In this video Jeff and Angie Birmingham unbox the Shimble (also referred to as Shinobal) 2000‑nit 4K monitor, dubbed the "Jewel." They walk through everything that comes in the box—a foam case, hot‑shoe mount, full‑size USB cable, a 32 GB SD card, a pre‑installed screen protector, and the monitor itself. Jeff details the monitor’s key specs: it weighs 10 oz, the optional battery (purchased separately) adds 12 oz, it offers 2000 nits of brightness (comparable to an iPhone 15), records internally to SD or via HDMI, and costs under $300 (batteries bring the total just over $300). He demonstrates the menu system, covering settings (brightness, contrast, RGB, backlight), function buttons (histogram, zebras, peaking), scope overlays (waveform, RGB, vector), and recording/playback options. The duo then takes the monitor into bright sunlight on an African safari, showing that the screen remains visible despite glare and displaying wildlife footage of vervet monkeys, rhinos, and elephants. Angie comments on the monitor’s usability in the field, while Jeff notes a 30‑second boot time and the fan noise test. They discuss mounting options (hot‑shoe, vertical), connectivity (USB‑C, HDMI, earphone jack), and the durable aluminum build. The review concludes that the monitor is beginner‑friendly, lightweight, and offers excellent value compared to higher‑priced alternatives like Atomos, recommending it for videographers seeking a portable, bright monitor.
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I will answer that question along with others like, can you see this monitor in the bright sunlight? What comes in this box with the monitor? And what does it weigh in at? And what will this little jewel set you back? Stay tuned while I answer those questions and more. Welcome back to another episode of Jeff and Angie Photography. Don't forget to subscribe and hit that like button if you liked my video, and also don't forget to ring my bell so you get notified the next time I post a video. All right, so let's go ahead and get started with what comes in the box. So this is the Shimble. Memory 1. It records in 4K, and it is also a 2000-nit monitor, which is pretty good. Um, you'll find out a little later when we take this out into the field and play with it and see how well it records. So in the box It comes in a nice foam encasing, so you could use this as a whole kit to store it in when you're on the move. But it comes with a hot shoe mount, a full-size USB cable, an SD card, 32 gigabyte, And of course, the monitor, if I can get it out. It comes with the monitor, and the monitor, it came with a screen protector already in the package, but I did already install that when I started playing with it because the last thing I wanted to do was damage it. So, That covers what is in the box. Let's go ahead and jump on over to some specs. Okay, so let's go over a few of the specs. First off, we'll start off with the weight. This monitor weighs in at 10 ounces, and the batteries that you have to purchase separately I bought mine for— I bought mine on Amazon. I got a 2-pack with a charger and a charging cable, and it charges both of them at the same time for, I want to say, around $40. I'll put the link below for you. So the monitor weighs 10 ounces, but the battery weighs 12 ounces, so The battery outweighs the monitor by far, and it came with a 32 gigabyte card. The card—I have not filled this card up yet, and I've done a lot of videos. I did some videos in Africa, which I'll share with you later how well it did. It did really, really good. Oh. While we're talking about specs, let's also talk about how much this little jewel costs. This thing comes in at under $300, which is really shocking considering that it is a 2,000-nit monitor. And that 2,000-nit, that describes the brightness of the screen. Um, put this into perspective, most of your cameras, uh, the monitor on the back is at the maximum 1,000 nits. The new iPhone 15 is at 2,000 nits as well, and I think the old iPhones were around 1,000 nits. So that kind of puts it into perspective for you so that you can kind of get an idea of just how bright the 2,000 nits is. And, um, but I will show you that out in the field. I'm going to pick a nice sunny day. We'll go out and we'll monitor, or I'll video the monitor and just show you how bright it really is. All right, so right here you've got the, the SD slot. That's the internal recording. You can use that, or you can record directly into your camera body as well. But if you're using this to record with you can also take pictures while you're recording, which is nice. Um, so not only does it have the mount here on the bottom for your hot shoe mount, it also has one here so you can do vertical mounts for, um, or vertical videos for Instagram, TikTok. And it's also got the earphone jack and a USB-C plug. I'm assuming that that might be for updates. You can't charge it through that, and you don't power it through that because it's also got a power point here if you want to plug it into the wall if you're in the studio. 'Cause, um, I have not yet found a plug out in the wild. So anyways, this is the cable that it comes with, um, a rigid cable. Or not really rigid, but it's just solid plastic and it's not a bungee cord. I like the, the bungee cord one, so I upgraded and got that. Um, one other thing is that the box that it comes with, you can use it to store it in, but I didn't like that because it's got a pretty good vacuum on it. So I had this old case from my GoPro. Um, of course I have too many GoPro accessories, so it doesn't fit in there, so I am now using it for my Chernobyl. It fits nicely in the case along with the battery. The charger fits right here and the cable. And then I just grabbed one of my old microfilm or microfiber cloths and I put it over the top of the screen, and then I put the rest of the accessories on top. All the extra SD cards and the extra battery. But anyways, so that's all for the specs. So let's go on outside and let's go play with this baby and see what we got.
