Review: Atomos Shinobi SDI

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 mirrorless 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