FIELD MONITOR TEST
Damien Demolder tests an external monitor for on-camera use
Log support
Offers log conversion from all the main manufacturers.
8 LUT library
SD card slot for loading up to eight home-made or bought LUTs.
Multiple displays
Built-in options to monitor exposure, focus, colour and audio levels.
The Atomos Shinobi series of external monitors currently comprises two models – the original Shinobi with its 5in screen, and this Shinobi 7 with a 7in screen. These monitors are designed to be attached to your camera while you shoot to offer a larger view of the scene and the subject, making manual focus easier while also allowing us a more detailed view of our composition. While the original Shinobi makes a good choice for those needing a basic monitor, this Shinobi 7 offers plenty more and will appeal to those wanting more complex arrangements.
Atomos is probably best known for its extremely popular Ninja series of video-recording field monitors. These are 5in monitors that can mount on top of your camera and which provide a larger preview screen as well as the chance to record your video in a range of high-end formats to the device’s own SSD storage. If you are into videography, these are brilliant products, and when cameras had limited range of built-in codecs themselves, they opened new opportunities.
With the rise of internal ProRes recording in mirrorless cameras, though, there may not be quite the same demand for external recorders. However, the appeal of a larger screen on which to see what you are filming is still alive.
Features
This is an external monitor that connects to stills and video cameras, to display what the camera is seeing on a larger 2200nit, 1920x1200-pixel touchscreen. As the name suggests, the device’s screen measures 7in across, so it provides a very much larger display than any camera has built-in. Two mounting points with regular 1/4in 20 threads with anti-rotation pin sockets allow us to attach the monitor to things from either the bottom or the top. So it can sit on a stand or camera, or hang from one.
Cameras can be connected to the monitor via either full-sized HDMI, or SDI 1.5/3G ports. Most mirrorless cameras that also shoot stills will use the HDMI port, while those using cinema cameras will most likely connect via SDI. HDMI is able to carry more data, but SDI is able to send it further, so usage will also depend on how far away the monitor will be positioned.
As well as HDMI and SDI ‘in’ ports the Shinobi 7 comes with HDMI and SDI ‘out’ ports, so the image displayed on the screen can be sent to further monitors when more than one person needs to see what is going on. A nice feature is that we can feed the Shinobi
