The Atomos Shinobi ll is the third non-recording monitor in the Atomos Shinobi series. The original Shinobi 5in monitor was introduced in 2019 and it came in HDMI and SDI versions – initially at least, as the SDI model faded quietly away. A 7in version, the Shinobi 7, was released in 2021 and sports both HMDI and SDI, and now we have this updated 5in monitor in the Shinobi ll. The mark ll version of the 5in monitor is also HDMI-only but comes in a slimmer and lighter body, has a brighter display and offers the enticement of the ability to control certain camera settings via its touch screen. We’ve had Camera Control before, of course, in the Shinobi 7 – well, when I say ‘we’ I really mean those who own a Z Cam. Now though the feature is offered to camera owners of recent models from all the major brands. It sounds exciting, doesn’t it?

Specification

The Atomos Shinobi ll is a 5in monitor designed for use with cameras that output via HDMI. It weighs very slightly more than the original model, at 210g, due to the new cable clamp, and is about 10mm slimmer, at 20.8mm. The display has the same 5.2in diagonal as the original and the resolution is the same 1920×1080 pixels, but this new model offers us 1500 nits instead of 1000 – so that’s a pretty significant upgrade.

While we have HDMI-in there’s no HDMI-out, just as before, but now we have a USB port for power and for connecting to a camera when we want to use the Camera Control feature. Z Cam users get a 2.5mm serial jack that they can use for Camera Control via an optional USB-to-Serial cable. Further ports include 3.5mm audio-out for headphones and a SD card slot for firmware updates and loading LUTs to the monitor.

The monitor can offer us 4K DCI/UHD in frame rates of 23.98/24/25/29.97/30 fps and FHD Progressive at those rates plus 50/59.94 and 60, while Interlaced comes in just 50/60i. We can also have 1280×720 at 50/59.94 and 60p. The display is tuned to Rec.709 and can be calibrated when needed with a Calibrite ColorChecker Display Pro and Plus via a PC or Mac computer.

As usual the monitor can be powered using a regular NP-F battery, a dummy battery or via a direct connection to the mains power. Now we have USB-C Power Delivery we also have the choice to run the monitor via the USB port from any source that provides 6.2-16.8V. It’s worth noting too that the power delivery is both ways, so when a camera is connected via USB for Camera Control it can also receive a charge from whatever is powering the monitor.

On-screen features

Atomos has thrown all of its on-screen monitoring features at this little display, so providing we keep the firmware up to date we’ll get the same options as the majority of other Atomos devices – including all the new ones. Despite this being a small screen that many will think aimed at lower-end users it comes with gamma and gamut settings for every main log and colour profile, along with AtomHDR and the ability to run 17 and 33 point .Cube 3D LUTs – of which it can store eight in its library. Screen brightness can be adjusted from 1-100% (backlight), and we have small sliders to adjust Lift, Gamma and Gain.

The list of monitoring features is pretty extensive and includes everything you might expect. As this runs the latest AtomOS operating system we get the new Analysis View that shows waveform, histogram and vectorscope at the same time alongside a window displaying what we are shooting. We get Atomos False Color of course, but also Arri False Color, and an EL Zone display that might feel easier to understand if you are used to working in stops.

Beyond these newer features we get all the regular monitoring displays, six ‘cinema’ guide frames and seven for social media platforms, eight anamorphic desqueeze settings, 1x, 2x and 4x zoom, and RGB parades. It’s all pretty comprehensive.

In use

If you’ve used any Atomos monitor or monitor/recorder in the past you’ll be right at home in no time at all with this Shinobi ll. It works just as you’d expect and the controls are just what you’ll be used to.

You may have worked out a way to turn your Atomos product on and off on the first go with some confidence, but this process is something you might have to learn again for this new model. A short press of the slightly recessed on/off button brings the monitor to life – eventually. Atomos allow us just enough time of inactivity on the screen for us to believe we didn’t make our intentions clear to the machine, so we press it again or use a long press to be more convincing. Unfortunately that second press could switch it off before it properly came on. It takes a good three seconds for the Atomos logo to appear on the screen, then a further seven seconds for the device to make itself ready to use. That can feel like an eternity. As there’s no fan to kick into life and give us a clue that something is actually happening we’re left looking at a blank and silent device hoping that this time we really have switched it on. This seems a frustration that would be very easy to avoid for a company at the cutting edge of so much, but it’s one that repeats itself through the range. A simple mechanical switch, with a lock to avoid accidental activation, would take all of the anxiety out of the situation.

It is great though that there is a wide range of ways to power the monitor, so we can make the most of the lightweight design. Adding an NP-F750 to the Shinobi ll doubles its weight, so it nice to get the battery off the back of the monitor. If you are using a mini V-Lock battery to run your camera it’s easy to also power the monitor either from a D-Tap port to a dummy battery as you might have done before, but if you only have one D-Tap you can use the USB port instead. A further good reason for using a mini V-Lock or powerbank to run the Shinobi is that if you are using the monitor’s USB-C to connect to your camera for Camera Control you’ll find power running to it as well as data communications, so NP-F type batteries will have an even shorter life than usual. I love that the Shinobi ll is so light. When I got the box I genuinely thought they’d forgotten to put the monitor in it.

In the slimming down of the monitor from the original design we’ve lost the mounting point on the top of the body. We have one on the base, with a pair of anti-rotation holes either side, but nothing on the sides or the top. That may or may not be an issue for you, but it is still possible to mount from the bottom and then hang the monitor upside down as the display can easily be rotated – so that’s almost the same thing.

Another new feature in the physical design of the Shinobi ll is the cable clamp that comes in the box. This screws onto the rear of the monitor around the HDMI and USB ports to provide some protection for the connections even when we use regular cables. Atomos though now sells its own HDMI cables equipped with a locking clamp designed specifically for this attachment which holds the cable securely in place. The company offers these in micro, mini and full HDMI to full HDMI versions – and they cost $65 for 28cm of cable.

What we get for free though is the HDMI port positioned on the rear of the monitor. This port in the original model was on the side of the housing which left cables sticking out ready to catch things as we walked by them. Having the port on the rear is a much better idea.

The 1500-nit brightness of the Atomos Shinobi ll makes it very easy to use outside even in sunny conditions. I found I could see it clearly and operate all the menus, see my image and even adjust camera settings via the screen in all the conditions in which I used it. Inside turning the backlight down avoids blinding us and gives batteries a bit of a rest. I liked the colour rendition too, and while it may not have matched my camera monitor exactly it always seemed pretty close – and certainly close enough.

Camera Control and Touch AF

Of course all the noise around the launch of the Shinobi ll concerned the monitor’s ability to control certain exposure elements of the camera directly from the touch screen. And then a little later came the news that some camera owners would also be able to use the touch screen to direct the camera’s focus. As I mentioned before, Camera Control isn’t really new, as the Shinobi 7 had it, but this time it can be used for more than a single model of camera – and in fact Atomos has included compatibility with the recent models from most main-stream camera brands. So now it is actually a useable feature rather than something that was there but which, in practice, couldn’t be used. It’s the communication possible with USB-C that makes all the difference here – as Atomos boss Jeromy Young told us at the beginning of the year.

The idea is that we connect the monitor with the USB-C port of the camera and they begin to talk. The monitor recognises the camera, and then the aperture, white balance, shutter speed and ISO values get displayed at the base of the screen. We can adjust these values with left and right arrows either side of the text. If we activate it, we can also have a remote shutter button on the display so we can take stills or stop/start video recording.

This all sounds great, and it is in theory. In reality though the control points are very small and fiddly to use, and there are some limitations that take some of the shine off the feature. Despite my camera being able to display shutter angles the monitor would only show shutter speed in fractions, and I could only deal with white balance in kelvin instead of the usual AWB/Sunny Day/Cloudy Day etc.

A smaller number of cameras can have their AF point controlled via the monitor – so we touch the monitor display where we want the focus to be and the camera focuses on that point. It works, but again with caveats – focus is slow, focus modes switch to contrast detection and we can’t track a moving subject.

I was quite excited for this feature since I couldn’t use it in the Shinobi 7 and since Jeromy Young told me he’d implement it in a new Shinobi, so perhaps I built it up in my head a little too much. It feels a bit primitive though frankly, and as though this is just the beginning of Camera Control. I hope many improvements come this way in double quick time.

Conclusion

The 5in monitor market is pretty crowded and users have a lot of choice, so I suspect Atomos hoped its Camera Control feature would make the Shinobi ll really stand out. It could, but it needs a bit more work before I can tell you it’s a feature worth buying this monitor specifically to get hold of. However, the short-comings of Camera Control don’t mean this isn’t a good monitor, and even those whose cameras aren’t compatible with this feature will still get to enjoy a nice bright display with an excellent collection of monitoring tools in a body that is well built and well designed. As I said, there are a lot of 5in on-camera monitors available, but not too many that can match the Shinobi ll for its combination of brightness, weight, build and price – and possibly monitoring tools as well. So even without Camera Control this is still an excellent monitor, but it has the potential to be even greater with firmware updates in the future.

www.atomos.com

Price: $349/€349/£342

Dimensions (W x H x D mm): 151mm x 91.5mm x 20.8 mm (28.5mm with locking cable adaptor attached)

Weight: 210g / 7.4oz.

Mounting Points: Bottom: 1 x 1/4-inch 20 with anti-rotational points

Construction: ABS Polycarbonate Plastic

Cooling: Passive heat sink

Touch Screen: Capacitive Touch

Input Voltage: 6.2V to 16.8V

Power: Via NPF battery, USB-C PD, DC-In Connector and D-Tap via Battery Eliminator

Display Size: 5.2-inch

Resolution: 1920 x 1080

Viewing Angle: 178 + H & V

PPI: 427

Bit Depth: 10-bit (8+2 FRC)

Backlight Type: Edge-lit

Brightness (cd/m² / nits): 1500

Aspect Ratio: 16:9

Color Gamut: Rec.709

Manual Calibration: Yes, via Calibrite ColorChecker Display Pro & ColorChecker Display Plus

Gamma

Sony SLog / SLog2 / SLog3, Canon CLog / CLog2 / Clog3, Arri Log CEI160 / LogCEI200 / LogCEI250 / LogCEI320 / LogCEI400 / LogCEI500 / LogCEI640 / LogCEI800 / LogCEI1000 / LogCEI1280 / LogCEI1600, Panasonic Vlog, JVC JLog1, Red LogFilm / Log3G10 / Log3G12, FujiFilm F-Log, PQ (HDR10), HLG, Nikon N-Log

Gamut

BT2020, DCI P3, PDCI p3 65, Sony SGamut / SGamut3 / SGamut3.cine, Canon Cinema / DCI P3 / DCI P3+ / BT.2020, Panasonic V Gamut, ARRI Alexa Wide Gamut, Rec.709, JVC LS300, RED DragonColor / DragonColor2 / REDColor2 / REDColor3 / REDColor4 / REDWideGamut

3D LUT Display: .Cube format (17 & 33 points supported)

Monitoring Modes: SDR Native, HDR HLG, HDR PQ, 709 LUT, User LUT

Video Input: 1 x HDMI (1.4)

Input Bit Depth: 8 / 10-Bit

Audio In: HDMI Embedded 2-channel, 24-bit, input dependent

Audio Out: 3.5mm headphone jack, 2-channel

Resolution and Frame Rates (Monitoring): Up to 4K DCI 30fps/FHD 60p

Supported Media: SD Card for firmware & LUTs

Cine Frame Guides: 2.41, 2.35, 1.91, 1.9, 1.85, 16:9

Social Frame Guides: 9:16, 4:5, 2:3, 1:1, 5:4, 4:3, 3:2

Anamorphic Desqueeze: 2x, 1.8x, 1.79x, 1.65x, 1.6x, 1.5x, 1.33x, 1.25x

Display Flip: Horizontal & Vertical

External Device Control: USB-C and serial 2.5mm jack for Camera Control

Hollyland’s Pyro H wireless video transmission kit aims to connect cameras with external monitors and recorders that are positioned across the room, in another room or on the other side of a field. The Pyro H kit is part of a Hollyland Pyro system that includes a Pyro S kit for cameras with SDI connections and a Pyro 7 wireless field monitor that acts as both transmitter and receiver. The Pyro H kit is designed for cameras that use HDMI to connect with the outside world, and as such brings all sorts of prosumer and consumer mirrorless models into its orbit.

