Atomos ZATO CONNECT 5.2" Network-Connected Video Monitor & Recorder 1080p60

Not in the Box

• Essential Recording Media (Not Included)

Use as a proxy recorder is flawed

I knew from other reviews that the Atomos Zato was not currently workable as a streaming device, but I wanted to use it a simple monitor and proxy recorder from a HDMI output from a camera. I typically record the main 4K camera recording at 150M and higher and I was using the Zato at it's lowest setting of 5M which made for quick deliverables of performances. The monitor was ok, but without LUT support, but the recording had serious audio sync problems of move than 3 frames out. I talked to Atomos tech support, who after some back and forth about my camera and mode, that they would look in to the problem. When I ask for a list of cameras that did not produce sync issues, they admitted it was a known issue and were working on a fix, but know timeline could be given as to the release date. So I am returning the device. I hear the new AV1 encoder produces 3.5M streams as good as h.264 5M video. Anyone know of another h.264 or h.265 recorder/monitor that works?

Room to improve

The biggest reason to buy this thing is connectivity. It's the cheapest way to access the new Atomos Cloud Studio. It's pretty clear that Atomos has big plans for this service, including the ability to stream to multiple destinations, capture to the cloud, remote viewing and a full virtual control room. They plan to start rolling out these premium services in October, 2022 starting at $5/month. For now it's free, and pretty bare bones. Unfortunately at the time of this review, we do not have Facebook Live or RTMP. You can create multiple YouTube destinations, but you can only use one at a time. These limitations will likely change in October with a premium account. It has a 5 inch touchscreen display with 1000 nits of brightness, which is a little brighter than most cell phones, but won't be very easy to use in bright daylight. The color looked off to me, it was much too warm, but I didn't expect a color accurate display at this price. The biggest problem is that there is a noticeable lag in the display, I measured it at about of a second with the GH5s and got similar results on Canon C300 Mark III. If you were planning to use this to frame your shots, the latency makes it nearly unusable. Another issue I encountered was with audio sync. With the microphone plugged into the camera, the audio was about 3 frames behind the video. With the mic plugged into the Zato's input, I had the opposite problem - the audio was 3 frames ahead of the video. There's no option to delay the audio further to fix this. And 3 frames is noticeable. Ultimately, I've had more trouble then success with this so far. I'll keep trying, and I'm patiently waiting for Atomos to update Cloud Connect so I can access Facebook and RTMP. My goal with this purchase was to find an easy way to stream a professional camera from remote locations. So far, this has not delivered.

It has potential

I want to like this thing but I'm going to send it back for a refund