Review:
Atomos
Shinobi SDI
A versatile monitor for shooting
on a tight budget
By Daniel Brockett
Several years ago, when we moved to using the Canon
Cinema EOS C200 as our main camera, we avoided investing
in a new camera monitor. That’s because we simply used a
Hoodman H400 sunshade with the C200’s touchscreen, a set-
up that worked effectively for most shooting situations.
However, times—and gear—continue to change. We
began looking at some of the recent 5-inch camera monitor
introductions. But the price needed to be right since we were
pairing it with more budget-level gear: Fujifilm’s X-T3 mir-
rorless camera ($1,400) and the Crane 2 gimbal ($500). In
other words, a $2,000-plus camera monitor wouldn’t make
much economic sense.
So, we set our budget at $500 for a monitor and started
our research.
Specifications, Brightness, Weight And Design
I read through the specifications on the Shinobi SDI, and
it sounded like a good candidate for what we were looking
for. However, one downside was that the Fujifilm X-T3 only
comes with a Micro HDMI output, and it’s the only way to
get video output out of the X-T3. Still, our Canon C200 has
SDI out as well as HDMI. So I knew that I could use the SDI
output when using the Shinobi as a small client monitor with
cable runs of 20 to 50 feet, as required.
The Shinobi SDI features a full-sized HDMI input (no
HDMI loop-through, unfortunately) as well as 3G SDI input
and loop output.
Another concern was the brightness of the Shinobi screen.
Shooting under direct, bright sun, there’s really no substitute
for brightness output from a monitor. The Shinobi is rated at
1,000 nits, which is bright. But I wouldn’t characterize it as
“super bright,” as many other camera monitors now advertise.
The two other monitors I was considering—the PortKeys
LH5 HDR and the new PortKeys BM5—are both consid-
ered “super bright” or “daylight viewable” with the lower-cost
The Shinobi SDI is plenty bright indoors, but I was interested to
see how it would perform outside.The Shinobi SDI is an affordable, accurate 5.2-inch 1080 monitor that's
useful for a number of different purposes on set.Since I shoot with the Fujifilm’s XT-3 mirrorless camera, the only way
to send video from the camera to the Shinobi SDI, is via the Micro
HDMI port, the worst video connector available.56 | Digital Photo Pro digitalphotopro.com