Even on a modest set, cables can begin to take over floor space and connected devices can only be as far apart as those cables allow.

Cables create trip hazards, restrict our movements and take up too much space in the kit box. Wireless video transmitters were born to do away with at least the longest ones, and to extend the distances possible between connected cameras and monitors. This kit claims to be able to spend 4K footage to a monitor/recorder positioned up to 400m/1300ft away from the camera, and to do so without breaking the bank.

Specification

The Hollyland Pyro H kit includes one TX (transmitter) and one RX (Receiver) unit, a coldshoe mount for the TX and a USB-C-to-USB-A converter. Each TX and RX unit comes with a pair of screw-in antenna that can be angled for optimal signal pick-up. The TX and RX units communicate via 2.4GHz and 5GHz signals according to distance and congestion, and each TX transmitter unit can speak to up to four RX receiver units at once within a group – so we can have several monitors receiving the same feed simultaneously. In addition, the TX unit has an HDMI loop-out so we can cable-connect a monitor on or near the camera too.

Hollyland has plenty of experience with these sorts of transmitters having marketed its MARS system for some time, but in the Pyro system the company has made a number of improvements, including to the range. Hollyland claims the Pyro TX and RX units can be up to 400m/1200ft apart and still communicate so long as they are in line-of-sight (LOS). That’s quite a jump from the 120m/400ft range of the MARS system. Also, now we can transmit 4K footage as well as 1080p, with ‘best’ options of 4K in 30fps or 1080p in 60fps – so good enough for external recording in high resolution as well as just monitoring.

There are a number of power options available for both units, including standard NP-F type batteries in the rear-mounted plate. Users can also power the units via an external battery to the USB-C ports or via a common locking DC power cable you might use from a D-Tap battery or from a mains power supply.

The USB-C port in the RX unit doubles as a video output too as it is USB OTG (On-The-Go) so we can plug that directly into a PC and stream to Zoom/OBS etc without the need of a separate capture card.

The units draw less than 7W and weigh 192g each, and both measure 109×62.3×33.4mm/4.3×2.45×1.3in as they are the same shape and size.

Set-up and handling

Setting up the Pyro H system really is just a question of attaching a battery and switching them on – they connect automatically and in no time at all. If you are just using one TX and one RX unit that’s pretty much all there is to say – they just work. If you are using more than one RX unit you’ll just need to activate the pairing function and wait for them to find each other. The single transmitter can communicate with up to 4 receiver units including the Pyro 7 monitor and we can transmit to mobile devices likes phones and tablets via the HollyView app – but not all at the same time. In the regular mode a single transmitter will send a signal to two receivers and two devices with the app running, and they can be up to 400m/1300ft away from the transmitter. If we need more than two receivers we switch the transmitter to Broadcast mode which allows us to reach up to four receivers but within a range of 200m/650ft.

The frequency the system operates at is chosen automatically by the transmitter, but we can easily select our own if the signal becomes interrupted for any reason.

Fortunately the TX and RX units are pretty lightweight, so they don’t add much to the heft of the rig or any handheld monitors we’re using. They need power of course, so the eventual added weight of the system will depend on how you decide to run them. The rear of each unit has a mount for a NP-F type battery, and this option is the simplest, if not the lightest. If the camera or monitor is running from a V-Lock battery and you have spare output ports we can also run the units from this – either via a USB-C cable or via a D-Tap-to-locking DC port cable. We can also run the unit from mains power if there aren’t enough other options, so we’ll never be short of electricity. The only thing we need to be aware of is that the transmitter won’t work in Broadcast mode when we’re powering it via the USB-C port.

In use

There are a lot of different uses for a set-up like this. The most obvious is to connect a camera and a monitor, but we can also record the signal via an Atomos Ninja or Blackmagic Design Video Assistant type recorder. We can also connect a receiver to a PC via USB and stream to platforms like OBS without the need for a video capture card. If your computer’s USB has power-out you can power the receiver and stream video from the one cable, which is very handy.

The range claims of 400m/1300ft seem a good deal more than most of us would need for everyday shooting, but I suppose it’s useful to have for the occasions it is needed. On a more regular basis the range hopefully means we get a stable signal at shorter distances when obstacles come between the TX and RX units – and that is what I found.

In my tests the TX and RX units could ably communicate through several domestic brick walls and maintain a clean stream from a good distance at the same time. With one TX and one RX unit in my review kit, as well as the HollyView app on my phone, I wasn’t able to test the system in Broadcast mode, but have no reason to believe performance within the 200m/650ft line-of-sight range would be any different.

There is a lag though. Hollyland says that we should expect latency of 0.06 seconds or 60ms. This may be true somewhere along the line but in practical applications I found the system delay from camera to monitor to be much more like half a second. I know there’s about 20/100sec between my Lumix cameras and the display of the Atomos Ninja/Shinobi when they are connected directly via HDMI. With the Pyro H system in between that extended to about half a second when I was running between camera and monitor, though when streaming via USB to the PC the delay was more like a third of a second. The HDMI connections between the TX and the camera, and then between the RX and the monitor clearly play a part, and while it isn’t Hollyland’s fault it is still a characteristic of using this system.

I suspect for most situations that delay isn’t especially important, but I found when shooting stills of people chatting animatedly I wasn’t able to judge the moment using a monitor connected via the Pyro H system. In less time-critical applications there will be no issue but when capturing specific moments is crucial, this isn’t the way to go. However, for most video shooting scenarios this delay will hardly matter, unless you’re a focus puller dealing with a wide aperture camera/subject movement. If you are a focus puller working in a fast changing scene you’ll be best to connect via the HDMI Loopout, as the lag falls back to the usual ≈20/100sec you’d get from a direct-to-camera cable.

We have two wireless modes to work with depending on what our priorities are. Smooth Mode uses a fluctuating bit rate to reduce latency, while HD Mode keeps the bit rate between 8-12Mbps to ensure best quality. I didn’t notice a difference in the lag between the two.

HollyView App

I wouldn’t usually give a product’s app its own section in a review, but the HollyView app is something else. You connect to the transmitter via Wi-Fi and can monitor what the camera is sending directly on the screen. That’s pretty cool on its own, but the app also allows us to monitor waveform, false colour and the kind of displays we get on a regular monitor. It also offers stretch for anamorphic lenses.

But slightly cooler than all that is the record feature. With a trigger button on the screen we can record directly through the app to our phone’s memory – and in FHD with audio too. Maybe I’m easily impressed, but I thought this was an amazing feature that lets users immediately share clips shot with a real camera – and the quality is really good too. If you shoot lots of social media content and need the footage straight away it would be worth buying a transmitter on its own just for this feature.

Conclusion

This is a pretty remarkable low-cost video transmission system that is very easy to set up, simple to use and very effective. I like that the units are lightweight and that they can be powered via a range of input options, and that they pair quickly and with no effort from the operator. The streaming via powered USB OTG to a PC is an unexpected, and very useful, bonus and makes live broadcast a simple option. Similarly, the monitoring features of the HollyView app, as well as its ability to record FHD footage directly to a smartphone or tablet, is really very impressive – and opens the system to another sector of user.

The lag while connected via HDMI cables to a camera and then a monitor is only really inconvenient for still shooters needing to capture a specific moment, but the time it takes to switch from shooting to review mode is a drag. I suspect these delays would be somewhat foreshortened when monitoring on the Hollyland Pyro 7 wireless monitor that’s part of the system, as that would cut out one of the HDMI connections. This theory is somewhat borne out by the reduced lag when the RX unit is streaming to OBS via USB. Once again, this HDMI lag isn’t Hollyland’s fault, as their part of the delay is only 60ms, but it is something to consider all the same for some shooters.

The flexibility of this Pyro H system makes it a pretty attractive option, and its expandability means it isn’t only for skeleton crews – and the price opens the door for lower-budget and owner-operators to bring in a useful collection of features that not too long ago cost a whole lot more.

Hollyland Pyro H Specifications

• £440/$480 – TX+RX kit
• £225/$240 – Extra receiver
• Frequency: 2.4GHz and 5GHz
• Max RX units: 4
• Range standard mode: 400mm/1300ft range LOS
• Range broadcast mode with 4 receivers: 200mm/650ft
• Best Quality: 4K at 30p
• Latency: 0.06s / 60ms
• Ports: HDMI 1.4b, USB 2.0 OTG
• Power Consumption: <7W
• Power Options: USB-C 5V, NP-F, DC 6-16V
• Weight: 192 per unit
• Dimensions: 109×62.3×33.4mm/4.3×2.45×1.3in

The Talos Damping Magic Arm is a new rigging accessory from Mofage – the manufacturers of the Poco PL mount adapter that takes drop-in filters. Mofage claims to be a collection of designers and filmmakers aiming to devise products that make filmmaking easier – which indeed the Poco looks as though it does. This Talos Damping Magic Arm is their latest trick – a jointed and fully rotating pair of arms with ball socket heads all controlled by a single lever handle in the middle. What is special about this arm, the company says, is that it only takes a single turn of the handle to release 80% of the arm’s grip, so it is easy to adjust but also strong enough that it won’t move once fixed into position.

As much as it can be a lot of fun to build a camera rig one of the things that very often puts a dampener on the experience for me is accessories, monitors and cameras not staying locked in the position I put them in. I have lots of miracle-promising clamps, brackets and mounts, but there are none I take out of the tool box with absolute confidence it is going to spend the whole day obediently holding whatever I want it to hold in exactly the right place. Moving accessories, swinging cameras and drooping monitors are my least favourite parts of filmmaking, so I’m constantly on the lookout for equipment that will take this pain away – hence my interest in the claims made of this arm.

Talos Damping Magic Arm: what is it?

The Talos Damping Magic Arm consists of two metal arms joined together at a locking axle. Fitted at the far end of each arm is a head for attaching to an accessory or a camera via a 1/4in 20 thread. Each of the two heads is held in place by a ball and socket arrangement, while a rotating cut-out collar around the ball joint allows the head to turn in a wide range of directions up to 90° to the main arm. When the main handle at the axle is released the whole construction becomes lose and we can adjust all the variables at the same time. Once everything is in the right place, turning the handle back again locks all the joints simultaneously.

The joint between the two arms doesn’t have the teeth we often see where things come together that need to remain firmly in place. The downside to this is that the joint relies solely on the handle being tight enough as it doesn’t have the extra security of physical obstacles to hold it in place. The upside is that the handle needs less rotation to loosen the joint to the point the arms can be made to move.

Each of the heads has a wheel to help screw the thread into where ever it is going, and the wheel has five holes that accept the end of an Allen key to allow greater tightening than is possible with bare fingers. Either side of the screw we have a pair of retracting locating pins to prevent rotation when the fitted accessory has anti-rotation holes for them to pair with.

The heads are removable too. Undoing the screw that holds them in place reveals a short pin with a 7mm diameter that Mofage, on its website, shows accepting a small tripod head. The company tells me this is a proprietary fitting that they will use for a range of accessories designed to be attached to this arm, and that there will be other accessories for the arm in the near future. A cable tidy is already being shown in social media posts. You may also note there are grooves in the sides of the heads too, that look as though they might accept NATO- or arca-type accessories but they don’t at the moment.

The arm comes in a choice of three colourways. The one shown here is called Subvert Classics Black, but if you are cooler than I am you might go for 90s Vintage Beige or Electronic Sci-Fi Silver.

In use

Despite Mofage telling us that the Talos Damping Magic Arm is lightweight I found it surprisingly heavy for its size. They have created an ‘exoskeleton’ design that sees lots of air where metal could have been, but it still weighs 0.93lbs/426g – which puts it somewhere between a 5in and a 7in monitor, or half a mirrorless camera. That’s quite a substantial addition to any rig, but at the same time this is an arm that is very solidly made and which will probably last for ever – and it is designed to support up to 11lbs/5kg. When looking at other ‘magic arm’ accessories you’ll note the Talos is lighter than the Manfrotto Magic Arm but it is also shorter – though the Talos is lighter per unit of length.

