External camera monitors can change the way you work and even improve your footage’s quality. External camera monitors allow videographers to see their footage better while filming.

 “A larger screen will show more detail, make it easier to see what is or isn’t in focus (not to mention all of the guides and overlays that assist with this), and reveal flaws that you might easily overlook on a built-in 3” screen. External monitors, by virtue of being able to be set apart from the rest of the rig, give you more flexibility with camera placement and angles while still allowing you to see what you are filming.”

Alexandria Huff

Here are Huff’s top 7 external camera monitors

1. Atomos Ninja V
   The Ninja V is one of Atomos’ most popular models. It has a 5″ 1080p touchscreen, records up to 4Kp60 10-bit HDR video direct from your camera’s sensor and more. It supports Log formats from ARRI, Canon, Panasonic, RED, and Sony as well as Apple ProRes Raw from the Nikon Z6 and Z7.
2. Atomos Shogun Inferno
   The Shogun Inferno has a 7″ monitor that has XLR port and 4 SDI ports on top of what the Ninja already offers. It can capture capture both raw and Log footage from Sony, Canon, ARRI, Panason, JVC, and RED. It can capture 4K footage up to 60p and 2K footage up to 240p (depending on your camera’s capabilities). 
3. Another Atomos monitor made the list! Atomos Sumo 19
   The Sumo 19 has a 19″ screen and is perfect for directors monitoring the footage from the side line. It records 4K 12bit Raw, 10bit ProRes/DNxHR, plus 1080p60 live switching and recording.
4. Blackmagic Video Assist 4K
   The Video Assist 4K has a 7″ monitor and gives you recording capabilities up to UHD 4K at 30p in Apple ProRes 422 HQ format. 
5. Blackmagic Video Assist 5” 12G HDR
   The Video Assist 5″ 12G HDR is a great portable option. The monitor offers full HD resolution, a SD memory card slot and USB Type-C 3.1.
6. SmallHD Cine 7
   The Cine 7 is a portable 7″ monitor with a very bright full HD touchscreen. It’s perfect when shooting outside.
7. SmallHD Focus OLED
   The Focus OLED features a 5″ touchscreen that is perfect for smaller DSLR or mirrorless setups. It offers multiple features including waveform, false color, vectorscope, focus peaking, and real-time 3D LUTs.

Check out the full article here!

Learn more about Atomos here!

Learn more about SmallHD here!

Don’t just shoot 4K, monitor in 4K and 4K HDR too. That’s the logic behind the new monitors from SmallHD, named Small4K, two series that expand the portfolio offered by the company.

One new family name, Small4K, two series, designed with different type of users in mind: the HDR Vision Series and the Cine Series,. While specifications may differ, size is the same for both lines: 13”, 17”, and 24”, so you pick the monitor that best fits not only your needs but also the space you have ou gear you can carry.

Small4K monitors are built around state-of-the-art 4K panels,  says SmallHD, “representing a significant leap forward for critical viewing of on-set images. Both the Vision and Cine Series monitors are housed in elegant milled-aluminum chassis and are outfitted with a versatile array of power and video interfaces — including 4x separate 12G-SDI inputs with loop-out.”

The Vision Series

“For years, content creators have been shooting in 4K HDR, color-grading in 4K HDR, and watching 4K HDR at home on their televisions,” said Greg Smokler, Head of Cine Products for Creative Solutions. “We believe the Small4K Cine and Vision series will allow filmmakers to finally start monitoring in 4K and HDR on their sets.”

The ultra-accurate Small4K Vision Series features everything available on the Cine Series, but raises the bar even further — making true 4K HDR monitoring a reality on set. The Vision Series monitors are reference-grade and feature a 1000 nit display with a 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio. This capability is made possible by a custom-designed Full-Array backlight with over 2000 zones, which offers superb contrast and precise HDR performance. Vision Series monitors cover 114% of the DCI-P3 color space, are fully calibratable, and offer advanced exposure tools for accurate control of HDR cinematography.

