A couple of months ago, a new Yongnuo Micro Four Thirds camera was being shown off at an event in China. There weren’t a lot of details about it at the time, except for what we could figure out from the images. Now, the Yongnuo YN433 (buy here) has popped up on eBay.
The listings confirm some of our suspicions and fill in a few gaps. It does clarify that this is a camera designed as a streaming camera. This marks an interesting change from the company’s previous Android-powered Micro Four Thirds cameras.
Yongnuo YN433 MFT Streaming Camera
As expected, the cameras utilise the Micro Four Thirds system. So, it’s compatible with all of your Panasonic, Olympus and third-party MFT lenses, as well as Yongnuo’s own MFT lenses. Unlike most live streaming cameras, the Yongnuo YN433 shoots and can stream 4K video – but there’s a catch.
To output that 4K video, you’ve got a USB-C socket with UVC and MTP (Media Transfer Protocol) compatibility. This might limit the devices into which you can feed the stream for capture. But, you can feed it into your computer as a webcam.
The YN433 does have an HDMI output, although it only puts out 1080p. HDMI output lets you use it with devices like the Yolobox Pro (buy here) and Atem Mini series (buy here). And even though the output from the YN433 isn’t 4K, it doesn’t really matter. Most video switchers are only 1080p themselves anyway.
Three different USB-C sockets
The YN433 actually has three USB-C sockets. One is for power input – although you can also use an NP-F battery – one is the USB3 Type-C with UVC support mentioned above, and one is a USB2 Type-C which they say “supports USB2.0 Host function”.
Whether this means you can hook up external storage, like SSDs, is unclear, although the unit does contain 64GB built-in storage for recording video. There’s also a 3.5mm socket for plugging in a pair of headphones for monitoring – although, oddly, no microphone input.
The Yongnuo YN433 can be “used in conjunction with mobile phones making live streaming more convenient”. Presumably this means there’s an app avaiable. Exactly what the capabilities of this app are currently unknown. As is whether or not it’s capable of controlling multiple cameras simultaneously.
History Repeating?
The Yongnuo YN433 represents a new direction for Yongnuo and their venture into cameras. After one or two pretty abysmal failures, the change in tactics could be what finally cements them as a camera manufacturer – albeit a streamig camera. Or it may be the nail in the coffin of Yongnuo’s camera department.
I won’t be the guinea pig that buys one of these things and I’m not sure that you should, either. For many who might be interested, it has to be shipped across the planet right now. This makes returns difficult if you’re not happy.
If you think this is the camera for you, you may want to wait for early adopters to have a play and get their reviews up first. Then you can make a more informed decision.
Price and Availability
The Yongnuo YN433 doesn’t appear to be on sale at any of the usual retailers outside of China yet, but it is on eBay through multiple sellers. The Yongnuo YN433 is available to buy now for $568, but it will likely take a while for deliveries to arrive around the world.
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