Version 3.0 of Sony's Monitor & Control app adds EL Zone exposure metering and expanded multi-camera tools, timed to the new FX5 cinema camera's launch.
One of the elements that was largely overlooked in the excitement following the debut of the Sony FX5 was mention of a new version of the company's well-regarded Monitor & Control app. Among the FX5 operability features Sony highlighted at launch was tighter integration with Monitor & Control, which lets FX5 owners run video monitoring and remote camera control from a smartphone, tablet or Mac.
Version 3.0 of the wired and wireless monitoring app adds several features previously exclusive to standalone field monitors, though the newest and most powerful of them, EL Zone chief among them, are confined to the paid tier.
Sony released Monitor & Control 3.0 on 23 July, the day after the FX5 launch event, with eight changes across the app. Three of them are Premium-exclusive, at $22.99 a month or $229.90 a year; the rest are available more broadly.
EL Zone, Sony's stop-based exposure visualization system already familiar from VENICE 2 and BURANO's onboard metering, arrives in the app's monitoring layer, sitting alongside the existing waveform, false color, histogram and zebra displays. Multi-Camera Monitoring gains vertical-position shooting support, useful for teams running several cameras on vertical-first shoots. And a new image overlay function lets a shooter place a stored reference frame as a transparent layer over live view, to match composition, subject placement and lighting shot to shot. All three of these are Premium only.
The remaining changes are available more widely. A vectorscope has been added for checking hue and saturation to keep color consistent across multiple cameras, and it's included on every tier, including Free. Multi-Camera Monitoring can now connect over USB as well as wirelessly. The FX5 and α7R VI join the app's supported camera list for the first time with this release, and the FX5 specifically now supports simultaneous connections from multiple devices, useful for crews sharing a single camera's feed across several operators.
Snapshot capture, a Basic-tier feature since August 2025, gains an automatic-save function that stores a snapshot at the start and end of each recording.
Below Premium, a Basic tier costs $4.99 a month or $49.99 a year and covers features that have been rolling out since last year, including snapshot capture, simultaneous setting changes across connected cameras, and high-resolution monitoring and recording over HDMI/UVC.
New monthly subscribers on either paid tier get the first month free. A Free tier remains available, offering exposure tools, focus control and monitoring for up to four cameras on iPad.
Monitor & Control supports a wide range of Sony cameras beyond the FX5 and the newly added α7R VI, including the FX6, FX3, FX30, BURANO, several PXW and HXR models, and much of the current Alpha lineup, though supported functions vary by camera and require the latest system software.
Sony hasn't confirmed whether every supported camera gets access to the newest tools straight away, or whether features such as EL Zone and the vectorscope will roll out camera by camera as compatibility is verified.