D800 HDMI Field Recorder

[faismoerko]

Hi everybody,

I'm starting as a third camera operator on a film shooting on the great barrier reef in Australia. The DP has asked me to come on to shoot with his new D800.

Editing is being done in Avid.

I was just wondering what kind of HDMI field recorders I should be looking at. We started shooting yesterday so I really need something that is quite readily available. We have people in the states who can pick something up and ship it to set if it's not available in Aust.

I've had a look at the Ninja 2, but isn't there going to be problems because it records to Apple ProRes?

Cheers.

[dfreerider]

Hi everybody,

I'm starting as a third camera operator on a film shooting on the great barrier reef in Australia. The DP has asked me to come on to shoot with his new D800.

Editing is being done in Avid.

I was just wondering what kind of HDMI field recorders I should be looking at. We started shooting yesterday so I really need something that is quite readily available. We have people in the states who can pick something up and ship it to set if it's not available in Aust.

I've had a look at the Ninja 2, but isn't there going to be problems because it records to Apple ProRes?

Cheers.

The Atmos Ninja 2 can record both to Prores and Avid DNxHD. http://www.atomos.com/ninja2/

-Kyle

[faismoerko]

The Atmos Ninja 2 can record both to Prores and Avid DNxHD. http://www.atomos.com/ninja2/

-Kyle

great!

would you pick that over the Blackmagic Design Hyperdeck Shuttle 2?

[Stephenh]

great!

would you pick that over the Blackmagic Design Hyperdeck Shuttle 2?

That depends on what you work flow is going to be. Do you need to monitor whilst on location or do you already have a HD monitor? Is ProRes your only requirement for capture. Will you be shooting in remote locations? Do you have an external battery system?

The HyperDeck Shuttle allows both Uncompressed + Avid DNxHD wrapped in by MXF or QT. Battery is limited to 90 minutes and is no hot swappable. No monitoring other than the camera LCD. But has both HDMI and SDI in/out. Ninja has built-in display, logging scenes/takes etc. Comes with dual hot swap batteries which pretty much allow you to shoot all day with unit attached to camera. Has HDMI pass through if you want to send the signal to an external monitor, but so has the Shuttle.

[faismoerko]

Do you need to monitor whilst on location or do you already have a HD monitor?
currently using a 7" HD monitor connected to the HDMI port

Is ProRes your only requirement for capture.
The editor is working in Avid, so I assume i need something crazy uncompressed or an avid file - i'm getting complaints for the 1st AE that the blacks in my footage are too crushed for any kind of grade that serves our purposes. Are the MXF or QT wraps from the HyperDeck going to eat some of the detail?

Will you be shooting in remote locations?
Sometimes, need to be able to shoot for more than 90mins definitely - so that either means I need at least 2 Hyperdecks or I go with the Ninja 2.

Do you have an external battery system?
Shooting purely with the camera on a steel arm that has an attached 7" monitor powered by it's own batterypack


Should I be looking at options other than these two?
Sound Devices and AJA have options I see....

thanks for all your help, guys!

[faismoerko]

Do you need to monitor whilst on location or do you already have a HD monitor?
currently using a 7" HD monitor connected to the HDMI port

Is ProRes your only requirement for capture.
The editor is working in Avid, so I assume i need something crazy uncompressed or an avid file - i'm getting complaints for the 1st AE that the blacks in my footage are too crushed for any kind of grade that serves our purposes. Are the MXF or QT wraps from the HyperDeck going to eat some of the detail?

Will you be shooting in remote locations?
Sometimes, need to be able to shoot for more than 90mins definitely - so that either means I need at least 2 Hyperdecks or I go with the Ninja 2.

Do you have an external battery system?
Shooting purely with the camera on a steel arm that has an attached 7" monitor powered by it's own batterypack


Should I be looking at options other than these two?
Sound Devices and AJA have options I see....

thanks for all your help, guys!

the key thing we're looking for is having the maximum possible quality out of the D800 so we can potentially intercut it with Epic/Genesis footage

[Stephenh]

"The editor is working in Avid, so I assume i need something crazy uncompressed or an avid file - i'm getting complaints for the 1st AE that the blacks in my footage are too crushed for any kind of grade that serves our purposes. Are the MXF or QT wraps from the HyperDeck going to eat some of the detail?"

I think either of the two mentioned will work with Avid without issues. Uncompressed creates large files and depending on what your end requirement is the ProRes/DNxHD track maybe a better option. Neither of these units should crush details in the blacks. If you have an issue with this it sounds like you do not have the output of the D800 set correctly. Another forum member "Bob (eteam) " detailed a very good guide on how to set output of the camera. Do a search on the forum for it. Also try reading page 257 of the D800 manual for how to setup video output range.

It sounds like you are using a very portable rig. Either of the two above units will do the job. The only issue with the Shuttle will be battery shooting time. The Ninja with 3 or 4 batteries would probably give you a full days shooting and be very portable + you can enter scene/take info as you are shooting. You probably could find other options but for the price the above two are good options.

[faismoerko]

"The editor is working in Avid, so I assume i need something crazy uncompressed or an avid file - i'm getting complaints for the 1st AE that the blacks in my footage are too crushed for any kind of grade that serves our purposes. Are the MXF or QT wraps from the HyperDeck going to eat some of the detail?"

I think either of the two mentioned will work with Avid without issues. Uncompressed creates large files and depending on what your end requirement is the ProRes/DNxHD track maybe a better option. Neither of these units should crush details in the blacks. If you have an issue with this it sounds like you do not have the output of the D800 set correctly. Another forum member "Bob (eteam) " detailed a very good guide on how to set output of the camera. Do a search on the forum for it. Also try reading page 257 of the D800 manual for how to setup video output range.

It sounds like you are using a very portable rig. Either of the two above units will do the job. The only issue with the Shuttle will be battery shooting time. The Ninja with 3 or 4 batteries would probably give you a full days shooting and be very portable + you can enter scene/take info as you are shooting. You probably could find other options but for the price the above two are good options.

legend.

[matchstiq]

Relevent:
https://vimeo.com/40663653

Skip to 8:30
" 'Limited' or 'Auto' in the HDMI output " So that you don't crush and clip your highlights and shadows.