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Touch and go with the super Shinobi
him an immediate check on exposure as daylight shifts. Focus peaking is particularly useful when working with his fast Sigma 50mm f/1.4, where depth-of-field can become extremely shallow. He also loads LUTs into the monitor to see a closer representation of the intended finished image while shooting. On one recent outdoor production, rapidly changing light put the system to the test. “Exposure stayed controlled, focus was locked in and I wasn’t second-guessing anything,” says Bailey. “The footage coming straight out of the camera was clean and consistent, which saves time in post.” For a filmmaker who built his career shooting everything from angling and outdoor brands to property and events, that confidence matters.
After 15 years working in photography and video, Jon Bailey has learned that outdoor filmmaking rarely waits for you to catch up. Light changes, subjects move and the camera might be rigged somewhere that makes its own controls difficult to reach. That’s why his Canon EOS R6 Mark II is paired with an Atomos Shinobi II. Unlike the Ninja monitor-recorder used by Mason Horacek, Bailey’s Shinobi II is all about monitoring and camera control. “Being able to control key settings directly from the screen makes everything much more responsive,” he says. “When you’re working outdoors or in uncontrolled lighting, relying on the camera screen alone can be limiting.” Touchscreen camera control and touch- to-focus let Bailey react without interrupting the flow of a shoot, while false colour gives
And when a director or client wants to see what is happening, the monitor has another, less technical benefit. “Being able to hand one to a director or client so they can see the actual image themselves is a simple way to make sure everyone is seeing the same thing,” he says. “It has made our workflow noticeably smoother.” Make films for yourself Horacek may spend his working days producing material for clients, but he considers personal filmmaking essential. “Personal work is everything to me,” he says. “I’m very lucky to do what I love for a living, but sometimes the projects I produce for clients aren’t necessarily the things I want to film. “It gives me the freedom to experiment and explore ideas I don’t normally get the opportunity to film. I can try new techniques, take risks and make things simply because I think they’re cool. That freedom is really important for staying creative.” Which perhaps brings Horacek neatly back to where he began. The cameras have changed dramatically since that cheap camcorder and his productions are now considerably more sophisticated, but the motivation remains strikingly similar. Find an interesting angle, create movement, then put the images and sound together in a way that generates a feeling. And keep experimenting until it works.
Up close and personal By improving his workflow with compact, connected devices, Horacek has more time to play
phenomenal image while keeping file sizes much more manageable.” It’s a practical approach in an era when maximum specification can sometimes become an end in itself. “I try to choose the format based on what the project actually needs rather than shooting Raw just for the sake of it,” he says. The Ninja has also become part of his high-end audio workflow, often a weak area on mirrorless-style cameras. Using an XLR adapter, Horacek can feed a high-end shotgun microphone into the monitor while also recording another source to the camera, providing four tracks from two inputs. For interview work where he might want both lavalier and shotgun coverage, it simplifies the rig while giving him redundancy.
compromise on the quality of the footage, as the combo can record ProRes Raw for demanding productions. Horacek values the 12-bit recording and increased latitude, particularly when shooting scenes with large brightness differences such as sunrise and sunset. “You get harsh exposure contrast between the subject and the sky, so having that extra colour depth to pull back bright highlights is hugely important,” he says. But, interestingly, he doesn’t shoot Raw simply because he can. “For higher-budget shoots I’ll normally use ProRes Raw, but not every project necessarily requires it,” he explains.
“For those shoots I’ll usually shoot ProRes HQ, which still gives you a
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