ATOMOS Samurai Reviews?

BollingerPro

BollingerPro

Well-known member
Hey Friends,

I am very interested in hearing about anyone's experience with the new Samurai in conjunction with the AF100 or other HD-SDI enabled camera.

Are their any issues that you'll have run into that would be good to know? What do you love about it? What do you wish it had etc...

Thanks ahead of time!
Nathan
 
I've got one in my hands right now (from Texas Media Systems), and I'll be doing some testing with it this weekend. I'll post what I find then, but if you've got any other specific questions, let me know.
 
I am looking forward to the results, I am trying to decide if I want to go the route of the AF-100 with a samurai or wait and save for an F3 or Scarlet
 
Dafilman21 said:
I am looking forward to the results, I am trying to decide if I want to go the route of the AF-100 with a samurai or wait and save for an F3 or Scarlet
Click to expand...
Might as well think about the C300 as well. The more I read and see from that camera the better it looks.
 
I'v been asking for a review of this for a while now, Is there a focus and exposure assist ??
 
I did my first shoot with the Samurai two days ago.

A dream to work with in the studio. Simple, easy and un obtrusive. Device is very simple to operate and just needs care that one does not inadvertently change a setting on the touch screen.

samuraiaf436sm.png



Chained Samurai first in the rank off the camera>onboard monitor> field monitor> client monitor. Perfect set up.

We dual recorded to the internal SD and the Samurai choosing Prores422 1080p25 as the codec.

I wanted the files to correspond ( filename numerically to make the two editors job easier) so what one needs to do is. Shoot bars on the camera before connecting the Samurai or else turn the record trigger off on the Samurai. This is because the camera records first clip to AVCHD as xxxx0.mts ( go figure!) and the the Samurai more logically records at xxx1.mov.

One also needs to be aware that if one does a replay from the camera...it will trigger the record on the Samurai (if triggering is enabled) and you will get a duplicate clip. That would get messy. We did all replays from the Samurai to avoid this. Its only a touch to toggle the trigger off on the samurai but the risk is...it will get left off!

I had 2 ft HD-SDI cables made for the Samurai to camera connection and ran them in a manner to protect the mini SDI adapter cables from stress.

Caution: One needs to be very careful that the drive caddy does not jam in the Samurai. It is too easy to do and its a bad bit of design and engineering ( cheap)
(DO not ram it home with pressure or speed...but ease it in gently and firmly to make the connection)

Its a two hand awkward process to extract the caddy because there is not much to grip onto and the release lever is on the opposite side. I will probably remove the release lever mechanism.

Also bad...the mini sdi connectors ( un necessary use of tiny connector requiring and expensive cable adapter) and the fact they come off the left side of the device. Means the cable is in front of the drive door and gets in the way of action with the the caddy.

I have not done any post work with the files yet because the plan is that I am editing and selecting takes from the AVCHD files and will lgive an edit list to another editor in Australia who will do final edits and color post there using the Prores422 files. ( Thats why we needed filenames that correspond). I will provide both file types to him.

BTW - its a great feature that one can easily set the Samurai to append the SC and Slate numbers as anything you want to the filename.

Battery life is fine and the hot swap battery feature is also brilliant.
 
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Shooter said:
I did my first shoot with the Samurai two days ago.

A dream to work with in the studio.
Click to expand...

Shooter,

Thanks for your thoughts!

Much of my work is in the field, & it sounds like the Samurai is better suited for the studio, so I'll likely look to other options. Too bad as I'm ready to buy.

Best,
Bern
 
I used mine on a shoot a few weeks ago. Loved it.
It would be fine in the field. It's solid and well made.

I agree with shooter re the connections. My other comments would be, the audio failed a few shots in, this is a known issue and soon to be fixed. It crashed a few times needing to be reset. The mounting screws were some odd gauge and currently my unit is getting replaced.
The on screen image is a lot cooler than what the camera was recording and with out a 1:1 option I wouldn't trust focusing off it.

That said once it is back and the audio proble is sorted it will be fantastic. It's super easy to use and quick to set up. Ssd's are cheep and reliable and every one knows how to deal with .mov files rather than avchd so handing off is easy.
 
EndCredits said:
I used mine on a shoot a few weeks ago. Loved it...

...the audio failed a few shots in, It crashed a few times needing to be reset. The mounting screws were some odd gauge and currently my unit is getting replaced. I wouldn't trust focusing off it.
Click to expand...

I would hate to see what would happen if you did not like it! :)
 
Shooter said:
I wanted the files to correspond ( filename numerically to make the two editors job easier) so what one needs to do is. Shoot bars on the camera before connecting the Samurai or else turn the record trigger off on the Samurai. This is because the camera records first clip to AVCHD as xxxx0.mts ( go figure!) and the the Samurai more logically records at xxx1.mov.
Click to expand...

It would be nice if they added a menu option to control this (Start from 0 / Start from 1).

A few questions:

Doesn't it also start record on SDI Trigger - or is it just on rolling timecode?

Would you say the LCD is of high enough quality for focus pulls? (not critical focusing - I've got an EVF with 1:1 for that - but more for a 1st AC to pull focus)

Did you find the same issue as EndCredits with an odd gauge mounting screw? I thought it was standard 1/4-20 (??)
 
Its illogical for AVCHD to start at "0" ( ie clip nothing)

The Samurai triggers when you have it set to record on trigger. You can easily set it so it does not receive the signal from the camera and therefore wont record.

According to Barry G. the signal it uses is "rolling timecode" and not a specific start stop flag in the HD-sdi signal.
I would concur. (Its not an issue and works very well) . I think it records two frames less at the head of the clip than the onboard clip.
It is very responsive.

We would not use it for focussing purposes ...period!

No issue mounting it to standard stuff we have in the kit.
 
I had a 1st ac pulling focus off it and some shots were not quite right and normaly he is fantastic.
 
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