Atomos Ninja Now Shipping According To Press Release - SDI Samurai at $1495.00 USD

David Saraceno

David Saraceno

Moderator
Staff member
Just received this:

1. Ninja Shipping Worldwide. Ninja is available immediately worldwide
for only $995 USD. Ninja, the revolutionary portable touchscreen HD
recorder, monitor and playback device that captures video direct to
Apple ProRes from any camera with an HDMI output. It eliminates the
need for capture cards and wasted time logging and capturing by
avoiding the lossy, time consuming capture to edit process, and it
bypasses the image-degrading compression needed to squeeze HD onto
in-camera flash storage like P2, SxS, SDHC etc.. For the complete
press release, please visit www.new.atomos.com/press/NinjaShippingPR.pdf
Photographs of Ninja are available at http://www.atomos.com/ninja/media/


2. Introducing Samurai from Atomos. Samurai is a portable 10-bit HD-SDI production weapon for
all professional video cameras with a larger touchscreen and multi-camera support. Samurai
builds on all the strengths of Ninja: records, monitors and has instant on-board playback of
ready-to-edit, visually-lossless Apple ProRes files - all in one self-contained unit;
bypasses the image-degrading compression needed to squeeze HD onto in-camera flash storage;
eliminates capture cards, and much more - all for only $1,495 USD. The complete Samurai press
release is available at: www.new.atomos.com//press/SamuraifirstPR.pdf

Photographs of Samurai are available at http://www.atomos.com/samurai/media/

Ninja and Samurai will be at the Atomos stand at NAB, SL9105.
 
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This is interesting news. Can't wait to hear feedback from actual users. The Samurai looks like something I'd buy if it's all they say it is. Hoping it interfaces with my AF100 perfectly.
 
I only wish they had a choice of codecs.
Im not very enthusiastic over the Apple ProRes...
 
Ya,This is interesting,great price ,including battery ,charger,and doc,If we buy AJA Kipro Mini,we have to spend more than 3k,
 
Announcing the Samurai this far in advance could totally backfire on them if the Ninja
doesn't meet production quality expectations.
 
Looks good and is probably the way I will go, its a lot of bang per buck cant wait for reviews ..any body order one yet...
 
jmarkham said:
Announcing the Samurai this far in advance could totally backfire on them if the Ninja
doesn't meet production quality expectations.
Click to expand...

Well as far as I know only a handful of camera's have both HD-SDI and HDMI (AF100, F3, etc...), so for most people interested in the Ninja, the announcement hasn't changed their minds. And if you have a camera that has both outputs and you did switch to the Samurai, Atomos is just selling you a more expencive product. And also announcing the Samurai before the Ninja's release Atomos got in the good graces of the public. Now people can see what is around the corner, and not feel duped. I personally think it was a smart decision for Atomos.
 
Okay, look -- I don't think announcing the Samurai can possibly have been a negative for them. As a user of HD-SDI camcorders, I can say that I didn't have any interest at all in the Ninja, and if I did finally buckle to get it, I would be *pissed* to find out that another version was coming so quickly that has SDI connection. HDMI is an awful, awful, awful, awful connector and (while I understand many cameras only offer HDMI) I am not in any way interested in banking my recordings on HDMI. To the Ninja's credit, it uses a full-sized HDMI connector so you can at least use a locking HDMI cable.

If the only difference between the Ninja and the Samurai were the presence of HDMI (and the $500 price increase), I'd pay that. That's what HD-SDI is worth.

Now, back to jmarkham's point -- I think it's fair to say that people are wildly optimistic about the Ninja performance. I would dare say that such optimism is perhaps a bit premature until it's been tested in the field. In other words, I love what Atomos is trying to do, but I don't know that I would want to be the first guy on the block getting one. A new and disruptive product like this is likely to have some growing and teething pains (in fact, I believe it's currently undergoing some, hence the delay in it being launched which, to Atomos' full credit, they caught and are fixing before any end users experience it). I think jmarkham was saying that if there is negative press and negative feedback about the Ninja, then that may spill over onto the Samurai as well, whereas if they'd waited to perfect the Ninja before announcing the Samurai then the Samurai could have launched "clean."

In any case, I just hope the Ninja delivers on all fronts. Its specs are impressive and its price is low.
 
David Saraceno said:
1. Ninja Shipping Worldwide. Ninja is available immediately worldwide
for only $995 USD.
Click to expand...
Don't get too excited. I had an email from the UK distributer a month ago claiming that stock was available to order but when I contacted the dealer they pointed me at he was happy to take my money although he had no stock but claimed that Atomos had units for delivery. Interesting as the product looks I really don't want to hand over my money until I am really sure that it's available off the shelf plus had a few independent hands on reviews to confirm that it lives up to the promises.
 
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