A7s-Atomos Shogun: in 4K UHD, what's the lowest Mbps we'll be able to record in???

N

Nicholas Natteau

Veteran
Whereas the GH4 records 4K natively at 100 Mbps, we know that Atomos Shogun will allow us to record 4K outside of the A7s.
But does anyone know how low in Mbps rate we will be able to record UHD-4K with the Shogun?

I know that 4K in terms of Apple Pro Res HQ will be massive (over 700 Mbps), but what about Pro Res LT or Proxy?
Will it be anything close to 100 Mbps or will the file sizes still be massive (over 500 Mbps)?
 
Thanks ProfessorU. Sorry, I forgot about the 200 Mbps option with the GH4.

I just checked out that Apple link you provided. According to p.19, Pro Res LT in 4K UHD 24p would be 328 Mbps as opposed to 707 Mbps in Pro Res HQ.
So yes, less than half (46%) actually.

But would there be any noticeable macroblocking in Pro Res LT??? And is anyone using Pro Res LT instead of Pro Res HQ or Pro Res?
Or is Pro Res LT not recommended?
 
I'm not sure why you'd want LT as an option. Either you're grading your footage and you want maximum detail, or you're not and you want ease of use and tiny file size. If you can afford a $2000 shogun, $1000 in SSDs will give you something like eight hours of record time in 4K HQ. More as the prices continue to drop.
 
Some people could use 4K simply for cropping, they might not need a very cinematic image for some jobs. Prores LT is not bad in terms of quality, and could work in corporate videos. You could have a one camera interview and crop-cut to closeups. I think what Nicholas meant is your mentioned choice of tiny file size. It's just that the atomos recorders don't record to very compressed formats, making LT one of the smallest.

If Prores proxy is available, you could even choose that. I think that Prores proxy in 4K could still make a decent file in HD. For a feature film, no of course, but a simple interview, why not. I would personally go for LT, it's pretty good. And the a7S doesn't output such a high quality (8bit) signal anyway, so I expect very diminishing returns when going from LT to regular or even HQ. I think HQ is not needed except for the most critical grading and keying work, in which case the A7s might not be such a good choice to start with. Bottlenecks are a b..tch.
 
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