Clint Milby
Video professionals have seen the HDMI connectors for DSLRs as a huge step down from the traditional SDI cable. The reasons were clear: HDMI was a connector that wasn’t designed with professional applications in mind. Think about it. The HDMI cables for your television and other devices tend to be connected once and not disconnected again until you move the device or replace it. There’s no locking mechanism on the connector and the connections are somewhat flimsy in comparison to SDIs.
However, with the HDSLR Revolution came an ocean of cameras to the shores of professional video professionals leaving them little choice but to embrace these cables. Although there is a universe of support gear for HDMI enabled DSLRs, battle ready HDMI cables have sadly not been a focus. That is until now, as Atomos has formally announced an entire line of HDMI cables designed with production in mind.
What do these cables have that others don’t? First of all, they are a reasonable size, with two versions ranging from 30cm coiled to a fully extended to 45cm and 50cm coiled to a fully extended 65cm. This means no more using some 6 foot ‘house’ HDMI cable with enough excess cord to hang yourself! Secondly, the micro HDMI is a right angle which provides added protection against damage if its bumped.
The Atomos Pro Video HDMI Cables will come in a variety of different versions and lengths, providing every HDMI cable combination you may need. From Micro HDMI – Micro HDMI (with right angled heads), to Full HDMI – Full HDMI and everything in between, Atomos has you covered no matter the connection you need to make.
While originally created for their new Ninja Star, Atomos Founder and CEO Jeromy Young wanted to provide these very specific and ergonomic cables because of feedback from Atomos users who were having trouble finding quality cables in the sizes they needed for production. That mentality all goes back to the Atomos philosophy of buying a product and having everything you need to start shooting right away.
Now, with this new line of cables, users won’t have to hunt Amazon or ebay searching for the right HDMI cable with the right connector at the right length, and better still these cables have coils safeguarding against yanking them out if they get tugged during production. It’s something we’ve heard Jeromy Young talk about on a regular basis, and it is always great to see a company uphold their philosophies and draw from their user base to provide something they genuinely need.
The new Atomos Pro Video HDMI Cables will be available starting August 15th, with prices ranging from $19.95 to $29.95.
For more information, including where to buy, check out the press release below, and be sure to pay a visit to Atomos.com
Atomos Take HDMI One Step Closer to SDI Professional Video Standard
Open Atomos HDMI Start/Stop Trigger Standard Released New Coiled HDMI Cables for the ProVideo world
Melbourne, Australia – 4th August 2014: Atomos today announce a move to standardize HDMI for the professional video industry by focusing on ease of use and customer experience. With in-depth experience along with their technical know-how, Atomos aim to help define industry standards.
SDI has ruled the professional video space for over 25 years, built on a backbone of dependability and control. The prevalence of HDMI in consumer electronics and the DSLR revolution created by Canon’s 5D Mark II/III, Nikon’s D800 and followed more recently by Sony and Panasonic’s revolutionary 4K mirrorless cameras has made HDMI the default connection for video professionals. Until now, however many of the advantages presented by SDI have been missing from HDMI.
One of the big advantages of SDI over HDMI has been auto triggering and timecode communication between cameras and external devices like monitors and recorders. Atomos, the company that are famous for making life easier for professionals, have now made HDMI more usable and one step closer to the SDI standard by implementing auto start/stop trigger and timecode over HDMI. With this standard, users can connect using HDMI and automatically trigger functions on external devices from the camera itself, just as they have for years with SDI.
“We are very proud to be defining a new standard in such an established market place. We love HDMI, but as it gets more popular on the camera side we need to help make it work in the pro world.” said Jeromy Young, CEO and Founder of Atomos, “Historically this has only been achieved in the tech industry by creating an open standard… which is what we’ve done”
Atomos was the first company to engineer auto HDMI start/stop and timecode communication with cameras. Initially with Sony in 2011 for the FS100 followed up with Canon in 2013, for the 5D Mark III, 1DC and C100. Currently almost all professional Sony and Canon HDMI Cameras including the A7S employ this protocol. As the popularity of Atomos external monitor/recorders has grown, demand for this connection has spread quickly to all camera manufacturers. Now with an open, free and available standard this transition can happen quickly and easily.
Another advantage that SDI has enjoyed has been a firmer, tight fitting connection. Again in an effort to bridge the gap between SDI and HDMI, Atomos have developed their own range of HDMI cables with tight fitting connections and coiled cable lengths that allow for less clutter on the tripod and less force pulling at the HDMI connection.
“Initially we developed these cables purely to support the Ninja Star, our lightweight, pocket size ProRes recorder”, said Jeromy Young, “but after consulting with our user base we soon discovered no one had yet developed a complete range of HDMI cables purely for ProVideo users in our space”
Available from August 15th the range of HDMI cables includes a right angled HDMI micro to micro/mini and full coiled cables in lengths of 30cm (45cm extended). HDMI mini to full and full HDMI to full HDMI connections in lengths of 30cm to 50cms (65cms extended). Prices range from $19.95 to $29.95, for the full list of options sees www.atomos.com
You can see the full range of Atomos products at IBC 2014 Hall 9 D.25 in Amsterdam 12-16 Sept, http://www.ibc.org/
About Atomos
Atomos designs and manufactures smart production tools: affordable, easy-to-use field recorders and converters that save video professionals time and money, without sacrificing quality.
Atomos is based in Australia with offices in the USA, Japan, China and Germany and has a worldwide distribution partner network. Further product information can be found at www.atomos.com. Connect with Atomos on Facebook or follow on Twitter (@Atomos_News)
