I'm connecting Sony EX1r cameras through a Panasonic HS50 Switcher and into a Atomos Ronin recorder. I'm overwhelmed with the selection of SDI cables. Do I need to select one with "HD 3G" in the description? What is the key specification I need to look for?

The first time I bought cable, B&H recommended this one but didn't explain why or what was key.
Canare 25' L-3CFW RG59 HD-SDI

I found this on Amazon and am wondering if it would work fine.
25 foot Black BJC 3G/6G HD SDI cable, BNC to BNC

Personally I would go with the BH recommendation.

We run Canare and Belden cable and found them to be rock solid when using HDSDI.

HTH

Pretty much any BNC cable you can buy will do the trick.

I buy cables from Monoprice:

BNC M/M RG59U - 25ft - Monoprice.com (http://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=628)

They carry HDSDI fine. I don't know if they meet the spec, but they work. Mine are not mission critical, they're for monitoring.

Pretty much any BNC cable you can buy will do the trick.

Sorry for resurrecting this old thread, I'm looking for an SDI cable about 12 inc long for my NanoFlash

Will any BNC cable do the same job?

Eightwood SDI Cable BNC Male Right Angle to Male Right Angle 30cm RG179 Coax for BMCC Blackmagic BMPCC HD Video Camera Flexible CB Radio Antenna: Amazon.co.uk: Electronics & Photo

The last SDI cable I bought, I got it from a DVinfo forum member.

Thanks.

If you do a search at BH you'll find dozens of options to suit different needs. For example, you may want right-angle connectors or a slim lightweight cable.

If I was buying an 12" cable right now, this is the one I'd buy.

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1462629-REG/canare_cal33cuhd001_mini_rg59_12g_sdi_4k.html/BI/2855/KBID/3801

LOL. Boy, already six years since I posed on this thread.

Doug is correct that short runs of regular coax won't have any problem.
It comes down to those LONG runs over 100ft-300ft that you will want something designed for the job.

For 4K over 12G, we are using Clark 7506F,
which is a rubber jacketed (love) cable that has stranded wire so it is much more flexible and layer flatter than single cord. It isn't cheap, but I have yet to have any issue with it and have sent long runs of 4K over it without any issue.

LOL OK thanks for that.

Digital communications squirts square waves down the cable. The construction of the cable and its spec sets how much the nice sharp edges of the square wave get rounded off. The higher the video quality, the closer together the square waves are and the fixed curve the cable spec introduces become, as a percentage, more of the ‘total’ data, and then at some point the receiving device give up trying to make sense of it. The short cables round off less, the long cables do it more. Longer cables also of course lower the overall level, again a problem for the receiving device trying to make sense of if the data is a 1 or a 0. Even the connectors add to the rounding off. Making the whole thing even worse are reflections coming back the other way. It’s always amazed me we ever get things to work!

Paul :) Thank you.