Attendees at NAB got the first glimpse of Atomos’s new Ninja Phone, a 10-bit video co-processor for smartphones and tablets that lets you record from professional HDMI cameras.

Designed for the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max, the Ninja Phone encodes the camera’s HDMI signal to ProRes or H.265, which is then sent via Ninja Phone’s USB-C output to the iPhone 15 Pro or Pro Max’s USB-C port. The iPhone’s A17 system-on-a-chip decodes the camera sensor image to display on the high-resolution iPhone screen.

3. Atomos launches Ninja Phone co-processor for iPhones

Atomos launches Ninja Phone co-processor for iPhones

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The display is a big improvement over typical built-in screens that come with most cameras, boasting a 2,000,000:1 contrast ratio and supporting Dolby Vision, HDR10, and HLG. It can display 11 stops of dynamic range with a peak brightness of 1600 nits, perfect for HDR and outdoor viewing.

The Ninja Phone iPhone app, downloadable from the App Store, controls and coordinates the operation of both the Ninja Phone and the iPhone, making them feel like a single, responsive device. For social media creators who need to shoot in 9:16 portrait mode, the Ninja Phone app adjusts to horizontal or vertical video modes.

“We’ve added professional video and cinematic smarts to the world’s most advanced phone,” said Atomos CEO and Co-Founder Jeromy Young. “Ninja Phone is for the thousands of content creators who capture, store, and share video from their iPhone 15 Pro but aspire to work with professional cameras, lenses, and microphones. At the same time, the Ninja Phone is a perfect tool for longer-form professionals who want to adopt a cloud workflow without a complex and expensive technology footprint.”

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