GH4 atomos ninja star recorder

mr bill

Well-known member
The atomos ninja star sounds like a great way to get 422 10bit 1080p out of the GH4. The unit uses cfast type 1.0 memory cards, and all I can find when I Google for somewhere to buy these are are the scary expensive type 2 cards. The card capacity mentioned in the atomic at nab interview was 256gb - anybody got an idea of where to source these? Thanks..
 
I didn't even notice the Ninja Star. I've got a whole bunch of Sandisk CF 90MB/ps cards left over from my 7D days.

What's the maximum frame-rate the Ninja Star can do at 10-bit 1080P ProRes? If it can hit 60FPS, this would be a dream come true!

EDIT: This uses CFast cards specifically, not regular old CF cards. Damn.
 
Keep in mind that the GH4 does not record internally when outputting 10 bit, so if you want to watch what you just recorded, you´d need to output it somewhere since the ninja star has no screen.
 
not surprising at all since none of their other available recorders do 1080p60, so I wouldn't expect their cheapest option to do it. Maybe in a year or 2 they will give us a Shogun star with 4k and 1080p60.
 
needs to be said again: it's $300. and the company overall isn't exactly catering to the consumer market, so 300 is a darn low number. this little thing is exactly what many of us wished the hyperdeck shutter was, only now, i'm leery of investing in new 1080 tech. but i see a decent chance i'll cave and give my c100 the boost.
 
Did you think i was insinuating that the ninja star as priced should be expected to record higher than 1080?

Nope, it's just that some people are expecting a lot from the Ninja-Star, when I think it's a steal for what it offers at $300.

I think there could soon be a market for a 4K Ninja-Star, even if it was priced at $1K+. ( I would buy one )
 
cfast_adapter.jpg

This is my cfast adapter fitted with one of the new Kingston 64gb class 3 sdxc cards. Fingers crossed this will be a workable alternative to expensive cfast media. 10bit 422 1080p is the goal for the moment..
 
Mr bill, thanks for being an early adopter. Let us know how it works out for you. I think the Atomos Star comes in at a great price point to get 4:2:2. I would have liked that it did 60p in 1080 mode but they will still sell a bunch of them.
 
@Mark - I would have bought the Kingston card for the GH4 anyways - £25 didn't seem too much of a gamble for the cfast adapter. Keep you posted!
 
Apparently Cfast and sata are compatible standards except for the connectors, so there should be an adapter soon. all we have to do is add a battery to the sata drive.

still the total goes back up to 700$ territory

300$ ninja star
300$ drive+adapter
extra for battery
 
Read/write speed tests (using Aja speed utility) using Kingston 64gb class 3 sdxc card in DeLock cfast adapter:
Sustained write - 20.9MB/s average.
Sustained read - 21MB/s average
This converts to 160Mb/s (please correct me if these sums are wrong).

Data rates for ProRes 422 (10bit 422):
25p - 122Mb/s.
29.98 - 147Mb/s.
23.98 - 117Mb/s.
Speeds are a little shy of what would be required for ProRes HQ, but these figures look hopeful for ProRes 422. I have the Sandisk Extreme 95Mb/s card, and a Transcend 128gb class 3 card on the way. When I get a minute, I'll test these to see if there's an improvement over the Kingston.
 
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