Atomos recently launched its long-awaited Sumo19M, an affordable high-brightness production monitor with HDR capabilities, 3D LUTs and touch control. It’s perfect for professional film and video shooters who want to up the ante on set without breaking the bank. So what’s all the fuss about?
Sumo19M is a monitor-only variant of the Sumo19 launched at NAB earlier in 2017. The Sumo19M is optimised for monitoring, featuring a reconfigured user interface and dual SDI inputs for A/B comparison. It shares the same screen, ergonomics and industrial design as its sister model, minus recording. And that explains it’s low price.
The Sumo 19M in action – Why it’s a winner
The Sumo19M has a big, daylight-viewable 1920 x 1080 IPS screen capable of a stunning 1200nit brightness, combined with the ability to display a wide range of 4K and HD sources. It comes with 10-bit processing coupled with Atomos’ unique AtomHDR engine, making accurate HDR monitoring easy.
You can set optimal exposure easily when exposing for Rec.709 or HDR material. There’s a comprehensive pre-installed set of manufacturer-specific Log gamma settings plus multiple custom LUTs that can be stored and displayed, pre-loaded via a standard 2.5 inch drive placed in an Atomos Master Caddy. The unique HDR slider means you can quickly check out Log images when shooting for either HDR or SDR. In SDR the slider can be set to stop excessive noise in shadow areas and prevent blown-out highlights.
The new piece of kit comes with the full range of exposure and composition tools that you find on other Atomos 4K monitors. There’s instant Waveform monitoring, zebras, 1:1 and 1:2 magnification, peaking, false colour, vectorscopes, anamorphic desqueeze and frame guides. And you can guarantee display accuracy thanks to brilliant i1DisplayPro probe and calibration software from colour specialists X-rite. You can even buy a sunhood if you like, which you can leave on the unit and simply fold down for transport.
All this innovation means the Sumo19M gives DPs, directors, producers, gaffers, focus pullers and clients a remarkably precise way to assess their images on-set. As Jeromy Young, CEO of Atomos, explains, “The idea with the Sumo19M is to bring the latest advances in modern on-set monitoring to a much wider range of cinematographers, directors, producers and other creatives than ever before. We have harnessed our engineering know-how and mass production techniques to make the Sumo19M available to our customers for much less than any monitor with similar performance. Now anyone will be able to utilise a high brightness on-set monitor and HDR, not just high-end productions.”
Two 12G/6G/3G SDI inputs for A/B input comparison of 4K or HD sources, plus a HDMI 2.0 input for easy connection to consumer imaging devices like DSLRs, camcorders or mirrorless cameras make the Sumo19M special. It supports frame rates of up to 60 fps. You can output and cross-convert signals between SDI and HDMI, output a signal with LUT applied, or even convert a Log image to HLG and PQ HDR on the fly.
The cleverly-reconfigured user interface gives users direct access to every key functions via the touch-screen, whose layout mimics the traditional push-button monitor. But thanks to more rapid touch selection and easier advanced option access, making for an elegant and intuitive layout, you won’t get confused setting up.
The Sumo19M beautiful. But it’s also robust, built to handle the rigours of daily production with ease. There’s an aluminium chassis with built-in armour and grey protective bumpers on the corners, and multiple mounting holes on each side for attaching handles, wireless video systems or other accessories. Plus there’s a 3.5mm headphone jack for on-set audio review. On the back you’ll find an industry standard VESA hole pattern for mounting to a wide variety of third party brackets, and the solid metal feet let you use the Sumo19M on a desktop.
Sumo19M comes with three separate XLR power inputs. One is for your regular mains supply, the other two are for the Atomos hot swap battery system, which provides continuous power out in the field. The battery wing plate lets you attach two V-Lock or Anton Bauer battery plates (not included), which means when one runs out, the other kicks in.
Last but not least, the Sumo19M is just at home in the edit suite as it is on-set. The accurate colour display means it’s easy to grade footage confidently, and unlike a regular computer monitor the Sumo19M accepts broadcast spec video signals directly over SDI and HDMI, again delivering extremely accurate monitoring.
If all that sounds good, this excellent HDR 1200nit high brightness production and studio monitor is on sale now.