I was surprised to note that the heads on the end of the arms use 1/4in 20 screws, but I suppose it’s better to supply smaller screws that fit cameras and smaller accessories, when an adapter can easily allow the screw to fit larger threads too. The wheels that turn the screws are nice and big, and so are easy to turn and good to get a decent degree of tightness between the head and whatever you are fitting it to. I was disappointed at first that there was quite a lot of wobble when holding monitors and some rotation when holding items without anti-rotation sockets, but an Allen key in a hole in the wheel allowed me to tighten the screw properly to make all those issues disappear.

I’m not an engineer so I don’t fully understand how this is done, but Mofage has managed to create a central fastening that holds rock-solid when it’s done up but which can be finely adjusted with a quarter turn of the handle. So, when you’ve set yourself up and you realise the monitor isn’t quite at the right angle you can adjust it without having to undo the whole arm and without having to unscrew anything. A quarter turn of the handle still leaves enough strength in the grip to hold everything in place, but enough flexibility to allow us to make slight, controlled moves. This, for me, is the best thing about the arm – that I could move things easily and without a whole process. When you find the right position and retighten the arm there’s no droop either – whatever you just positioned will stay in that position. You don’t have to readjust your readjustments, as I find myself doing a lot with other clamps.

The arm obviously works to attach accessories to your rig, but it is also great as a camera handle too, and can act as a handle and hold a monitor at the same time. I used it like a miniature leg to support a camera too, and found it could balance nicely when the lower head was turned 90° to act as a foot.

Conclusion

I’m not about to tell you all my dreams have come true, mainly because that would demonstrate how sad my existence is, but this Talos Damping Magic Arm has brought a dramatic change to my shooting life. I really like that it can transform its shape and gripping angles in under five seconds, and that one moment I can be using it to support a monitor and the next as a camera handle – and that it does both things really well. As the arms are slightly off-set it takes a while to work out how to find a position in which the camera will hang straight when you are using the Talos as a handle, but once you’ve got the knack you’ll appreciate how flexible the arm is for shooting at all kinds of angles. And of course you can use it as a handle and a monitor grip at the same time. I’ve used it to mount lights and mics to the camera too, and enjoyed how simple it is to switch a position from directly over the axis of the lens to way out to the side of the camera. The Mofage Talos Damping Magic Arm really is magic, and I can’t think of anything negative to say about it. Maybe it could lose some weight, but not if that will be at the expense of how well it grips and holds accessories in position. Of course now the issue is one of these arms isn’t going to be enough.

Mofage Talos Damping Magic Arm Specifications

• Price: $129
• Payload: 5kg/11lbs Vertical/2.5kg/5.5lbs horizontal
• Max length: 30cm/11.5in
• Folded length: 16cm/6.25in
• Fitting: 1/4in 20 screw with anti-rotation pins
• Weight: 426g/0.93lbs

The Zhiyun Molus B500 is the most powerful head in a new series of bi-colour LED COB lights. The Molus series comprises four units with power ratings from 100W to 500W, taking in 200W and 300W along the way. Zhiyun is undoubtedly better known for its Crane system of gimbals for DSLR and mirrorless cameras, but it seems no one can resist the lure of the LED lighting market now that costs are dramatically reduced compared to only a few years ago. While it appears relatively easy to knock out masses of lower powered 60W and 100W heads, those in the 500W range are somewhat fewer in number, and much more expensive. This Molus B500 is interesting not only because it remains affordable despite its output, but also because it doesn’t require the bulky power packs that many other LED lights need. The company claims that thanks to a new mighty fan system Zhiyun has been able to fit the power adapter inside the head and still keep the unit small. So, we plug the light directly into the wall without any additional packs to hang on stands or to dangle from cables. 

Specification 

The Zhiyun Molus B500 is a 500W LED COB light with a variable colour temperature ranging between 2700 and 6500K.  Zhiyun says that we should expect 19200 lux at a range of 1m with the temperature set to 5500K, and 76400 lux with the supplied reflector attached. The CRI (RA) is recorded at >95 and a TLCI of >97, and Zhiyun also gives us TM-30 measurements, and indicates that the TM-30 Rf (colour fidelity) for the light is 94 on average and the TM-30 Rg (gamut index, or saturation accuracy) is 101 – so colours should be very slightly over-saturated. On the whole though, colours should be quite accurately represented. 

For the power, and considering the adapter is built-in, the head is remarkably small at 245x190x159mm, and lightweight at 2.8kg. 

The modifier mount on the front of the unit is designed to accept Bowen’s S-Type accessories. 

Handling and design

I know it isn’t important, but this light looks very cool. I really like the chrome metal cages across the fans, the blue blades of the fans and the dramatically ribbed surfaces of the housing. The housing is full of holes – more holes than plastic probably – and the whole thing looks rugged and a bit alien. Like I said, looks aren’t important, but they kinda are too. 

Its ruggedness makes it look like a big light, but in fact the body is very small – especially considering the power adapter is built in and that it outputs 500W. I think the boxy appearance is because the body forms quite even-sided cube, rather than the long cuboid shapes we might be used to.

The body is made of that sort of plastic that I’m never quite sure is strong or not. It feels brittle, but we see it so often it must be okay. I’d be nervous of dropping it, but I guess that’s a good policy with any light. The attaching mount section is also plastic, but the material here is reassuringly thick and feels well made. The main handle of the mount clamp turns to allow us to adjust the angle of the light, and pulls out so we can fold it away and turn the fitting through 360°. Connected to this mount is a locking slot for an umbrella pole of up to about 10cm in diameter. 

The power cable plugs into a fitting in the middle on the rear end of the underside of the light, and a small on/off switch is located right next to it. I rather liked this placement for the on/off switch as it’s easy to see when the light is mounted high and angled downwards  and in situations when it’s hard to see the back panel of the head. The position of this power supply plug though means the protrusion, and the cable that will be sticking out of it, rather inhibits the head when we want to angle it directly upwards – as the stand and the cable will clash. Placing it off-centre would solve this. 

The intensity and colour of the output are controlled by just two dials in conjunction with a very small display screen. The dials are large and mounted on the upper corners of the rear of the body like a pair of ears. They are each protected by cut-away plastic shields so there’s less chance we’ll turn them by accident. One dial controls the brightness in 1% increments from 1-100% when we turn it, and offers us leaps of 20% when we use the dial as a button by pressing it in. The colour temperature dial allows shifts of 100K from 2700K to 6500K, and similarly jumps to five standard temperatures when we press the dial. 

A long press of the brightness button takes us to the main menu for Bluetooth connections etc, and a long press of the colour temperature button gives us access to 13 effects with control of pulse rates and colour temperatures. 

A display panel on the rear of the head keeps us informed of what settings are in use and what options they offer. It is pretty small though and not always very easy to see when the light is mounted high on a stand. The view of this panel is also easily blocked by the rear handle of the light itself. Zhiyun makes a wired remote to go with this light, though I couldn’t get one for this review. A more universal option is the ZY Vega app, which proved to be pretty good and which connected my phone and the light in no time at all. 

The Zhiyun ZY Vega app offers great control features too, and in a format that is much easier to use then the physical dials on the light itself. The app lets us match colour temperatures using the phone’s camera and gives us access to CCT gel effects – as well as a memory to store settings that we like. The app can control multiple lights of course, and can switch them all on or off with one button. It’s worth mentioning that the app is downloadable from the official Apple and Android stores – it isn’t a direct-from-the-manufacturer’s-website kind of app. 

Performance

I’m pleased with the way this light operated during this review. I used it for quite a range of projects, from products to architectural interiors and was delighted with the power of the output and the ability it affords to adjust colour temperature without losing a huge amount of brightness. Between the 6500K and 2700K settings intensity drops from a reading of f/16 4/10th to f/11 7/10th at ISO 400 – so about 2/3rd of a stop. The daylight 5600K setting remains at f/16 4/10th while the Tungsten setting of 3200K manages f/16 on the nose – all at 2 metres, 100% power and with the supplied reflector in place. 

Colour is nicely consistent across the output range, giving us the same balance from 100% right down to 5% – and further probably, I only measured to 5%. So altering the power output doesn’t change the colour balance, which is a good thing. I needed a custom balance though to get a clean grey at 5600K as Zhiyun’s idea of 5600K doesn’t match Panasonic’s. Unlike some other modern LED lights, this unit has no green/magenta shift control, so we have to take the light as it is. I found my unit has a bit too much blue and not enough green, so without a custom white balance images turned out a touch purple looking – a combination of magenta and blue. 

In many instances this didn’t present as a problem, especially when using the light on its own. When mixed with other lights and daylight pulling the purple out of the colour mix added another small step to the image processing. I hoped I might solve the issue with a custom white balance match via the app and my phone’s camera, but that proved a little optimistic. The purple shift isn’t dramatic and it was only in really colour-critical work that it was apparent, but it is there all the same. 

The reason Zhiyun has been able to keep this head small is because it has a powerful cooling system. The system works very well so long as you keep the fans clear and allow space around the head for the intake and expulsion of the air that it needs. In practical use I found it very good and I didn’t suffer any shut downs, but in tests I had the head right up against a wall and it closed down as it couldn’t breathe. You may need to be careful using it with modifiers that requite the light to be inside the softbox. 

Powerful and effective, the fans are also quite loud when running at full pelt and really needed to be taken into consideration when placing microphones. However, while I was reviewing the light Zhiyun released new firmware which has drastically reduced the noise of the fans. They are now quiet by default and rev up a bit when the light has been running at 100% for a while – but the head is nowhere near as loud as it was, and it runs enthusiastically only for a short period. It seems to be very effective. 

Updating the firmware was really simple. You can plug the head into your computer via the USB ports and run an installation tool on your desktop, or just ask the app to do the updating. I used the app and it took about one minute to complete the process. 

Conclusion

There’s no doubt that the Zhiyun Molus B500 is a pretty powerful light, and at £700/$700 you get a lot of watts for your money when compared to other brands – in fact this seems to be about 2/3rds of the price of other similar models. For the price and the power I’d be happy to make some concessions, but there aren’t many needed. With the new firmware installed the only real downsides to the light are the slight purple tint and the small control panel. Okay there’s no DMX control possibilities, and using a phone app isn’t always convenient, but for those on a budget and needing this much power there aren’t too many other choices. It will be fine for small productions and one-person operations where we have the time to control each light via an app, and the shooter is probably dealing with lighting themselves. I’ve been impressed and, so long as the few limitations are understood, there are plenty of people who will enjoy it a great deal too. 

Zhiyun 90cm Parabolic Softbox

My Molus B500 came with Zhiyun’s 90cm Parabolic softbox, so I used it quite a lot in this review. It’s a standard sort of budget softbox that assembles in about twenty seconds as we lift the eight rods and click them into place. It comes with a honeycomb grid to fit over the front diffusion panel, and a secondary diffusion panel that clips inside the box. 

It is lightweight, quick to set-up and take down, and it only costs $150. Maybe it could do with a thicker diffuser on the front or in the middle, but I suppose Zhiyun didn’t want us to lose too much light. Users can see how they feel about the quality of light and add an extra layer if they need to. In short though it’s a decent enough choice for the money. 

Colbor is a pretty small business that has a slender range of LED pocket light panels and a mixture of single, bi-, and RGB- colour COB (Chip-On-Board) heads. The newest of its COB heads is the Colbor CL220R. The regular COB heads the company produces don’t really stand out from the crowd of other Chinese-produced low-cost lighting, but the CL220R does for a couple of reasons – that it is a RGB head for the price of a bi-colour head, and that it offers battery operation for the price of an AC-only type of unit. It costs $399, is pretty small and seems to offer new film makers the chance to work with coloured light in a more controllable way than a tube light, without a significant outlay. Low cost kit is great of course, so long as it does what it is supposed to do and it doesn’t restrict how we can use it too much.

Features

As the name suggests, the Colbor CL220R is a 220W head. Colbor tells us it should deliver 30,600lux at 1m when set to a 5600K colour temperature and the included reflector is in use. Without the reflector Colbor says we should expect 7100lux, so I’m not sure how they are doing the measurements. However they are measuring, they are only using the 5600K setting which uses the brighter LEDs that indeed relate to the 220W indicated in the name. When we switch to the RGB LEDs in the HSI mode the power drops to 100W, so expect the output to more than halve.

