New atomos Shinobi video monitor

Jim Feeley said:
Bummer. For fragility, there's always a (weight-adding) cage from SmallRig or someone, if there's one that fit (SmallRig, for example, makes cages for major brands and also for FeelWorld...). https://www.smallrig.com/cages/monitor-cage.html

As for the softness, I wonder if they're overdriving the panel to get all those nits and that's causing some sort of blooming that blows out sharpness?

Thanks for taking the hit for all of us. We each owe you a coffee, beer, or lunch...
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I'll be writing up an official quickie blog entry over at HD Video Pro, it won't be a comprehensive test but I've already used it on a shoot. It's weird, on yesterday's shoot with the XT-3 on sticks, my B camera op was using it for a wide shot and I was on my C200 A camera. We kept looking at the monitor and the image was mush (like poor SD) but when I looked at the footage in the edit bay last night, it was razor sharp in focus. I then set up the XT-3 with a focus chart in the edit bay and it looked decently sharp (same settings and lens), not razor sharp but probably sharp enough to judge focus. Something weird going on with this, I already tried switching HDMI cables. The Shinobi shows up today so I will put it through it's paces. I am already cursing the micro HDMI connection on the XT-3, it's garbage, it's been used once and if you tap on the connector on the cable, it loses signal. Micro HDMI is useless. Props to Panasonics for at least putting a full sized HDMi on the GH5. I am sure my XT-3 will end up going back to Fuji for a new micro HDMI connector soon.

We'll see how the Shinobi does in direct daylight, without and with the Atomos hood. I mainly need the monitor for gimbal and shoot a lot with it outdoors so all of the features you'd want in the studio with higher end cameras are not as important to me as brightness and being able to tell what's in frame and in focus when gimbal shooting.
 
I used the Shinobi SDI for 10 days in Brazil. It performed like an absolute champ. In the direct Rio sun 1000 nits isn’t quite enough, but still visible, and with body shade is plenty bright. I actually traded my old smallhd 501 for this monitor. I needed something brighter. I always said that the focus assist on the SmallHD was some of the best I’d ever seen. It was spot on every time. I never even turned on the focus assist on the Shinobi, it’s a very sharp monitor without ever turning in any focus assists. I also like the ease of finding anything you need on the bottom of the screen. The only thing I noticed (May be specific to my monitor) is that it took me multiple taps of the screen to remove the details from the screen when I just wanted a clean feed. Otherwise I really enjoyed using it.
 
Hey Dan, the PortKeys BM5 is available for order from their web site now. From speaking to them via Facebook, it sounds like it’s in stock for immediate shipment.
 
jbregar said:
Hey Dan, the PortKeys BM5 is available for order from their web site now. From speaking to them via Facebook, it sounds like it’s in stock for immediate shipment.
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I tried getting onto their website http://en.pkscorp.com/ all day yesterday with it not working. Today, the site will load but when you click on the BM5 page, you get a 522 web error notice in Mandarin. Portkeys Europe's website works fine and B&H loaded all of the model variants with the different camera control setups today for pre-order. The Shinobi came yesterday, I've been playing with it this afternoon, very nice unit. I took it outside on the gimbal but it's cloudy here today, I could see the 1000 nit screen fine but I want to see it when it's sunny. As soon as B&H/Amazon get the BM5s in stock, I'll order one, I have a feeling ordering one from China via Portkeys direct would make returns a nightmare. It's looking I'll be keeping either the Shinobi SDI or the BM5, but I need to see which works best for my cameras, gimbal and setups.
 
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Newsguy said:
I used the Shinobi SDI for 10 days in Brazil. It performed like an absolute champ. In the direct Rio sun 1000 nits isn’t quite enough, but still visible, and with body shade is plenty bright. I actually traded my old smallhd 501 for this monitor. I needed something brighter. I always said that the focus assist on the SmallHD was some of the best I’d ever seen. It was spot on every time. I never even turned on the focus assist on the Shinobi, it’s a very sharp monitor without ever turning in any focus assists. I also like the ease of finding anything you need on the bottom of the screen. The only thing I noticed (May be specific to my monitor) is that it took me multiple taps of the screen to remove the details from the screen when I just wanted a clean feed. Otherwise I really enjoyed using it.
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Thanks for the feedback, that's encouraging. I just received the Shinobi SDI version yesterday, messed with it today with the XT-3 on gimbal and with the C200, it's sweet, I'll probably keep it. Might keep it and get the Portkeys BM5, could use the BM5 more for gimbal outdoors for the 2000 nits and the Shinobi indoors as a client monitor for producers doing interviews, etc. Then I could camera mount the BM5 and put the Shinobi on a light stand with a ball head and just loop out SDI when shooting with the C200. Do I need two 5" monitors? Hmm...will have to mull that over.
 
I just got my BM5 (two days early, go DHL!). I'll give it a go tonight at a (non-critical) shoot and report back if anyone's interested.
 
Here's a bit of a brain dump after using it for two nights of shooting a concert band.

It's a gorgeous monitor. Super bright, definitely daylight viewable.

The fan is noisy. I turned it down to Medium and it's still audible. Low is nearly inaudible, but the monitor does get hot... especially at HIGH brightness.

I really hate color peaking. Contrast peaking is where it's at... unfortunately the PortKeys doesn't have contrast peaking.

I like the options for the scope layouts. The function buttons are handy to switch stuff on/off quickly.

I haven't played with the camera control.

It's built like a little brick s*%thouse.

