Atomos upgrades Shinobi II monitor with touch autofocus & Ninja Phone with 4K

The Atomos Shinobi II has what the company claims as a world’s first: on-monitor touch auto focus and focus subject tracking, and Ninja Phone gets free enhancements too. [Updated]

The Atomos Shinobi II is, of course, the latest addition to Atomos’ monitor line. Slimmer than its predecessor and with a brighter, 1500 nit touchscreen display, it boasts the much-requested feature of control over a camera’s white balance, ISO, shutter speed and aperture over USB-C.

And it now includes on-monitor touch auto focus and focus subject tracking in both photo and video camera modes too. This is a free update for all existing users. The first camera models to be supported are from Sony (A7 MkIV), Canon (R6 Mark II), Panasonic (S5 II), Z-CAM, and Fujifilm (GFX100 II). Nikon is also now supported for photo and video modes, with auto focus and focus subject tracking to follow in future updates. 

“Shinobi II has been a huge success since we launched it at the end of July, it’s been a challenge to keep up with the burgeoning demand,” says Jeromy Young, Atomos CEO. “It’s a lot of fun engaging with thousands of users online. Photo control and touch auto focus have been the top requests, and we got to work straight away. Being able to support six manufacturers’ most popular models so quickly is a tremendous achievement, and we won’t stop there, with more free updates to come.”

Ninja Phone goes 4K

Ninja Phone connects professional cameras and lenses via HDMI to an iPhone 15/16 Pro or Pro Max - and now iPad Pro - and records directly to 10-bit ProRes or H.265 10-bit, all while displaying images on the iPhone or iPad’s outstanding OLED HDR monitor and streaming up to 4K.

The upcoming free of charge firmware update will be previewed at IBC and will enable all Ninja Phone users to record and play back 4Kp 24/25/30 and 4K DCI 24/25/30. 

“Now Ninja Phone can record 4K 10-bit ProRes and H.265 AND simultaneously stream content in 4K,” commented Young. “No other product can do this.”

Ninja Phone now supports not just iPhones, but Apple’s iPad Pro. An optional extension bracket for Ninja Phone can be fitted to the 11-inch and 13-inch iPad models, transforming them into high-spec, on-camera, industry-leading P3 1600nit reference monitors.

And, of course, with the new iPhone 16 offering up to 2000 nits, everything going to get brighter still.

Atomos and Adobe tighten C2C integration

One more thing, as the ads like to say…

With the free of charge firmware update announced at IBC, any connected Ninja or Shogun can now send footage directly to Frame.io V4 without uploading through Atomos Cloud Studio. Ninja Phone can already upload footage directly to the platform using the iPhone app, and a free firmware upgrade for C2C connectivity will be available soon.

Price reductions till 31 October

Apologies; one more one more thing. Atomos has just informed us that Ninja Ultra will be available for just €649 (previously €799) excluding local sales taxes and Shogun Ultra for €999 (previously €1,199) excluding local sales taxes until 31st October. We presume the same reductions are worldwide.

IBC has also seen the (re)introduction of Shogun Classic. Previously known as Shogun 7, unlike the current Shogun Ultra it has XLR connections and four independent, switchable SDI inputs.