Atomos Ninja 2 versus Samurai

Vence Vida

Vence Vida

Active member
I am about to pick up either a Ninja 1, Ninja 2, or Samurai. I've been weighing my options, and comparing costs of used versus new and this device versus that, and there is one question that I just can't seem to answer for myself:

Now that the Ninja 2 is out, and it has the same screen resolution and OS as the Samurai, why (unless I found a good deal on a used Samurai) would I choose the Samurai over the Ninja 2? I can pick-up a Ninja 2 and an SDI to HDMI convertor together for $300 less than a Samurai. Since the only difference between the 2 is SDI versus HDMI, what would be the advantage of buying the Samurai?

Am I missing something? The Ninja 2 seems like a strange business decision for Atomos, especially since they are coming out with the Atomos Connect which will mount right on the Ninja 2 and provide the SDI ports -- again, that entire set-up is less expensive than buying a Samurai, and if you do buy the Samurai, you have no HDMI option unless you add a converter to that.

I feel like there has to be something I'm missing, or else why would I ever buy a new Samurai?
 
The Samurai has more computing power (more options for future updates - remember the Ninja1 is stuck with OS 2.2).
It can do ProRes AND DnxHd (soon)
It has a 5" screen
It has LANC and HDSDI camera control.

If you need any of those, the Samurai is what you want - otherwise you are better of with the Ninja2 an a S2H Connect.

Frank
 
That does help. I had not noticed that the Ninja 2 screen was slightly smaller and didn't have the Lanc.
DnxHd is available on the Ninja 2, I believe.
 
Here is a quote from Atomos's site on the Ninja 2 page: http://www.atomos.com/ninja2/
Halfway down the first section in the left column:

ProRes or Avid Codecs - Select the variety of ProRes® or Avid DNxHD codec you are recording to; Avid DNxHD-220X (10-bit), DNxHD-220 (8-bit), DNxHD-145 (8-bit), DNxHD-36 Proxy (8-bit) + all ProRes® options.
 
Can the Samurai do TC follow record? That would be a big selling point in my book for SDI over HDMI. (Until there is more support for TC over HDMI on the camera & recorder side).
 
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