The Cine Series

The Small4K Cine Series expands on the Cine Series lineup that began with the SmallHD Cine7 on-board monitor. The Cine Series monitors are full-featured, with a deep assortment of power, video, and data communication ports. They have beautiful and bright screens displaying rich color and sharp detail. The Small4K Cine Series features a fully-revamped release of SmallHD’s OS3 operating system, building on SmallHD’s intuitive user interface with curated exposure tools and workflows for production functionality.

SmallHD shows these and other monitors from its extensive portfolio at IBC 2019, Amsterdam, Netherlands. You’ll find them at  booth 12.E65.

Check out the full article HERE

Learn more about SmallHD HERE

The panel in question is part of Atomos’ new seven-inch monitor-recorder, a pre-release version of which was shown to an invited crowd at a pre-NAB event on Sunday evening. It’s intended to replace their existing high power devices, which have to date relied on a clever set of user controls to provide a sort of variable preview capability for HDR images in a portable, on-camera display, something that didn’t previously exist.

There was clearly no intention that it be a precision reference display, but it was a handy tool if only because it was capable of very high brightness and therefore maintained a good degree of visibility even in bright sunlight. They are regularly used simply as a daylight-viewable display, regardless the HDR features.

The fact that Atomos has been intending to release an improved model has been known for a while, but the details, and an eyeball assessment of the performance, had to wait until last night. The device retains the fundamentals of the company’s existing user interface approach but enjoys what looks like a fairly significant software overhaul with some new control and adjustment options. Click here for the full article.

Panasonic GH5S & Atomos Ninja Inferno test, July 2018

Portland from John Wildgoose on Vimeo.

Recorded Live at the Seventeenth Annual Las Vegas SuperMeet during NABShow 2018 at the Rio Hotel & Casino on Tuesday, April 10, 2018. Filmed and edited by Dean Cleary – thank you Dean!

Stay tuned for our Tenth Annual Amsterdam SuperMeet! http://supermeet.com

With five new monitors introduced at NAB 2018, SmallHD continues to expand its line of monitors with different solutions. The new wireless monitors with touchscreen give more freedom to directors.

SmallHD debuted at the NAB Show 2018 five new monitors which drastically expand the FOCUS monitor family, by adding OLED, SDI, and wireless into the mix. Here are the RX and TX models in more detail.

With five new monitors added to the SmallHD family, the company’s presence at NAB 2018 was the right moment to check the multiple choices available, not only the new FOCUS models, but the whole collection. Highlights of the show, though, the new 5-inch wireless monitor system, the FOCUS Bolt TX (transmitter) and FOCUS Bolt RX (receiver), are different, as they are built on FOCUS touchscreen monitor platforms, with built-in Teradek transmitter and receiver systems.

First, though, let’s look at the other solutions presented in Las Vegas. The FOCUS OLED HDMI is a 1920×1080 resolution, 5-inch OLED touchscreen with a Micro HDMI input. Similar to the original FOCUS monitor, this wide color gamut display has a 7.2v power output to power DSLR/mirrorless cameras. The FOCUS OLED HDMI costs $699 and will be available May….read more

Atomos announces what could be an ideal 4K HDR monitor recorder at an affordable price for smaller camera setups.

Delivering what it says users want, Atomos has launched a more portable version of its popular monitor / recorders which manages to pack in most of the weaponry of its bigger brothers and is even primed for ProRes Raw.

The 5.2” external recorder built in an aluminium frame weighing just 320g and is 1-inch (2.5cm) thick, making it perfect, says Atomos “for mirrorless cameras, DSLRs and gaming.” While we’re not sure of the merits of the latter, the Ninja V certainly has the right footprint for mobility.

The Ninja V packs a punch for its small form factor. The full HD 1920×1080 display spans the full face of the recorder and is rated at 1000nits with an anti-reflection finish, which makes the unit usable even in bright sunlight…read more

The camera was set in Super35 mode for the shoot. Zeiss Touit 12mm, Batis 25 and 85mm and Sony 70-200mm lenses were used. High shots were done with the Charter’s Pole and the camera running IBIS, no additional gimbal was used. The shots were monitored and recorded on ground level using the Ninja Flame.

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