A notable feature of the head is that it can be powered by battery as well as via the AC adapter. That’s not much of a revolutionary feature these days of course, but it is in a head of this price – we usually pay quite a premium for this. What is quite cool about the feature too is that Colbor has built a slot track for a Nato rail on each side of the head, so we can slide in the supplied rail and attach a V-Mount adapter so the battery can hang off the body itself. Colbor’s own VM-3 adapter comes with a D-Tap to XLR cable, so we can plug the battery into the mains socket of the head. This keeps the arrangement neat and compact, and avoids any additional trailing cables. The Nato rail can be used to attach other accessories too, such as handles, bollies and to create a bank of lights by connecting two or more together on a single stand.

On the front of the head we have a standard Bowens mount, so we’ll never be short of modifiers, and the body is peppered with holes to help the fan keep temperatures under control.

There’s a solid handle on the rear to make moving and carrying the head easy, and a hinged joint that allows the head to be angled up and down. At 1.6kg the head is pretty lightweight, and measuring 240x128x219cm it is quite small too. The body is covered with anodized aluminium, but the knobs and the handle for adjusting and locking positions are made from plastic.

Modes

There are three operating modes offered by the Colbor CL220R. The primary is the CCT mode that allows us to set temperatures between 2700 and 6500K, with a magenta/green wiggle of 10 units. In this mode we can adjust the temperature in units of 100K and the output from 1% to 100% in 1% steps.

In HSI mode we can alter Hue in 1° steps, and Saturation and Intensity in single percentage steps, while Effects allows us access to a library of 13 special effects that generally involve flashing lights. We can regulate the frequency of the flashes/pulses and we have three types of emergency lights to choose from with different mixes of red, blue and white to match those of the emergency services of the location we are portraying.

We also have remote control of all these settings via a 2.4GHz connection to Colbor’s Colbor Studio App. The app lets us adjust all the same settings that the panel on the unit does, but also gives us a colour wheel to choose RGB settings. On some phones we can use a colour picker via the camera or to select colours from images in the phone’s gallery. The app is available in the Apple store but those with Android devices need to download from the Colbor website – which generally isn’t recommended. I loaded it onto an iPhone and to a wiped Android phone for this review.

In Use

I’m not a big fan of complicated operating systems that I forget how to navigate between outings for the product, so I was very pleased to be able to find my way around this light immediately and without recourse to handbook. It is very simple to use, and everything on the rear control panel is plain and self-explanatory. The buttons feel nice, they respond quickly and the dials are well made and operate as you’d expect. A slow turn moves units of change along slowly, while a quick spin can get you from 2% to 50% in no time at all.

A very nice touch is that when you are adjusting any of the values on the rear screen the numbers go super-sized so you don’t need to squint or find your other glasses.

A slight disappointment is that when under battery power we can’t turn the brightness above 50% unless the V-Mount battery is a 26V model that will cost more than the light itself. As most users are likely to hang a 14.4V battery on the side of the head – for size, weight and cost practicalities – this somewhat restricts what we can do with the head, but it doesn’t degrade the value of having battery operation entirely. What is a bit more of an issue is that we seem to lose RGB lighting completely when the battery drops below a certain power. With the Moman Power Pro 99, which has a capacity of 99Whs, this seemed to be around the 50% mark.

Another minor concern with the battery situation is that the Nato rail isn’t held firmly in place in the slot on the light, so the battery can wobble around a bit. It won’t come out, as the rail is held in place and won’t slide, but it wobbles up and down a bit. It probably doesn’t matter, but it didn’t make me feel confident that I’d hang a heavier battery for long – or indeed another light.

No one will buy this light to combat the full sun of lunchtime on a summer’s day as it simply isn’t bright enough, but I found when powered via AC it could fill nicely in daylight, and in the studio it is powerful enough to operate as a principle light source. We are blessed with fantastic noise performance in modern cameras, and obviously the higher you are comfortable to push your ISO the more use you’ll get from this light.

As mentioned earlier, Colbor quotes 30,600lux at 1m with the supplied reflector. I couldn’t read that in my tests, and found my Sekonic L-558 meter said the light reaching it was only worth 5536lux – with or without the reflector. At ISO 100 I measured 11.1EV, which translates to f/5.6 at 1/60sec. These readings were taken with the temperature set to 5600K, but with the RGB LEDs in action that reading drops to f/2.8 4/10^th for pretty much all the combinations of colours. Obviously at ISO 400 that’ll be back up to f/5.6 3/10^th with the colours on. How you’ll view that will depend on how much depth of field you need – and how close you are happy to have your lights.

Colbor claims this head has a CRI/TLCI rating of 97+, and I’m not really able to measure this with any scientific accuracy. What my basic tests showed though is that shadows contain more blue and highlights more yellow, and that greens appear a little under-saturated. White balance read from a grey card appears about right, and it remains mostly constant across the brightness range of the light.

The fan does kick in quite quickly, but it isn’t too loud. Colbor calls the system Hummingbird-Intelligence Cooling System and says it runs at less than 30dB. I noted it comes on and runs softly when the light is switched on and picks up as it needs to if the head begins to get hot. We can switch the fan control from Smart mode to Quiet or Performance should the occasion arise. If you were close with a mic you’d hear it, but normal distances will render it inaudible in most situations. The body is covered in holes, so plenty of air gets in and it doesn’t usually have to work too hard.

The app operates well and presents a much more convenient means of controlling the light – so long as your phone’s sleep settings don’t mean you have to key in a password every time you want to shift the colour. The app is well laid out, but looks a bit smarter on iPhone than it does in its Android version, but both are simple to use and give us a bit more visual control than the light’s own panel. We can also control multiple lights, and group of lights without having to move to attend each one, which is very convenient. Connection seems to take place very quickly, so there’s no waiting around while the app tries to find the light.

Accessories

The head comes in a nice semi-rigid case with a decent amount of padding to protect the unit while you load it into your car or stacking it in storage – but it’s no flight case. There’s room for the supplied AC adapter and its long cable, the 45° reflector, the case strap and a few other additional accessories. The Nato rail is also included in the kit, but the VM-3 mount for V-Lock batteries is extra ($36).

I used this with a Moman Power 99 Pro mini-V-Mount battery ($180 – https://momanx.com/) that has a capacity of 99Wh. This is one of the new generations of batteries that feature an LED information panel that tells us how much charge is left, how much is being drawn and how much longer we can expect it to power the device if the draw continues at the same rate. When connected to the CL220R I could see how many minutes I had left depending on the brightness level I was using the light at. That’s obviously really very useful indeed, especially in this case where you have to keep an eye on the power if you want to use the HSI mode. The battery has D-Tap ports either side, as well as USB-A and USB-C ports for charging it and for charging/powering other products – such as your phone. It obviously also has the regular 5-pin connection on the bottom too.

I also used Colbor’s BP90 Parabolic Softbox ($120) for this review. It’s an umbrella-style unit that quickly opens out to become a softbox with a circular front face. It comes with a thin diffuser, and has opening Velcro-style panels near the mount so we can get our hands in to attach it to the light more easily. It is lightweight and a good match for this head, as while it makes the arrangement quite front-heavy it doesn’t pull the light down from the position you set it to. I was surprised how solidly the light’s own mounting bracket held up to the pressure.

Verdict

I think I’ve made it clear that this isn’t a powerful light, but it is a useful light that doesn’t cost a lot of money. I’m attracted to the battery operation and the RGB capability, though unfortunately these are the two elements that restrict the brightness of the light and thus limit its usefulness. On paper these handicaps seem much more serious than they did in action, and so long as you are well aware of what the light can do and what to expect users can plan to use it accordingly. If you are intending to use it running on the battery and want to take advantage of the RGB functions you’ll just need a 26V battery or to take more than twice as many 14.4V batteries as you’d expect.

On the battery or via AC, I found that actually the CL220R is fine as a main light for waist-up shots so long as you are using a reasonably wide iris and a moderate ISO setting, and that it works very nicely as an accent or fill light in a daylight setting or when a more powerful light is doing the important work. For new film makers the Colbor CL220R presents the opportunity to own a RGB head that will open new creative opportunities, as well as one that performs well enough in practical situations where a CCT mode is all that’s needed. At this price you can look at it as a bi-colour AC-powered head that competes well with the other similar heads on the market – but which also offers RGB colours and battery operation into the bargain. From that perspective, it’s excellent value for money, and a lot of fun to use.

https://www.colborlight.com

Cooke Optics has opened a new test space in central London so cinematographers can try out lens/camera combinations when planning a new film. The facility, alongside a DP social area, houses a range of cameras as well as access to the full line-up of spherical and anamorphic lenses from the legendary optical manufacturer. The idea is that cinematographers can try out lenses to see which series will best suit their upcoming production and so they can get a full grasp of the characteristics they should expect before filming begins. Cooke experts are on-hand to recommend particular individual lenses or a series, according to the visual requirements of the film. Cameras and lighting are provided, along with a series of test targets designed to reveal the features of the lens. A grading suite with Blackmagic DaVinci Resolve and HDR monitors will also soon be added, so users can check their footage immediately on-screen and take it away with them afterwards.

The location of the facility, in the Fitzrovia area of London, has been chosen for its proximity to the post-production and colour houses in the Soho district, which makes it convenient for visiting DPs. While the test facility is in the basement, on the ground floor Cooke has set up a series screens to form a gallery that aims to inspire and educate at the same time. The themed gallery has seven screens around its walls that are loaded with narrated short films to illustrate different creative aspects of cinematography using example clips from famous movies.

The current theme is Focus, which is broken down into Deep Focus, Shallow Focus, Racking Focus, Split Field Focus etc, with each screen explaining what the techniques are and how they influence the viewer. The example films used are not necessarily films shot with Cooke lenses. This space is designed to inspire film makers as well as to educate students and people new to the industry, and I have to say it is really very good. The theme will change every few months I’m told.

Test targets

I visited on an opening night during a reception for rental houses, so the test area had been compressed a little into a corner so enthusiastic technicians didn’t trip over tripod legs and stands, but the main test targets and test environment were all there. I’m told there are usually three cameras to choose from, but on the night users could look through a fully rigged Sony Venice or an Arri Alexa Mini LF.

While the background cladding of the test area appears decorative, the pattern of parallel straight lines created by the strips of wood offers an ideal way to assess curvilinear distortion – to show whether the lens produces barrel or pincushion distortion, and the extent of that distortion. Cooke also offers a selection of plain coloured backdrop rolls, as well as a green screen for those who want it.

Hanging targets in the set include the latest version of DSC Labs CamBelles for checking how the lens and camera combination renders four different skin tones in one go. Also from DSC Labs is the CML Special 1.1 High Saturation Color Reference Chart, that again helps us determine how colours are rendered, but with an emphasis on primary and secondary colours with varying degrees of saturation. There’s also an X-Rite ColorChecker for more complex colours, and a Sekonic Exposure Profile Target to help get exposure right in the first place.

A vase of dried flowers and grasses provides the chance to examine a subject with high frequency detail so we can study resolution, and the parlour palm shows how crossing lines will be rendered. A string of lights give us an idea of the way out-of-focus highlights and pin light sources will look, while the record player presents the lens with a warm tone wood to contrast the lighter tones of the background.

Cooke’s Director of Product Experiences, Carey Duffy, told me the company’s S8/i FF series lenses, as well as the Varotal/i FF, the new SP3, the Macro/i FF and the Panchro Classics for full frame as well as S35 – and of course the anamorphic lenses – are all easily available, and other lenses can be brought in by request from the factory in Leicester.

He says DPs should book ahead of time to make sure the lenses they want to look at are on site, and that the test area is available. ‘It’s a great chance to get to know the lenses in a relaxed atmosphere,’ he told me. ‘There’s no sales pressure and you can take your time to really find out which lenses will suit your project best. You can shoot your tests, check the shots in the grading suite and then take your rushes away with you.’

Cooke has similar facilities, though without the gallery, at sites in Beijing and Burbank, California.

To book the test space email marketing@cookeoptics.com, and to sign up to visit the gallery go to https://cookeoptics.com/news-and-events/gallery/. You can see a list of open-house events at https://cookeoptics.com/news-and-events/cooke-london-open-house/.