All right, so here we are out in the bright sunlight. As you can see, you can still see the monitor, but you got lots of glares. And here's an image of it in bright sunlight, and here's my monitor on my camera in bright sunlight. Here's a couple videos from Africa. This is a little vervet monkey who was just kind of hanging around waiting to come steal some food from somebody.
Here we got a couple rhinos.
They were very curious about us. Here's some more rhinos. Sorry for the jiggliness. I was hand-holding this because we were in a safari vehicle and it was a little windy that day. And here we got some elephants that were playing in the water down by the lodge. And this was on the tripod, so it's much steadier than the other one. The elephants, they really enjoy that water. One of my next videos that I post is going to be all about elephants, so stay tuned. Don't forget to like and subscribe. I have lots of footage of elephants playing in the water and just interacting with each other as a family.
All right, so here we go with the startup. So it took 30 seconds for this to boot up and get ready to use. So let's just go ahead and run through the menu system here real quick. Okay, so let's start off in the setting mode. And setting is where you set your brightness, your contrast, saturation, sharpness, and then your RGB. You can adjust that as well. But I just pretty much leave it right at the setting that comes from the manufacturer. So you also got backlit, which I have it turned way down for this video so I could get the proper contrast in my video. You got volume for playback and fast forward. I actually have the fan on high mode, and I'm going to move my microphone right in front of the fan so you can see if you can hear it. Okay, and we'll go ahead and put the fan back to auto. And this is where you format your SD card. We'll hit yes because I need to format it so I can use it later. And then you got function. This is your preset buttons on top. I'll show you those here in a second. Function 1 is histogram. Function 2 I have it set for zebras. And function 3 I have it set for peaking. You can set any one of those there for any one of those function buttons. All right, and then you got your system. You got your language, your software, factory set it reset. All right, so let's jump on over into the scope menu as they call it. You got waveform, RGB, histogram, and vector that you could have on overlay. But I, I don't really do use any of that. And then you've got, you could turn on the safe area if you wanted to. So you know what area to record in. But I don't, I don't do that. Let's turn that off. Turn that off. There we go. And this is grip, but it's supposed to mean grid, I'm sure. And I like to have mine set for the rule of thirds. And then over here you got your focus peaking levels. You could, you could turn that on if you wanted to. We could turn them red. But I don't typically run it with focus peaking on. And you can zoom in. Turn that off. And then over here you got your exposure where you could set your zebras, your false Turn it to monochrome if you wanted to. But I don't really use this monitor like it's probably designed to be used. I use it just for a larger screen to view. And then you got your, your LUTs, your gamma, your HDR, and your color temp. And I just pretty much leave that at factory. Settings as well. So here you've got your recording and playback menu. You got recording here. Recording definition, it's set to HQ. You can change your file names if you want to. And then playback. I don't have any video files to play back, but we could play them back from there if we wanted to. And then we're back over here to settings. So it's really easy to use. You just hit this red button here to start recording internally, and it's recording on the SD card that's right here. And then we can play that back. There's not anything interesting happening at my pond right now. I think they've all ate and left for the morning. All right, go back. And then you can also use it for a viewer if you wanted to, for stuff that you've done on your camera as well. This little video I did the other day of an egret flying in. And oh, here's a picture of a nilgai I got the other day. A nilgai is an antelope. from India that the King Ranch actually imported down here, and they've done quite well. So there's a couple of those. Oh, there's a nice little buck I took a picture of. But it's real nice for viewing on a bigger screen when you're out in the field. It has a full-size HDMI Right there. So you plug that into HDMI in. And then you also plug that into HDMI on your camera, which mine is a full-size HDMI. Some have the minis. And then up here you've got the function buttons. You got function 1, 2— I'm sorry, power, function 1, function 2, and function 3. And then you got your battery right here, and that's your fan right here. That's what I showed you, or I let you listen to earlier. There's one on each side. So overall, it's well-built. It's made out of an aluminum product, so it's quite nice, nice and lightweight and durable. Well, thanks for watching my video. I hope you enjoyed it, and I would definitely say that this monitor is for beginners. It will grow with you. As you grow with your videography, which is really nice. It's under $300. With the batteries, it puts you a little over $300. The memory cards that go in it are just your regular SD cards, so they're super inexpensive compared to other brands out there. Uh, Shinobal did send this monitor to me to do the review, and I have to say that I'm pleasantly surprised with this monitor for the amount that it costs. We do own Atomos, and I, I never use it, but this Shinobal monitor I will be using. It's light, compact. The case that it carries in is half the size of the Atomos. So I would say yes, definitely, if you're in the market for a monitor. This would be a good one for you. So don't forget to like and subscribe and ring my bell if you like this video, so you'll get notified the next time I post a video. Bye!