I wish it had HDMI out. It only has HDMI in and SDI In/Out.

I need to get some better monitor mounting gear for both my C200 and Z-Cam E2.

Overall, a bargain at $499.
 
How is the weight?

jbregar said:
Here's a bit of a brain dump after using it for two nights of shooting a concert band.

It's a gorgeous monitor. Super bright, definitely daylight viewable.

The fan is noisy. I turned it down to Medium and it's still audible. Low is nearly inaudible, but the monitor does get hot... especially at HIGH brightness.

I really hate color peaking. Contrast peaking is where it's at... unfortunately the PortKeys doesn't have contrast peaking.

I like the options for the scope layouts. The function buttons are handy to switch stuff on/off quickly.

I haven't played with the camera control.

It's built like a little brick s*%thouse.

I wish it had HDMI out. It only has HDMI in and SDI In/Out.

I need to get some better monitor mounting gear for both my C200 and Z-Cam E2.

Overall, a bargain at $499.
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Is anyone here using the Shinobi yet? Picked up the SDI version a week ago, and ran it pretty hard outside in the heat all week. By our final shoot day on Thursday, it began flickering, and when we wrapped I couldn’t get it to turn on anymore. Haven’t checked it since I got back to Jersey but I’m definitely sending it back to B&H. Wondering if anyone else has experienced this...I’m hoping I just got a dud, because my preference would be to exchange it and keep using it. I really liked it up until it started going bad.
 
jaypass said:
Is anyone here using the Shinobi yet? Picked up the SDI version a week ago, and ran it pretty hard outside in the heat all week. By our final shoot day on Thursday, it began flickering, and when we wrapped I couldn’t get it to turn on anymore. Haven’t checked it since I got back to Jersey but I’m definitely sending it back to B&H. Wondering if anyone else has experienced this...I’m hoping I just got a dud, because my preference would be to exchange it and keep using it. I really liked it up until it started going bad.
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Just shot three days in the heat and humidity of the Florida Keys, outdoor, covering an Ultra Marathon. Shinobi SDI worked perfectly, you probably just got a dud.
 
Most lemons die in a few hours after manufacture. Companies that need high quality control will burn in every unit at temperature for some number of hours before they ship. That's probably not the case here as most companies can't afford to do this. So you can expect people to get stuck with a few bad ones.
 
My experience with Atomos customer service has been excellent. Or if you are within a reasonable time, yes, just exchange it. The first Fringer Pro EF to X-Mount adapter I bought last year was defective, it wigged out on the first shoot with it so I just sent it back for another one.
One nice thing about buying gear from Amazon, they have very good, hassle-free return and exchange policies. I have a Kohls just up the freeway now and I can do the return and just drop it off at the Kohls and they take care of shipping, packaging, etc. No brainer for me.
 
An update for those that may be interested -

Exchanged the faulty monitor at B&H for a new one. Same exact thing happened, but quicker this time...By the middle of my first shoot day, it was flickering randomly, by the end it was refusing to power on. Same deal as before, out in the heat, this time in California, and both units got hit hard with dust from cars or golf carts kicking it up all around me.

Debating what to do next. I'd like to hear Atomos' thoughts on it but I don't want to send it in and waste my window to return with B&H. I also want to try to figure out if I am damaging it in someway? I'm running it on a Ronin S rig, it's attached to a small rig Ronin S handle with a double ball joint thing from Axler. HDMI plugged into my blackmagic pocket 4k. When it first started flickering, on both units, my first thought was it must be the Blackmagic, because, you know, Blackmagic...but that wouldn't explain the power issue. I'm using batteries that were included with Atomos' accessory kit, and I have the sunhood holder attached, but not the actual sunhood, because I'm a dummy and keep leaving it home when I travel.

Once the flickering starts, usually a power cycle on both the camera and the monitor fixes it. I end up doing that a few times but eventually the monitor refuses to power on...Sometimes a fresh battery will cause it to power on, but when I turn it off, it won't turn back on unless I change the battery again. The flickering continues intermittently during this, comes and goes. It always flickers for a second to two as soon as it gets a signal from the BMPCC. I'm stumped - Is it possible I got two bad units? What am I doing to break these things?

Is there some kind of soft reset that I'm doing by hitting the power button so much? I'm trying to come up with anything I can to explain this. And FWIW, I'm sitting in my hotel room now - Just powered it on and off about 5 times with seemingly no issue. Whatever.
 
You're probably not doing anything wrong. HDMI is HDMI and if the camera was the issue, we'd already know about it from others.

Since it is early days for the Shinobi, you can't rule out or fault anything. It could be a design defect or it could be that you just got two bad ones in a row. This happened to me when I bought a tripod head. I got two defective ones. It happens. For all you know, the container that all the Shinobi's were shipped in was dropped from a crane and they all took a 20g hit and they are all bad.

Contact Atomos and tell them your story in detail - if the Shinobi has a problem, their going to want to know about it. Tell them your concerns about returning the Shinobi for a second time. See how they handle it. Contact B&H and tell them your concerns about the return window and see if they will grant an extension while you talk to Atomos. The other option is to return in for a refund and move on to something else while others sort this out, if indeed, there is anything to sort out.
 
That's weird. I've only seen mine flicker once or twice, I attributed it to the crappy Micro HDMI connctor on the XT-3. I could put very slight pressure on the cable connection and I can still get a flicker. I don't think it's the monitor at all.
If I got two defective monitors in a row, that would put me off. Why not try the Portkeys BM5? More weight but a more robust contruction for sure?
 
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