Atomos Talks – Jeromy Young on the Future of the Company, Cameras, External Recording and Ninja Phone 4K

by Mascha DeikovaSeptember 19^th, 2024

At IBC 2024, CineD’s Johnnie spoke with Atomos CEO Jeromy Young about the company’s future, recording formats, and the upgraded Ninja Phone. Atomos’s original co-processor unit can now record and playback 4K, connect to Apple iPad Pro, and offer a direct export to Frame.io. Here, we share some of the interview highlights.

In the first half of the video, Johnnie and Jeromy talk about the future of Atomos and recording formats in general.

The future of cameras and external recorders

While Jeromy agrees that the current generation of cameras caught up to what Ninja did 6 or 7 years ago (in terms of internal recording), he also believes there will always be a gap. Atomos developers aim to fill that gap with their upcoming products, which Jeromy believes will focus on higher framerates:

The cameras cannot do 4K 240p, so that’s our next opportunity. HD will be at 960p in that case. Imagine that!

Apart from that, Jeromy sees much potential in the monitoring and streaming features that their products offer. The possibility of controlling the camera directly from the monitor is always an added value for their customers.

Now let’s move forward to what Jeromy calls “an accessory that gives you Ninja features for phones and tablets” and its upcoming firmware update.

Ninja Phone – What is it, and how does it work

In case you missed it, the Ninja Phone is a compact module that attaches to your iPhone and turns it into an Atomos Ninja monitor/recorder. As Jeromy explains, the unit takes uncompressed 10-bit 422 image from the camera and encodes it into ProRes (up to 4K DCI 30). Since they use the ProRes decoder on the Apple chip, the Atomos app displays the picture on the phone instantly. From there, you can either record it in ProRes, or in compressed H.265 10-bit (to your phone’s internal storage), as well as stream it in 4K via 5G or Wi-Fi.

We gave a thorough overview of Ninja Phone’s features here and took a closer look at its previous version at NAB 2024. The latest video above also offers a comprehensive demo of this product.

New enhancements for Atomos Ninja Phone

So, what’s new then? First, Atomos announced the 4K upgrade, which means that with an upcoming firmware update, all Ninja Phone users will be able to record and play back 4Kp 24/25/30 and 4K DCI 24/25/30. The module will also support the latest iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max versions, as well as Apple’s iPad Pro 11/13”. (Until now, it only worked on iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max. Please be aware that tablet users will need an extension bracket). The upgrade is free of charge for all the existing customers, and it also won’t influence the original product’s price.

Also, the new version of Ninja Phone allows you to drop your footage directly to Adobe’s Frame.io, which is a great feature if you practice cloud-based solutions in editing.

Main features

So, yes, the 4K upgrade for Ninja Phone feels like it’s overcoming the biggest downside of the previous version. However, Jeromy Young stays realistic. A lot of modern cameras allow recording internally in different decent codecs. So, if your system can record, say, 4K 16-bit, Jeromy wouldn’t even recommend using Ninja Phone for a ProRes recording. Better see it as a backup, or set it up for making H.265 proxies, unless you use an older camera with poorer recording values.

The biggest advantage of this product is instead the possibility of using the iPhone’s “ridiculously good screen” (as Jeromy calls it) as your monitor. Their app has all the same tools and settings as the original Ninja monitors, and users can even control the camera directly from the phone via a USB-C connector.

The second powerful feature of this tool is streaming. Ninja Phone offers users the possibility to stream large-sensor images straight to external followers, marketing teams, customers, and whoever they want to send them to. It also supports such apps as Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and direct transfers to cloud storage solutions, like Dropbox, Google, iCloud, and now Frame.io.

Jeromy also mentions in the interview that they are now working on Ninja Phone software for Android users so it won’t remain Apple-centered only.

Price and availability of Atomos Ninja Phone

Ninja Phone from Atomos is priced at $399, just like the previous version before the 4K upgrade. It is shipping now and available for order at B&H and CVP.

What do you think about the Atomos Ninja Phone as a monitor/recorder solution? And how about the future of recording? Do you agree it lies in higher framerates rather than constantly pumping up the resolution? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!