being that the whole package came in a padded nylon case.
I wish they used smaller triple A batteries just to keep the unit size down, but frankly the move away from the other batteries sits just as well with me. The transmitter is much larger than the one on the LV-W1 but seems light enough and sits well on the camera. I'm not a huge fan of the plastic hot shoe and would have liked it to be metal but I appreciate that to keep costs down that they might have taken this approach to keep the amount of functions they have added to this unit.
The CCTV displays a rather wide view and also off axis view of your scene, however you can zoom in your CCTV mode to look at details, and decide if you want to press the trigger release to lock the image in. This function will be very handy if you're photographing an event and want to have cameras located at specific locations. However I should also point out that if you think that this is a great feature for video, think again. At least with both my Canon cameras, hitting the remote button only fires the shutter and does not activate the video mode.
However this unit can be useful for video when used as an independent reposition-able monitor. This is very useful when you want to have your monitor well in front of you when you're shooting video. There's a 1/4 thread on the monitor, so it's just a matter of mounting it onto a ball head and on some sort of armature that can be positioned anywhere.
There is a pressing question on who will find this device useful. Part of having the ability to control things remotely is being able to control more than just the shutter functions and to view this remotely. At the time of this publication, Pixel is working on other software/firmware functions to this unit, which means it is possible to extend the function of this beyond what it's currently capable. The most important thing about this unit is the improvements they did from the original LV-W1. It's far more stable and the image quality is a significant improvement over the old unit, however it comes at a cost of being much larger and with some functions that seem to be pointless (such as being able to use this unit to listen to audio wirelessly but requires quite a configuration of cords to make it useful when recording video and the ability to capture low resolution stills off of the CCTV camera). The range is much better, and the video quality is great.
The people that will likely gain the most benefit from this unit are those that use right angle finders or put their cameras in very awkward and hard to reach or position vantage points. As a macro shooter, I appreciate the ability to have the remote unit in my hand where I can view most of what is going on and adjust as I see fit. It certainly justifies the reasons why some of the consumer models of dSLRs have the articulated screens. One such benefit is to be able to set up my humming bird feeder and to have me sit in the comfort of my living room waiting for one to come visit without startling it. The results are well worth the ability to hide well away from my shy subjects to capture them on my camera.
The Pixel Expert (LV-W2) positions itself to fit both the bill of a wireless remote monitor with the ability to trigger the camera.
I received my pre-release unit from Pixel Enterprises without a manual (it's currently being written) and additional cords for various cameras. The release version will be shipped with the appropriate cables for the appropriate cameras.

The padded case is a nice touch. It seems rather large at first, but it contains all the necessary cables, the transmitter and the receiver unit. The case also has a belt loop which I doubt I'll ever use, but a nice touch regardless.
Inside the case, there's several compartments that separates everything neat and tidy. The release unit will come with 2-3 cables (depending on the camera model) a transmitter and a receiver unit.
The build quality of the Pixel Expert also follows much of the same build quality of all of their products. Compared to their now discontinued LV-W1 unit this is a refreshing change. The unit itself is much larger but they have moved away from several annoyances that made the LV-W1 a pain to use. One of the biggest issues was a proprietary micro-USB like connector for a more standard mini-USB connector. Also there are more physical switches for things like power and channel selection on both the transmitter and the receiver.
Much of the larger size of the unit is due to the fact that they also changed from a proprietary battery system to the more common double A battery.

The power specifications are slightly better than the LV-W1 with the transmitter unit with a 100 hours on standby and 10 hours of continuous operation, and the receiver with 500 hours and 12 hours of continuous (this is the reported specs on 1.2v 2400mAh batteries). I used alkaline batteries in my tests but it's good to see those kinds of specs with rechargeable batteries.
The major functions of this combination are the following:
- Shooting Modes of Single, Continuous and 2s Delayed
- Image Saving: Saving the image before and after the the shutter has been pressed (more on this later)
- Image Playback
- Zooming in CCTV mode with 4 way direction scrolling
- Video Output: support for video and audio output from the remote unit
The single most interesting thing about this unit isn't so much about the wireless liveview remote functions, but the new CCTV camera that is built into the transmitter.
At first this odd ball feature threw me off but I quickly realized the benefits of having the CCTV on the transmitter which will be a nice added function to those working with multiples cameras. Being able to have multiple cameras set up, the liveview on most dSLRs will not stay on permanently (mostly due to potential overheating issues). This added feature gives you the option to monitor what is in the view of the CCTV at the time and to trigger the shutter if you see something that is in the approximate viewfinder.

However this unit can be useful for video when used as an independent reposition-able monitor. This is very useful when you want to have your monitor well in front of you when you're shooting video. There's a 1/4 thread on the monitor, so it's just a matter of mounting it onto a ball head and on some sort of armature that can be positioned anywhere.
There is a pressing question on who will find this device useful. Part of having the ability to control things remotely is being able to control more than just the shutter functions and to view this remotely. At the time of this publication, Pixel is working on other software/firmware functions to this unit, which means it is possible to extend the function of this beyond what it's currently capable. The most important thing about this unit is the improvements they did from the original LV-W1. It's far more stable and the image quality is a significant improvement over the old unit, however it comes at a cost of being much larger and with some functions that seem to be pointless (such as being able to use this unit to listen to audio wirelessly but requires quite a configuration of cords to make it useful when recording video and the ability to capture low resolution stills off of the CCTV camera). The range is much better, and the video quality is great.
The people that will likely gain the most benefit from this unit are those that use right angle finders or put their cameras in very awkward and hard to reach or position vantage points. As a macro shooter, I appreciate the ability to have the remote unit in my hand where I can view most of what is going on and adjust as I see fit. It certainly justifies the reasons why some of the consumer models of dSLRs have the articulated screens. One such benefit is to be able to set up my humming bird feeder and to have me sit in the comfort of my living room waiting for one to come visit without startling it. The results are well worth the ability to hide well away from my shy subjects to capture them on my camera.
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