Cooke London is at 39 Newman Street, London W1T 1QB.

For more information see the Cooke Optics website.

Jeromy Young is back, and he wants everyone to know. And Atomos is back, and he wants everyone to know that too. According to Jeromy, and the Australian stock exchange, the company slid into trouble while he was gone – or because he was gone. But he’s back now, and tells PVC that he has plans for new lines of Ninja and Shinobi monitors, big plans for Camera-to-Cloud and gives us details of the Ninja-controlled LED lighting Atomos will launch at NAB this year.

These topics and more are covered in this lengthy piece, but here’s a quick means of navigation…

• New Atomos strip-lights coming at NAB
• Possible 8K 60fps Ninja on the way
• Shinobi and Sumo to be updated
• Suspended shares to trade again soon
• Major firmware already announced

Young started Atomos in 2010, and when he resigned it was big news, and made the most of the national papers in his Australian homeland, though not necessarily for the right reasons. He was already on a leave-of-absence according to the then CEO Estelle McGechie, and had been pushed out of the CEO role in September 2021. He resigned from executive duties in November 2021. His resignation may have been about what was happening on the board, but may also have been influenced by his being caught traveling from a locked-down Australian state during the covid-19 pandemic. He took a luxury yacht from Sydney to Queensland to watch the Australian rugby team play France, and made headlines all over the world. The $4000 fine, which was less than the daily hire of the yacht, wasn’t much of a deterrent – especially considering the Wallabies won the match 23-21.

I met up with Jeromy at the British Society of Cinematographers Expo (BSC Expo) in London to find out what he’d been doing in the desert for the last few years, to see what he has planned next for the company he founded and to ask him how he’s going to get Atomos shares trading again.

Trust in me

‘I’ve been visiting all the major players on a big PR drive since I got back, so we’re in the US tomorrow.’ Jeromy told me. ‘We’re going to New York for four days to see the major retailers, and we’ll see Adobe, Apple and Avid while we’re there.’

‘So yeah, I’m just reconnecting with everyone, to say ‘hi’ and to let them know what we’re up to and what I need them to do so we can make things better for everyone. Atomos sits between the cameras and the software, and help to make things happen that couldn’t otherwise. Can you imagine a Canon and Apple joint product development meeting? There’d be 20 lawyers on each side and two product people. It’s never gonna happen, right, and they’ve all patented everything to the hilt and won’t want to share anything – so we sit in the middle. The camera and software companies give us their secrets so we can get the two to work together for a better end result. I’m proud to have earnt enough trust over many years that all the major players share their IP with us.

I integrate it at my end, and then encode that to Adobe, Apple and Avid formats and give everyone the benefit – so everyone likes it. We’re the Switzerland in the middle. We’re friends with everyone.’

‘Being friends with everyone is good for business, because it doesn’t matter if Canon is winning the camera war at the moment, if Sony is winning or if Apple is winning – we’re always on the winning side.’

‘Whoever isn’t winning comes to ask us what they should do, and I tell them what I think should happen. I went to the main camera-makers three weeks ago to ask them to do certain things for us. They in turn asked me what we are doing next, so I told them what I’m planning for the next generation. They all said ‘And which manufacturer are you seeing next?’ When Canon asked I told them I was going to Nikon next, and that I was going to ask them exactly the same things – and tell them exactly the same things. They all get the same information, and it’s up to them what they do with it. I started the trip with three cameras on the plan for Atomos support in the next six months, and left with 14 on the list.’

‘Personal relationships and trust are really important in this business, and when a new monitor/recorder manufacturer comes along they haven’t got that trust and the camera brands aren’t going to pay attention. They’d be worried about giving information away. They know they can trust me and that when the product is launched I’ll make a big noise about it. That way everyone’s a winner.’

Since you’ve bin gone

‘When I left Atomos I was planning on starting a new company working with some engineers I know from Japan and China. Obviously I didn’t want to kill Atomos, and I was a bit restricted, but I had a lot of ideas. I’ve been doing two main things while I’ve been away. I’ve made a Ninja to beat the next generation Atomos Ninja, but now instead of making a new business I’ve been able to bring that with me into Atomos. You’ll see that in the next six months. It has a lot of what the Ninja does now, but with some slightly different angles on it.’

‘I’ve also been working on some lights. I’ve got an engineering team in Japan I used to work with, who weren’t Atomos guys. I know they are really good and their skill-sets fitted those I needed. I also teamed up with one of my first bosses in the industry, Peter Barber from Blackmagic Design. He called me up and said ‘What’s going on with your former company, and what are you doing?’ I told him I was working on lights and some monitors, and he said ‘Well, we should do that together’, and then he said ‘You know what, we probably should use your old brand’, because we know how hard it is to make a new company – it’s like a 10-year journey. As you know, Atomos wasn’t doing very well, for lots of reasons. They’d just lost relationships and they’d lost the core essence of promoting together. You know we have to sell cameras – Atomos sells cameras because if there’s no camera there’s no Ninja on top of it. Our job is to sell the camera first and then ask users to put a Ninja on top, and Atomos had forgotten about that. They had made it all about themselves and not about our partnerships. It was never the strategy to be the leader. We’re a great number two. It’s our job to enable those cameras to do more. If we can’t do that we become irrelevant.’

Lights

‘We’ll launch the lights at NAB. They’re full sun-spectrum LED lights. We’ve come with a different approach, so these lights are for HDR and high-end results, but we’ve designed them so they are accessible to the masses. Right now there are three big problems with lights; lights aren’t waterproof, but ours are – it doesn’t matter if it starts raining, the lights still work. Lights are often difficult to set up and control, and you have to keep running back and forth between the camera to light to keep checking what the image looks like. Because of this a lot of people get tired of running and make a compromise, so their results aren’t as good as they could have been. People often just flood the scene too, because cameras are calibrated to sunlight and as soon as you shoot in light that isn’t sunlight they don’t perform very well. You’ve got to increase the brightness of the light to get more light into the camera, but all the LEDs in the world skew to blue and red and so the camera doesn’t perform perfectly. They’re just not calibrated to work that way. If you could go back to the factory and recalibrate the camera’s sensor for that light, then you’d get a good result, but that’s not going to happen.’

‘So over the last year and a half I’ve patented a bunch of technologies to make a group of LEDs that represent perfect sun spectrum to 99.1%. It’s the closest you can get and the cameras perform really well under them.’

‘I wanted to also solve this studio-style light flooding too, as creative lighting is soft and nuanced, and it is supposed to match real life. You know, when you’re in a good restaurant in ambient light you can still see everyone and your food, but the light is nice, soft and creative. However, the form factor of lights for stills and video is really restricted, and there just isn’t much choice. You’ve got Arri at the top and then you’ve got China crap – and me thinks there’s a hole in the middle. There’s a space in the market for a reputable brand that knows what it’s doing. I don’t want to make what everyone else is making, so I’ve got strips of lights that come in three, six and twelve-metre lengths – that’s 10 feet, 20 feet and 40 feet for the Americans – that you can mount anywhere. They can go behind the sofa, under the table you are sitting at and any area that would have normal ambient lighting. And, they can all be controlled by a Ninja – that huge issue of having to run around to adjust the lights and then come back to look through the camera will be eliminated. It will also mean people can use their light more and get more out of them, as they will be really convenient to set-up and use.’

‘Regular lights are really heavy too, but these aren’t. They are flexible PCBs with a six-colour LED arrangement that can match sunlight and tungsten perfectly. You can shape them any way you want – so you can whack them in a lamp so that the lamp can be lit and controlled correctly. It will also be matched and calibrated to all the other lights of ours that you use on the set. You can twist them into a dense spiral and put a diffuser on it to make a panel light, but one that’s much softer than usual – and you’ll be able to control it better. These lights will be COB replacements, and will replace the ambient lights around the room.’

‘Every 50 centimetres (20in) you can control the temperature, the colour and the brightness, so you can put colours and brightness exactly where you want them. And all those incremental changes can be made on the Atomos Ninja. We’ll also be using time code systems protocol so you can synchronise the lights to the sensor to avoid flicker.’

‘These lights only weigh 800 grams (1.7lbs) for the three metre one, so you can jam five in a bag and it’s only a few kilos, and we’re solving lots of problems for the user. They are battery and mains powered, and we’re going to do a receiver for DMX control so that a Ninja can control other lights if they’ve already got DMX built-in. I don’t want to take over the lighting arena, but I do want to provide a better solution that’s really unique to us for our pro-video, low-end broadcast and high-end influencer markets.’

‘I want to give them something really affordable too – it’s gonna be a third the price of the cheap China stuff. Because I can do a lot of processing in the Ninja I don’t have to do it on the light, and we’ve got all this technology already running. At the moment you control the lights from the Ninja, but if you plug a separate time code transmitter into the camera you’d be able to control the lights from the camera – but I need to work with the camera manufacturers to get them to add DMX controls first.’

‘They’re going to be great for theatres, weddings, school concerts, music concerts too, because they are very powerful. At the moment we’re getting between 400-500W for every three metres, but I want to pump that up slightly. I think 500W is good number, but obviously you can always turn them down if that’s too bright. You’ll also be able to put more power to one end so that will go even brighter as the drivers are cascaded through the line.’

‘I’m really excited about the lights because I want to make things easier and more automated for the next generation. You get these new people come into the industry and they want to be Stanley Kubrick or Steven Spielberg, but then they have to shoot weddings every week. I want to give them the kit that lets them do the bread-and-butter work that pays the gas bill, but to also give them the tools when they want to do their creative projects and film festivals. The worlds of pro video, cinema and the influencer are all combining, and we’re in a unique position to feed them better workflows to make them more profit and to give them more time for their creative work.’

Old dog, new tricks

‘I started the Internet-connected Ninja project before I left Atomos, and the team completed it while I was away. They’ve done a pretty good job, but it isn’t exactly as I would have done it. I wouldn’t have put so much capability into every Ninja product as there’s a definite place in the market for a standard $500 Ninja without all the extras. I would have put the Internet connection in the Sumo as well, which is one of the things I’m working on now. It’ll give the Sumo an upgrade and keep it relevant. It’s important not to leave customers behind, and I think Atomos has been doing that a bit. To rectify this I’ve just upgraded all the older Ninjas to the new OS and given people a really easy path to all the new features. $70 gets you everything. What some companies don’t understand is that when you try to eke money out of different product lines or different versions they make so much work for themselves. It also restricts customers who see a nice feature but they haven’t upgraded yet and now there’s a barrier. It’s hard enough to get users into you ecosystem and away from competitors, so you don’t want to make barriers. I’ve just upgraded all the Ninjas and all the Shoguns to the same level so that now everyone gets all the new features. People shouldn’t have to go buy a new version of a product they already have when it’s obvious that the new features would work in the older version. It’s contrived and it just says you want to hurt your customer. It doesn’t make long-term business sense.’

Camera to Cloud 9

‘Recently Atomos has only been promoting itself, as well as the idea you can do all your production on the Internet now. What does working in the cloud mean to the customers? They don’t understand what that is because they’ve still got to take the camera and their tripods, and set them all up and do the job. It doesn’t seem to make sense.’

‘So now I’m changing the message around the cloud services – they are add-ons to speed-up your workflow, make you more money and give you more time. If you can send files progressively to a Frame.IO, a Sony cloud receiving system, or an editor and editing package that can receive the file, you don’t have to take your discs out, manage them and go back to the studio. You could have your editor waiting for them on the day, and you’ll be able to turn that project around one to two to three days faster. Now that’s valuable. Your footage can be edited while the wedding’s still going on. Our Camera to Cloud service is 15 bucks a month. I don’t expect everyone to understand it or know why they need it yet, but if I give it to you now one day you’re going think ‘I’ll give that a try’. And when you do, and find that $15 bucks saves 500 quid a day for an editor, you’ll be pleased that you did. So, I’m giving everyone six months of Camera To Cloud for free to try it out.’

