Improving your photography with Atomos

By Marcus Swales | Technical Product Specialist, Holdan

Any photographer knows the pain of squinting at the tiny screen on the back of your camera hoping to achieve the best focus and exposure. Though built-in screens have improved over the years they still do not meet the need of seeing the images on demand, on location – avoiding disappointment when it comes to exporting and editing.
The solution? An on-camera monitor & for me that is the Atomos Ninja V.

What is the Atomos Ninja V

The Ninja V is a 4K HDR monitor-recorder, that has the ability to be used alongside your personal mirrorless camera all the way up to a professional cinema camera. It’s ideal for photography, videography or hybrid content creators who find themselves looking for an improvement on their built-in camera screens. On-camera monitors like the Ninja V will help if you’re a product photographer who’s tired of removing dust spots and fingerprints in post. A landscape photographer not quite nailing your composition. Maybe you’re an Astro or macro photographer who has missed focus on amazing shots? An on-camera monitor will help with all this and more.

My Experience with Atomos

I’ve been using the Atomos Ninja V for my photography for some time now and I’ve never looked back. As a professional product photographer, it is a must, not only does it help me hit focus every shot, but it saves me time in editing, not having to fix mistakes that can be easily seen on the larger screen. It is also worth mentioning not all camera screens show the full image from the camera sensor, this could mean you think your framing is perfect till you review the image post shoot.

The larger screens also offer sharp, clear images whether you’re on the go or in the studio, this steps up in display quality will help hugely when composing images. Plus, for any glasses wearers like myself, struggling with a traditional view finder is no more with an on-camera monitor.

An Honest Review

Other benefits of the Ninja V include the ease of being able to adjust the brightness quickly and easily when outside, zoom in and out of images at a touch and apply LUT’s to see post edit results during the shoot. LUT application whilst on location is perfect for portrait photographers, to show clients end results whilst shooting and give them that mid shoot confidence they may need.

It could be said that the Atomos Ninja V improves your camera, with options like zebra patterning, grid lines, frame markers, focus peaking and variable aspect ratios meaning you have essentially upgraded your cameras features.

Now nothing good comes without it’s cons. You will be adding some weight to your camera set up, but like opting for a premium telephoto lens the results make it worth the weight. It is also an extra investment; however, I don’t know anything that makes your life easier as a photographer that doesn’t cost extra. That being said, you do have to weigh up if an on-camera monitor is for you.

How do you do that? Well, if it improves your workflow, makes your photo taking experience more enjoyable, means you get more shots in focus and allows you to take better composed pictures, I’d say it’s worth the investment!

Comparing against another lower cost option is the Atomos Shinobi 5” 4K HDR monitor.

The Shinobi is a fully plastic body compared to the mostly metal build of the Ninja V, but it does offer a longer battery life at a lower cost. The other main difference between the two monitors is the Ninja V offers the ability to record whereas, the Shinobi doesn’t. For the small price jump you are giving yourself the option to not only record but upgrade your video output with the Ninja V offering up to 4K ProRes.

For trips with your camera where you want a light set up this isn’t going to be the time to take a monitor, just the same as you wouldn’t take all your lenses on a casual day out. However, for client work and professional photoshoots where you want to guarantee high end results, an on-camera monitor will give you piece of mind you have achieved this with every shot you take.

Like all your camera gear, you judge what’s needed for the scenario and I know I won’t regret having a monitor like the Ninja V, in my kit for those times I do need it.