Shimbol has announced its newest monitors, the Shimbol M7 (buy here) and the Memory 7 Pro (buy here). The two monitors are essentially 7″ versions of their 5.5″ monitor recorders, the Shimbol Memory I (buy here)and Memory I Pro (buy here).

The two new monitors are essentially identical, with the Pro version seeing the addition of SDI ports. The Non-pro is HDMI only. But they are both 7″ IPS touchscreen monitors with built-in recording.

7″ 4K Field Monitor with 1080p recording

The Shimbol M7 and Memory 7 Pro monitors support incoming signals up to 4K. They can also happily display them, resampled to fit their 1920×1080 HD screen. The passthrough output also sends 4K out to whatever’s next in the chain.

Internally, however, it only records 1080p at up to 60 frames per second. This may be a deal-breaker for some, but a benefit for others. While it doesn’t offer anywhere near the 4K (and higher) ProRes RAW video as the Atomos Ninja, it does have other perks.

Live streamers, for example, who don’t have a video switcher that records separate video streams like the Blackmagic Atem Mini Pro ISO (buy here) or YoloBox Ultra (buy here). You can send each camera into one of these, recording each device’s view – camera, computer, whatever.

That can be very handy if you’re only outputting 1080p for a stream anyway. Or, if you just need individual device footage for editing into things like shorts for social media.

M7 vs Memory 7 Pro – HDMI vs SDI

Both monitors feature a 2,000nit 7″ touchscreen display capable of displaying 1920×1080 resolution. They cover 95% DCI-P3 colour gamut and 100% Rec.709 with 3D-Lut support to correct for LOG and other in-camera profiles. Naturally, you also get the usual array of on-screen shooting assistants.

Everything is housed inside a CNC-machined piece of aluminium. Both the Shimbol M7 and the Memory 7 Pro are virtually identical except for one feature. Both units feature HDMI input sockets as well as passthrough HDMI output sockets.

The Memory 7 Pro, however, also sports a pair of SDI sockets. Again, these provide input and passthrough output capabilities. Shimbol doesn’t say if you can mix and match – i.e., use an SDI camera but output over HDMI – but I would suspect not. This isn’t a feature that field monitors typically support.

Shimbol’s lineup is starting to look quite interesting. I’ve seen very few other monitors that record – even 1080p – at this price point. With 5.5″ and 7″ monitors that record and a 5.5″ that doesn’t, it will be interesting to see where they go next with their range.

Price and Availability

The Shimbol M7 and Memory 7 Pro are both expected to become available soon. Pre-orders haven’t opened up just yet. We’ll update this post when they are. But the Shimbol M7 will cost $379. The Shimbol Memory 7 Pro will cost $479.