‘I think all Ninja owners could use the Camera To Cloud service and save themselves the hassle of the drives and the cards. What takes a big workflow change is that you don’t need to mess around with the files on the media – they’re hash-checked and they’re sent. Yes, you can do proxies if you if you want, but while proxies are good it doesn’t take that much longer just to send the ProRes or the RAW files. Maybe the ProRes files will take twice as long as the proxies to load to the cloud, but if the proxies of your two-minute shoot take two minutes to send we’re only talking about another two minutes for the ProRes files. What does that extra time matter? It’ll take you an hour to pack up your stuff anyway so, by the time you’re finished packing up, the files are already up there. So there’s a huge workflow improvement for something so simple. If you’ve just shot on six Ninjas you have to label all the media and download the files in the studio – or you connect the Ninjas to the cloud and have it all loaded automatically and organised with metadata. You can send the files directly to a NAS as well, and we’re working on a list of providers that accept our protocol and growing their numbers – we’ll announce that at NAB too.’

‘The second part of the internet connectivity is live TV-style production. When grandma can’t be at the wedding because she’s in hospital she gets a single locked-off YouTube version. For five bucks an hour you can do an 8-camera shoot that has titles and graphics, as well as VTs in there on the history of the couple or the location. You just have to add it on to your price list. For three hours that will cost you 15 bucks, but you can charge an extra 500 quid on top of the normal fee. You don’t need an OB van for every event, but if a lot of the family are abroad that’s another service you can offer. And you can try that for free for six months as well.’

‘We’re promoting these two services, but we’re not going to become a subscription-based company. People need hardware, and so do we. Why do Google make phones? Because they need to be a hardware company too.’

Sore BRAW

On a recent ‘Atomos Live Stream’ on the company’s YouTube channel presenter Photo Joseph asked Young whether it would ever be possible to record BRAW on a Ninja. The question seemed like a set-up and designed to wind-up Blackmagic, but I’m assured it wasn’t. So, could it ever happen? ‘It could for sure but that’s up to Grant (Grant Petty, the CEO of Blackmagic Design). Grant is a genius, but he likes to work on his own and doesn’t like dealing with other companies, while we feel part of a team. To make this happen he needs to tell us how to pack the RAW data from cameras into the BRAW format. We don’t have a license, or the information to pack it into Blackmagic Raw, to do the processing in the right order and to put the right file container on it for Resolve to read. Alternatively, there are ways around the problem of getting ProRes RAW into a format Resolve can work with, but they aren’t ideal for the customer. From RAW you have to go to a standard video file, so ProRes RAW to ProRes 444 would be an option – in fact I made a tool that might be a good for this at the start of the ProRes RAW ecosystem. It’s 90% finished but was never released. The files get big though and you lose about 10% of the creative flexibility of the image, but 444 is the Arri ProRes workflow and you can still grade the hell out of it. Of course you can use third party software to convert ProRes RAW to BRAW, but that needs to be made easier and maybe automated so it just pops out the other end. So, there are workarounds, but like I said, they aren’t ideal for the customer – users just want to have a file they can work with. Or you could go the other way and incorporate ProRes RAW into Resolve, but again that’s a decision for Blackmagic. We know Apple wants everyone to have ProRes RAW. It’s not a secret, and it’s not exclusive to us. I last asked Grant a couple of years ago, but we don’t really have dialogue – I’m not his favourite person. I’d be happy to have this conversation with him, as I’ve always respected him – he was one of my first bosses and I learnt a lot from him. He’s a great pioneer of do-it-yourself, not compromising and of using technology to solve problems, and he’s built an amazing and huge company. We’d love to record Blackmagic RAW, and we’d love him to put ProRes RAW into Resolve. Everyone wants that.’

8K 60fps: What’s Next ll

‘The next generation of Ninjas will be doing wider dynamic range for better HDR, and the screens will be leading again – the Chinese have almost caught up with us because no one at Atomos has really been paying attention. The Chinese manufacturers don’t know what to do next, but we do. They’re not quite there yet, but I’m gonna run away again. There are some amazing technologies out there, like transparent screens – the brighter the sun, the brighter the monitor. How good is that? They’re made for tablets, but they’re perfect for video production with our processing, RAW input, awesome colour and brightness.’

‘So I think the next generation of Ninja will offer 4K 240fps, 4K 120fps, 8K 60fps and beyond or we use the wider bus to have, let’s say, 16bit HDR – or 12bit of 14bit or whatever’s coming from the camera. When that happens you will need a new Ninja to step up to that new workflow. Otherwise I don’t want to sell you a new one if you’re happy with what you have and it’s still cranking out projects and making a profit. I don’t want to sell you something you don’t need, or make you buy something you don’t want. That’s why we’ve got the following we’ve got, and why even after a couple years in the wilderness, when the company wasn’t really delivering on what Atomos is about, the business is still super strong. Most customers are still using the Ninja V and don’t even know that I was gone – and that’s fantastic.’

I ask about camera control in the Shinobi. ‘Watch this space.’ Young says. ‘How long do I need to watch this space for?’ I ask. ‘About three to four months. There’s a hardware change required so it will be a new Shinobi – but you can expect Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and USB controls. That will link to the Ninja straight after that. If you are controlling lights and stuff, you’ll want to control the camera at the same time and automate how that all works together. So that’s a focus for me – and before I left I asked the engineering team to fix this, but it hasn’t been addressed.’

Return of the Native

‘Coming back to Atomos and into the industry has been humbling; people are genuinely pleased to see me – internally and in the trade. Me leaving was a board move – they didn’t want me on the board anymore so I resigned. Someone thought that they could do it better and they just weren’t the founder. Tech companies need a founder leading the business because they understand all the little nuances and what the customers really want. I’ve just added a three-year warrantee because people were worried about service. We weren’t getting back to people quickly enough, so I’ve beefed up the ‘getting back to people’ team. That’s what matters to customers, along with explaining the cloud thing better and going back to the camera manufacturers to tell them we still love them. Not many people will need the three-year warranty as our failure rate is about 0.2% and if it’s going to go wrong it will do in the first week because of transit – but it shows we stand behind our products.’

‘The chair of Atomos is a really cool guy called Paul Greenberg. He’s a serial public company chair who’s known for billion dollar deals where companies not only grow but really thrive into a bigger player. He understands people, he’s a calming influence and doesn’t want to go near the executive stuff.  The previous chair, who was the architect of me not being at Atomos anymore, thought he could do the job himself, whereas this guy just wants to support. So the board is Paul Greenberg, Peter and me. The previous board was bit stale from what had happened and the decline in value of the company. Also, the staff weren’t founders, so they just made these little mistakes everywhere that aren’t obvious, and they didn’t really understand the DNA of the business. It’s so important for me to be there because without me the DNA isn’t there. You have to understand the reasons why the products are built, how they work, who they serve and how they fit in everybody’s workflows. How many other CEOs are doing demos on their booth? I’ve been doing it for 12 years, but most CEOs think that’s not their job.

You learn so much talking to users on the booth, and you have to lead from the front.’

Share and shares alike

‘Yes, our shares are still suspended, but I can answer the question of how we fix that next week. You absolutely should buy some when they come back on line. We’re discussing with the exchange (ASX – the Australian stock exchange) because there was a note from the auditors in February last year that said they were worried about the going concern of the company. The company never got its stuff together to refute that at the same time, but we’ve just done that. I don’t have any shares anymore, so I need to get on the share register otherwise I’d be better off doing other things. So we’re going to raise some capital to kick this off – we’ve already been raising investment interest, so that will happen within the next one to two weeks. As soon as the exchange says they’re satisfied – and we’re right at the end of that process – the shares will trade again. If anyone from the ASX is reading this, we’re ready to build a big awesome Australian company. We need to re-establish trust in the management. People know I’ve done it all before, so we’re really confident that you’ll see shares come back on soon. And they’ll be a better price than six-cents a share.’

I ask Young why he’s back at all. He reportedly cashed $10-million shares when he left Atomos and could have ridden off into the sunset to spend the rest of his life at leisure. ‘I missed it. I’m a workaholic and I missed it, and I missed all my mates and coming to shows like this (BSC Expo). It’s been a fantastic show, and every two minutes I see people I know. I’ve been coming here 20 years to do this stuff, so yeah, it’s my family. I built Atomos and it felt really wrong not being in it. So now I’m back.’

www.atomos.com

Looking around recently at 7in on-camera monitors, I noted that the choice isn’t as wide as I had expected. Units that are bright enough to use outside seem to cost quite a lot, while those that are priced in a range affordable to new filmmakers lack some key features and elements of specification that allow flexibility and growing room. I was also surprised to find that the Atomos Shinobi 7 has a price that makes it accessible while at the same time offering features that, on paper at least, appear to make it good value. Atomos isn’t a brand I always associate with products that cost less than I expected, so I was surprised. I then wanted to see if it is actually any good, and how it stands up almost two and a half years after its launch. 

Physical Features

The Atomos Shinobi 7 is the larger of a 2-part series of non-recording camera monitors. The other is a 1000nit 5-in monitor simply called Shinobi, which came out before this model in 2019. The original model has a single battery plate and accepts HDMI only – there was a 3G SDI version but that seems to have been discontinued. The Shinobi 7 differs not only in the size of its display, but also in the input/output options it offers, its power solutions and its brightness – among many other things. 

The key feature of the unit is the 1900×1200-pixel screen that measures 7in across, and which offers a maximum brightness of 2200nits. That 2200nit peak means the screen should be clearly visible when working outside on a sunny day – and that the Atomos Shinobi 7 is a whole lot brighter than the majority of monitors of this type. But that’s not all it offers. 

Without the need for recording media, there’s a lot more space on the back of the monitor. You’ll find plates that allow two NP-F Type batteries to be mounted at the same time, along with a series of connection ports. We have 1.5/3G SDI in and out, as well as HDMI 2 – also in and out. We also able to cross the ports to feed an image in through HDMI and take it out via the SDI – or visa versa. If a 4K signal is supplied via the HDMI the Shinobi will output HD resolution from the SDI port, and a LUT can be applied on the way through to another monitor. You can feed the unit a 4K 60p stream via the HDMI and take the same out via HDMI, but the 3G SDI only allows 2K 60p either way. 

When we aren’t using NP-F batteries, we can power the screen via the locking DC input port, either with the included mains supply cable or via an optional adapter for V-Lock type batteries. There’s also a USB A port and an RJ45 Ethernet port, neither of which as yet has a use – they are provided for ‘future developments’, such as expanded camera control features that will widen the range of compatible models. Perhaps we will be able to network the monitor too at some stage. 

On one side of the device you’ll find a SD card slot for loading firmware and LUTs to the brain, and on the other side Atomos has given us remote control and headphone ports. The remote control port allows us to control a number of camera functions via the monitor screen, but at the moment the system is compatible only with the Z-Cam E2. With a LAN adapter the remote port can also be used to connect the monitor to a PC so that the screen can be calibrated using the Atomos Calibration software and an X-Rite i1Display Pro calibration tool. 

We have mounting points on the top and bottom of the monitor, each with anti-rotation holes to prevent slippage, and fan vents occupy the space either side of the mounting points. It is all very nicely designed. 

Build and Handling

Made with ABS polycarbonate plastic, the monitor is remarkably lightweight at just 577g/1.04lbs – before you attach the batteries of course. With batteries added the story changes quite a lot, as a pair of NP-F750 batteries brings almost 400g to the burden – but at least Atomos has done what it can to keep the main part of the kit light. 

Despite the light weight, the body feels solidly built, pretty tough, and as though it will last well in a professional environment. As the unit I reviewed wasn’t mine I took the precaution of adding the SmallRig 3456 cage to ensure it was returned in the same condition. The cage has the benefit of not only protecting the edges of the monitor but also of adding clamps for the HMDI ports and additional mounting points for other accessories. The HDMI ports are, though, quite tight – in this unit anyway – and cables are not likely to come lose or be accidently pulled out. The cage can also add a sun hood, which can be very useful. A slight downside of this cage is that it uses the central mounting point of the Shinobi to attach itself, and then doesn’t offer us an alternative for mounting the monitor. Thus, screw-in monitor mounts have to be attached off-centre or we have to find a different way to attach the cage to the camera with a mount that has a longer screw. The cage has NATO rails top and bottom, which can also be useful, but they aren’t always the answer. 

Atomos has built a lip around the on/off button so we won’t press it by accident, though we also have the same safeguards that come with the Ninja recorders that require a long press to turn the monitor off – a short press locks the button. The unit starts up quite quickly to display the screen layout, and images from the camera are received in no time at all. 

On-screen features

If you have used an Atomos product before, you will find your way around this one very easily, as the OS is familiar and reasonably straightforward. The range of options is extensive but not overwhelming, as Atomos has managed to produce a user interface that makes sense and which allows most features to be found quite easily – after a bit of practice. 

Almost every monitor display feature you can imagine is offered within the operating menus of the Shinobi 7. We have all the regular magnification (up to 4x) modes, as well as focus peaking with adjustable colours, strengths and the options to display only the peaking without the image or to show the peaking against a monochromatic rendition of the image. We also have false colour, adjustable Zebra patterns, a waveform and RGB parades, Vectorscope, a histogram, blue channel for noise detection, as well as the Analysis mode that shows the image with miniature waveform, histogram and vector displays all on one screen. We also have ten aspect ratio options as well as five anamorphic de-squeeze choices from 1.25x to 2x. 

We can monitor up to eight channels of audio, load up to eight LUTs, flip the screen vertically and horizontally, and employ Native, Rec.709, HLG and PQ profiles for the on-screen image. 

The monitor can accept a 4K 60p feed via HMDI or 2K 60p via SDI, and most camera brands are recognised for automatic image processing for the display, or we can switch off and just view a Rec.709 rendition. 

In use

On start-up the device’s fan really kicks in, but it calms down once it has stretched its legs and remains at a low hum level from then on. If you are concerned the fan is a little noisy it can be switched to a ‘low’ mode, but screen brightness may be restricted when temperatures rise. Outside in British weather, I suspect I’d never need the fan on or suffer a brightness drop due to increasing temperatures, but in the studio and in places blessed with more sunshine, the fan will likely be needed. It comes on by default, so you can determine how you want to deal with it. Close to a mic, the sound of it will be picked up. 

The next thing you will notice about the screen is how astonishingly good it looks, as it is bright and full of contrast. The 10-bit display (8+2FRC) delivers a bold image but one that appears to show extreme tones without loss of detail to either peak highlights or shadows, and colours are accurate and easy to view. Indoors there may be occasions when you will need to turn down the backlight to preserve your own vision, but outside it comes into its own. Even on the brightest day the picture and menu displays are clear to view and use, but not only in a practical, functional way – you can actually see what you are shooting clearly, and you can judge colour and exposure without having to go inside or put a blanket over your head. The glass panel covering the screen is very reflective, but the 2200nit display just punches through so we can see exactly what we are doing. After using this, it will be hard to go back to anything that isn’t as clear. 

Controlling the panel and menu through the on-screen interface is made much easier by the highly reactive touch system in the Shinobi 7. There won’t be occasions in which you are jabbing your finger at the screen in frustration, as the slightest touch is enough to get you where you want to go. The touch zones are precise too, so you won’t miss or touch something else by mistake. It helps that the screen is large and that there is plenty of space for the icons and displays, but even cold and wet fingers get a response. This is an important aspect for me, as unresponsive touch screens can really ruin my day. 

As with other Atomos products, there are often a couple of ways to get to the same feature, which works well for set-up as well as on-the-fly changes and checks. 

The screen might feel a bit big when mounted on smaller cameras, and where the 5in Atomos Ninja feels at home the Shinobi may not. It definitely suits a fully rigged camera on a shoulder mount better than it does a bare body with a hotshoe when shooting handheld. It can feel a little big on a Micro Four Thirds body, for example, especially when it’s packing a pair of batteries, but put the camera on a tripod or add a cage with a handle and the balance begins to return. Not once, though, did the monitor feel too big when mounted directly on a stand or on a handle for focus pulling. 

I’m never happy with battery life, and found here again batteries run down too quickly. That’s the price you pay for a big, bright screen I suppose, but at least with hot-swappable dual battery plates we don’t need to switch off to change them. Atomos says a 5200mAh NP-F750 should last up to two hours, but time flies when you are having fun, and that quoted figure will be with the screen brightness turned all the way down and the backlight off. Even in that state the monitor is very useable, but where’s the joy in that? On full blast you should expect about an hour per battery. 

I wasn’t able to test the monitor in its camera-control mode as I don’t have a Z Cam E2, but those who do will have the option to adjust shutter speed, aperture, ND values, ISO and White Balance directly from the screen, as well as to delve into the main menu system of their camera. I really hope Atomos adds compatibility with other models and brands at some stage – though after two years and no update I’m not sure how realistic that hope is. Officially the USB and RJ45 ports are going to be used for this purpose, but we shall have to wait and see. It would be a really useful addition, particularly for other box-style cameras. 

Conclusion

This is a stunning bit of kit that works brilliantly as an on-camera screen as much as an off-camera monitor for focus pullers and directors. When powered via the mains it’s light enough to carry around all day and, even with a pair of batteries attached, it is a whole lot lighter than it looks. What I like about it most though is that it is big and bright, and the colours look spot-on straight out of the box. That it is so easy to see outside in bright light makes it very much more relaxing to use for long periods. There’s no squinting or leaning in for a better view needed, and the picture you get to see can either inspire you or make it particularly obvious where you are going wrong. For focus pullers, either stand-alone or behind the camera, the clarity of the view is a blessing and will make a significant difference when compared to using a regular 5in monitor – it is just better all round. And while larger monitors will offer a better view, the Shinobi 7 is small enough that you can actually walk around with it so you don’t have to remain in a fixed position by a stand. 

Going back to one of my first points, the Atomos Shinobi 7 isn’t expensive, and compared to what else is on the market it is remarkably good value. When you try to match the display size, brightness, connections, build, features and price it is actually very hard to beat. 

For more information visit www.atomos.com. To purchase the Atomos Shinobi 7 please visit Filmtools.  

Blazar is a brand new name in the market, but not a brand new player, as this is just the new name for Great Joy. If you haven’t heard of Great Joy either it’s a company that first launched a screw-on 1.35x anamorphic adapter along with a 60mm 1.33x lens almost exactly two years ago, and which went on to produce three very nice, and very affordable 1.8x anamorphic lenses for S35 which almost covered full frame. Unfortunately, the ‘Great Joy’ name was seen as a bit ‘uncool’ by a lot of vocal users, so the company listened and changed it to something less interesting but presumably more widely acceptable – Blazar. 

Blazar also started with an anamorphic adapter called Nero, and has now moved into the complete lens market with these three 1.5x anamorphics. What makes these interesting is that they are designed for full-frame systems and that they are pretty small considering their maximum apertures. 

It wasn’t too long ago that it was hard to find a decent anamorphic lens that didn’t cost the Earth, but in the last five or so years, we’ve seen quite a flurry of lenses affordable enough for camera operators to actually own rather than rent. Sirui has been a big player in this area and now other manufacturers are joining in, including Great Joy, Laowa and now Blazar. With so much competition in this lower-cost arena, there is some pressure to produce something a little different to what is already on offer. In the past Great Joy achieved this with its more moderate anamorphic flare that made the look the lenses produced a little more enduring than the dramatic and over-powering blue flashes of some of the other manufacturers’ optics and which gave users a genuinely different set of characteristics to work with. It makes sense then that we might expect more of the same from these Blazar lenses. As is popular these days, the lenses will be available with blue or amber flare. 

The 1.5x factor

While many filmmakers think of a 4:3 sensor when considering shooting an anamorphic movie, times have moved on and many of the lower-cost mirrorless cameras on offer today don’t provide a 4:3 frame to work with. The reality is that many will shoot in 16:9 as they would with a spherical lens and will want to fit their results onto a standard 2.39:1 anamorphic screen. If you shoot 4:3, this 1.5x factor doesn’t make too much sense, as it delivers a fat 2:1 aspect ratio, but shooting in 16:9 will give us a frame just wider than the rather nice 2.66:1 aspect ratio that was once an early standard widescreen CinemaScope aspect ratio and which is very close to the 2.55:1 that was produced when sound was added to the film (Ben-Hur/La La Land). Hasselblad also used 2.66:1 in the 64x24mm XPan, and Panasonic still offers it in most of its S-series Lumix cameras. It’s a very nice-looking format, and though much wider than the 2.39:1 we see most often, but it can easily be cropped to fit a range of finished picture formats. 

I suspect though, the main issue will be that filmmakers might think 1.5x isn’t anamorphic enough to get the classic look of distorted backgrounds that make the focused subject jump out of the frame and that out-of-focus highlights might be too round instead of that magical cat’s eye oval. However, while we might lust after 1.8x and 2x anamorphic lenses, the proof is that many companies have shown there is a market for these lower-factor lenses. Sirui’s 1.33x lenses seem to have done well, and Laowa’s Nanomorph set is also 1.5x. The difference here is that these lenses cover full frame sensors, as well as the S35 and Micro Four Thirds formats other low-cost lenses are made for. 

General design

When I opened the neat hard case the lens set comes in I was struck by how different these lenses look to anything else on the market. The silver front section of the barrel and the matching lens caps really make the lenses stand out, and the transparent back caps complete a pretty cool style statement. 

The three lenses in the set really do match each other to the point that we need to read the barrel to know which lens we have picked up. The case has named places for each lens, which helps, but when they are all sunk into place or in another bag, it is impossible to tell one from the other – the sides of the barrel are the only places the focal length is indicated. The lenses are different sizes of course, but when they are not side by side, this is of not much help. 

The front section of the barrel features a cut away to reveal distances on the focus ring in feet, while the other side of the ring shows us the same information in metres. The white paint is sunk into engraved figures so it won’t wear off, and it stands out nicely from the matt black background. Apertures are similarly marked on both sides of the barrel, and users will note that the spacing between T stops is greater at the wide settings than it is at the smaller settings, to the point it will be hard to be accurate with fractions of a stop between the smallest apertures. T16 and T22 are extremely close together. 

The focus and iris rings are ribbed with regular 0.8 Mod gears for follow-focus and lens control systems. The gears on my samples are somewhat thinner and shallower than those that will grace the final production models, as early testing has shown them hard to align with follow-focus equipment and not deep enough for a firm grip. At the time of writing, the company couldn’t tell me exactly how much wider and deeper the gears would be, but they got it right with the Great Joy lenses, so I have few doubts they won’t correct this in an effective manner. 

The two rings are quite close together though, and when operating the lenses by hand, there were more than a few occasions on which I shifted the aperture when I meant to shift the focus. The closeness also makes it very difficult to mount lens control systems for both rings on the same side of the lens. 

The lenses are remarkably small for full-frame anamorphics and are also light enough that you can carry all three easily. Despite the size and weight though Blazar gives us a support thread at the front of the barrel for securing the lens to a rig and for taking the strain off the camera mount. This thread is positioned quite close to the front of the lens though, so those with clamp-on matt boxes will need to check they have enough room to attach it. Two decorative-looking engraved rings sit between the thread mount and the front of the lens, which might help as slot-in places. Although the backside of the sleek lens caps is free of text, the thread for the filters and accessories is 77mm. The thread isn’t very deep, and while regular filters screw-in nicely larger accessories may feel insecure. My H&Y Revorings needed extra attention to ensure they were in properly. 

The way a lens looks shouldn’t be important, but Great Joy recently discovered even a brand name is important. These lenses look very nice and quite space-age when they are off the camera and very cool as a set. However, as there are no silver cinema or mirrorless cameras these days, some might feel they look a little odd when mounted to a black camera. They stand out and make the kit look a bit unbalanced. Like I said, the way a lens looks shouldn’t matter, but it kinda does. 

The set I used here were mounted for PL, but they will also be available in EF, and users will be able to buy mounts separately to interchange themselves.

This video shows how these lenses respond to point light sources passing through the frame, and how out-of-focus highlights are represented. The performer is Anna Kachaienko

Anamorphic up front

People do like anamorphic flare, and as much as the Great Joy lenses offered a nice moderate amount of these streaks across the frame when confronted by a point light source, they did so in varying degrees because of their differing optical construction. In this Remus set though, we have all the anamorphic elements up front. This is easy to spot partly due to the rectangular baffle behind the front elements but also because when the iris is viewed through the front of the lens it looks oval. Viewed from behind it is round. 

Most anamorphic lenses are designed with their anamorphic group at the front because it enhances all the anamorphic characteristics we expect to see – oval highlights, lots of flare and that distorted background. I think this placement will please most users. 

Blazar Remus 45mm T2

The 45mm T2 is the wider of the lenses in this set and when mounted to a full-frame camera, will deliver a horizontal focal length of 30mm. It is also the smaller of the set, and the lighter at 90mm and 720g. The lens will focus to 2.23ft/0.68m and has an aperture range of T2-22. All of the lenses have 16 iris blades and a focus throw of 150°. 

This 45mm isn’t an especially sharp lens, but its resolution will probably look fine in 4K for most situations. It doesn’t really get sharp at any stage either but is best between T8 and T11. I’m not sure it is really supposed to be sharp in a technical sense, as the three lenses offer a retro glow about their images that could be considered ‘cinematic’. Here though, the chromatic separation that gives us red and cyan edges may not to be to everyone’s taste. The separation is horizontal, so of course, once the image is desqueezed the fringes alongside vertical parts of the scene become more obvious as they are widened. 

Barrelling is also a very big part of the output of this lens, and only straight lines in the middle of the frame are safe. Away from the centre all four edges enjoy a dramatic display of curvilinear distortion that can propel the subject from the frame – so long as it is in the middle of the picture. The drama is most marked along the longer edges at the top and bottom of the picture, but still marked at the sides too. In many cases, this degree of distortion can be attractive and a positive part of the picture, though the technical inaccuracy must be acknowledged before the lens is matched to the atmosphere required for the piece. 

Not surprisingly, vignetting is also a feature, and we should expect heavy shading at the wider apertures (extremely so in the corners at T2) and to find it only less noticeable five stops in. The vignetting is somewhat uneven in my sample, with shading in the top left than on the right. 

Flare is moderate considering the angle of view, and it takes a light shining directly into the lens to trigger the streaks, but when it happens, it looks nice and doesn’t eclipse the subject. Out-of-focus highlights are clean irregular droplets with a pronounced convex bulge closest to the corners of the frame. 

Blazar Remus 65mm T2

I usually have the highest hopes for lenses in the middle of a set, and the Remus 65mm T2 hasn’t disappointed me. Mounted on a full-frame camera, this lens gives us a horizontal focal length of about 43mm, which is technically closer to the angle of view of our eyes than the 50mm lenses usually suggested for this effect. At 782g and 101mm, it is larger and heavier than the 45mm – but not really by much. It will focus to 2.26ft/0.69m, which is pretty impressive, and makes it suited to close shooting situations without the need for dioptres. 

The lens seems designed to be much sharper in the middle than at the edges; though wide open it is quite soft in the middle too. The look allows the central area to stand out from the frame a little more. When we get to T5.6 the trick wears out and we begin to get pretty good resolution right across the frame that improves more as we close all the way down. We still have that diffused glow, though, and red/cyan separation lends vertical edges a colourful tint that isn’t wholly unattractive so long as you know what to expect. 

While not quite as dramatic as in the 45mm, the 65mm T2 also offers us a decent degree of barrel distortion that’s sufficient to make straight lines near the edges of the frame obviously bent. Some vignetting is also visible at the widest apertures, but it is less obvious by T5.6 and effectively gone by T8. 

Those anamorphic streaks are a little more pronounced in this lens, though still not over-powering, and out-of-focus highlights appear a good deal more oval than in the wider lens. 

Blazar Remus 100mm T2.8

Full frame users will get a horizontal focal length of about 67mm with this lens, making it a little more suited to head-and-shoulder and face shots, perhaps than the other two lenses in the set. With the extra focal length comes a slightly smaller aperture, presumably to keep the size and weight of the lens down – which is well achieved as at 788g it is only very slightly heavier than the 65mm and not a great deal longer either at 110mm. Close focus is still impressive, at 2.3ft/0.71m, so heads can really fill the frame. 

Of the three lenses this is the sharper and the one with the more consistent optical performance. It is still very glowy at the wide apertures, but there is a semblance of resolution too, and by the middle apertures, it is actually pretty sharp. By T8, I’d say it is actually very good. There is much less colour separation to knock out the detail, and we don’t get so much of those red fringes on vertical edges. 

As you might expect, barrelling is much less obvious, though it is present all the same, and the shallow depth-of-field at the wide apertures gives us excellent differential focus that really picks the subject out from the background. 

Flare is about on a par with that produced by the 65mm, though the streaks are a little tighter, and the out-of-focus highlights are almost triangular when they appear outside the central area of the image. They are reasonably clean, though, and not unattractive. I wonder if their shape might have drawn less attention had they been a little more even, but I expect their unusual geometry will excite some users.  

The future

There is a space in the case these lenses came in marked for a 30mm lens for S35, but with no lens in it. Blazar tells me this lens will come later and will actually be a 35mm 1.5x lens not a 30mm. It will be designed to offer S35 users a wide option, as when mounted in front of a S35 sensor, the widest current lens will only provide a 45mm focal length. The coming lens will also cost a little less, though at the moment Blazar couldn’t say when it would come or how much it would be – but that is the company’s intention. 

Conclusion

This is a fun set of anamorphics that are nicely small and light for the format they are designed to cover. They will be best shot with the full width of a full-frame sensor to enjoy the focal length range, but switching to S35/APS-C with the 100mm will also present us with another slightly longer option. 

It is fair to say that these haven’t been created with technical perfection in mind, but instead to produce an artistic look that users can make the most of when considering how the atmosphere will be portrayed in their film. The 1970/80s glow of the lenses is rather nice and their softness works to flatter the subject and create a slight mystery rather than to make the finished footage look out-of-focus or poorly shot. 

If you were worried that a 1.5x factor is insufficient to produce that stretched look and misshapen out-of-focus highlights, you no longer need to, as the images the lenses produce are full of anamorphic characteristics, and when aimed at the right subject in the right setting, they will offer great service. I’m still not convinced the cosmetic design really works once the lenses are mounted on a black camera, but fortunately, it isn’t something that bothers me particularly, and I’m looking forward to the redesigned gears on the focus and iris rings. 

At $2799 for the set including the case, or $999 for individual lenses, these lenses really do offer an affordable step into the anamorphic world for full frame users, and one they won’t have to regret so long as technical accuracy isn’t a high priority. The lenses have all the characteristics popularly demanded, and they will make a lot of filmmakers very happy. 

These lenses are sold directly on the Blazar website, with early bird prices starting at $2399 for the set. Those who bought Great Joy lenses and adapters in the past will also receive a coupon for further discounts.

Visit Blazer Lens for more on the Remus set.

Lighting manufacturer Rotolight has introduced a new circular LED panel that has IP65 weatherproofing, an output of 22,000 lux at 3ft and which has a menu of 2500 colour filter effects that can be dialled in using two knobs and a colour touch-screen control panel. The Rotolight Anova Pro 3 is being launched on the Kickstarter platform and will cost from $2287.

As the name suggests, this is the third incarnation of the Anova light 1×1 light panel, but this time the light uses RGBWW LEDs and has a dramatic increase in power output. In short, Rotolight has given its larger Anova series the same treatment it gave to the mid-sized AEOS range last year, with coloured LEDs and a completely new operating system that makes using the lights much easier – and then added weather-proofing.

Weather and dust proof

Rod Gammons, Rotolight’s CEO, told ProVideo Coalition that despite all the other new technology in the light, the aspect he is most proud of is the IP65 rating. He said the Anova Pro 3 is the only V-Mount battery-powered 1×1 panel with such a rating, which gives the light a unique position in the market. He was keen to point out that the IP65 rating means the light can be used not only in the wet and the snow but also in the kind of dusty and sandy conditions that would damage other light units. Sealing the light in this way allows Rotolight to advertise that the Anova Pro 3 can continue operating in heavy rain and under pressurised water flow, such as in a waterfall, without the need for a cover.

The series of ports on the lower part of the rear panel all feature rubber covers to protect them in extreme conditions, and the battery plates have rubber seals to prevent ingress of water and dirt between the battery and the body. Gammons explained that the electronics are contained in a sealed metal body within the light’s casing, so water can’t get in even through the fan opening or the vents on the side of the light. Gammons also said that the metal casing acts as a giant heat sink to keep the light cool during periods of extended use, and that while the light does have a silent fan built-in it won’t be needed very often.

Although the output of the light has doubled since the Anova Pro 2, the Anova Pro 3 still consumes the same 200W. ‘Much of the increase in brightness has been achieved by redesigning the angle of view of the lenses covering the LEDs’ Gammons says. ‘The angle is quoted as 40 degrees, but it is actually 38 degrees, and with this new narrower angle we can get a peak brightness of 22,000 lux at 3 feet. Finding the right angle of these lenses has involved a balance of getting the extra power but without creating such narrow beams that users will see multiple shadows in their images and coloured fringes around the edges of the lit area. We’ve added more LEDs too, so now there are more emitters and they are a bit closer together.’

Adding a second battery plate now also means the light can run for longer when you are away from a mains power source, and that you won’t have to switch the light off to change the battery. The light can also be powered via an AC adapter.

Magic Eye colour meter

A new feature of the Anova Pro 3 is what Rotolight call Magic Eye. It’s effectively a built-in colour meter that can sample the ambient light and match its own output to that of the scene. The idea is that if you need the light on your subject to match a street light, for example, you can do it without a meter and without having to guess what RGB values to dial in. The unit just reads the existing light and displays the Hue/Saturation values on screen for the user to approve.

The Magic Eye is activated via a new section of the on-screen menu, and can be controlled remotely via the Rotolight app. There was some chat that suggested the Magic Eye can sample the colour of things in the scene too, and match those with its HS mix, but I’m not sure exactly how that works. Gammons says the Magic Eye can be used with a Grey Card for accuracy, but that he hadn’t needed to so far as the light is able to get a good match without one.

Connections

As well as control via the Rotolight App the Anova Pro 3 offers users a range of remote control options. The light has LumenRadio’s CRMX wireless DMX built-in, Art-Net networked DMX, RDM support as well as a regular 5-pin XLR port. Bluetooth and Wi-Fi are used to connect with the app.

As with many Rotolight lights, this Anova Pro 3 acts not only as a continuous light source but as a flash for stills photography as well. The light can flash with all its RGBWW combinations as well as in the pre-set filter packs. Rotolight has built in compatibility for the shared Godox, Profoto, Elinchrom, Neewer and Pixapro trigger protocols, the light can flash at full power and there is no recharge time between bursts.

The light is also compatible with the same sort of SmartSoft electronic diffusion dome that the company introduced with the AEOS 2 last year.

This is the SmartSoft diffuser for the Rotolight AEOS 2, but the unit for the Anova Pro 3 works in exactly the same way

The dome fits over the LED area and plugs in to the rear of the light. From the touch screen users can dial in diffusion as the dome transforms from clear to opaque to deliver up to 1 and a half stops of diffusion, and via the rabbit-ears fittings on the casing a range of softboxes and modifiers can be attached.

2500 filter effects

The light has user-controlled colour via the HSI sliders on the rear display that allow a range of over 16 million combinations of Hue and Saturation, as with most RGB lights. Rotolight has also packed in 2500 pre-set filter effects that correspond with specific gels from Lee and Rosco – each offered in daylight or tungsten formulations. There is also a series of favourite pre-sets from well-known photographers and cinematographers, so users can more easily pick colours that go together and which emulate their style. The head has a new wider kelvin range too, according to Gammon, allowing users to dial in values from 1700 to 20,000K.

Additionally the light has a series of pre-set and customisable flicker effects in the CineSFX menu that offer fire, lightening, police light, gunshot etc effects. Many of the effects though are customisable, so users can adapt the way the fire effect looks, for example, and save that style to use again later.

The lights are being launched on the Kickstarter platform, as Rotolight has done in the past with the NEO 3 and the AEOS 2 lights. Gammon says the company isn’t using the Kickstarter campaign to fund the production of the lights but as a marketing tool to reach as many people as possible. The lights are already being made, and shipping is due to begin in March 2024.

For more information see the Rotolight website and the Anova Pro 3 Kickstarter campaign page.