Atomos Samurai

jgardner said:
So, I've read through a lot of this and my bottom line is that I'd like to have/purchase a recorder for a series of 5 spots I'm shooting on my AF100. The first shoot is a little less than a month away. I'd love a samurai but I'm betting that I won't be able to get my hands on one before the spots start shooting. So, I'm thinking of buying a Ninja for the gig and selling when a samurai becomes available. I will be shooting 24p. I'm unclear on the updates to the ninja, will I get a 24fps movie on the ninja or will it still just be embedded in a 60i mov.
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Well, the 60i thing is because that's what comes out of the HDMI port on the camera; you can't change that, as far as I know. So, you have a few options.

First, use the Ninja natively. It will record 24p as a 60i signal with 2:3 pulldown. This can be reversed using Compressor. Of course it's not real-time but if you're just shooting spots and not (say) a reality TV show, you'll probably not have enough material to make this prohibitive.

Next (and I mean for a future shoot, not this one) the new Atomos Connect Converters will take a 24p SDI signal which it will send over the HDMI connection to the Ninja. The converters won't be available until the end of this year, I'm mentioning it because it keeps your Ninja current by giving it an HD-SDI input with real-time pulldown if you need it.

Or you can hope that there are enough Samurais to meet demand in a month's time. This is possible, but it is quite impossible to be precise about this given all the variables involved in international shipping and satisfying existing pre-orders. I agree with Barry's mantra on this (and I suspect you do as well): don't base a shoot on equipment that you can't get your hands on. It's not that I've any doubts about the Samurai as a product, (and I'd love you to buy one); just the exact point at which it will land on your doorstep.

Dave Shapton
Atomos
 
David Shapton said:
...This can be reversed using Compressor...
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I asked this question in the Final Cut Pro forum with no answer. The AF100 adds the pulldown differently than all other camera's. Do you know for a fact that Compressor removes the pulldown accurately for video recorded from either the SDI or HDMI stream from the AF100?
 
Brian@202020 said:
I asked this question in the Final Cut Pro forum with no answer. The AF100 adds the pulldown differently than all other camera's. Do you know for a fact that Compressor removes the pulldown accurately for video recorded from either the SDI or HDMI stream from the AF100?
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I'm not an expert on the AF100. To be strictly scientific, I have successfully removed 3:2 pulldown from a 24p/60i clip from an AF101, recorded via a Ninja, using Compressor. To me, it looked like a completely standard 3:2 pulldown cadence: I went through the whole (admittedly short) clip, frame-by-frame. But that was just my example. We do have other customers using this combination and I have not heard anything that would suggest that it doesn't work.

Dave Shapton
Atomos
 
Brian@202020 said:
The AF100 adds the pulldown differently than all other camera's.
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As far as I know, the AF100's pulldown is identical to every other camera's. Apparently there's some difference in the 720/24p's pulldown flags that a NanoFlash can't properly decode, but in 1080 it works fine.
 
Barry_Green said:
As far as I know, the AF100's pulldown is identical to every other camera's. Apparently there's some difference in the 720/24p's pulldown flags that a NanoFlash can't properly decode, but in 1080 it works fine.
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Thanks for that info Barry. I've never actually ran a test while renting a Nano, I always assumed it was the 1080 signal. So do you know if Compressor can remove the 720 pulldown?
 
I'm not a Mac user and have never used Compressor, so I'm the wrong guy to ask on that. Hopefully someone who knows will weigh in. But AFAIK, it's only a question on 720 footage; 1080 footage just "knows". I've shot plenty of 1080 with flags in 24p or 24PsF onto the Nano and it all just works.
 
Bob Fagan said:
I've used it for 3 jobs now...if you're shooting it locked down and don't need TC, it's a great tool. Workflow (through FCP) is very smooth. It actually saved my bacon when one of my SD cards went belly up right during an interview...camera just stop recording, but Ninja kept going so everything was there. It's probably not the best to use in a handheld situation, but it's doable if you are careful. Would have preferred the Samurai, but it's unavailability kind of made my choice for the Ninja.
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Hi Bob

Thanks for the info. Why do you say not best to use in handheld situation? A lot of my work is live events handheld in big crowds. Could elaborate for me to get a better understanding. Or anyone who has used either unit in handheld situation.

Also- what would be the best way to connect it securely to an EX3? And do you think a SSD would be better than a SATA HD if moving around a lot?

All info appreciated.

Thanks

Nick
 
I've heard from Atomos that my Samurai will be shipping to me in the next 10 days. I've got one of their recommended HDD's waiting; the WD Black 500gb, so I'll give it a good test.
 
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Nick Navaro said:
Hi Bob

Thanks for the info. Why do you say not best to use in handheld situation? A lot of my work is live events handheld in big crowds. Could elaborate for me to get a better understanding. Or anyone who has used either unit in handheld situation.

Also- what would be the best way to connect it securely to an EX3? And do you think a SSD would be better than a SATA HD if moving around a lot?

All info appreciated.

Thanks

Nick
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Any further word on using this in a handheld situation?

Thanks
 
Just used a ninja, handheld it can lose video with a rapid move if your using a spinning "old school" hard drive, i assume the SSD drives dont have this issue, its not a Ninja or Samurai issue its the HD you choose to enclose inside each unit.
As your probably aware the HD can be changed in seconds so perhaps a large spinning HD for tripod work and a SSD for hand held

Rapid whip pans on a tripod had no problems just occasional hand held moves
 
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Vultch, did it give any indication that video was lost? Or is it something that you don't know about until you go to play the clip back?
 
There is a little yellow diamond shaped logo that appears on the screen (Kangaroo warning - skippy the bush kangaroo the old TV prog)

But in the heat of the moment shooting I did not always see it as i had the Ninja screen at an angle away from the camera to make it easier to handle, I was also recording on camera as a back up. From experience if doing hand held stuff in the future opt for a SSD drive
 
Well, good for them to have put a warning on there. And I totally agree, I'd never use a spinning hard disk for footage, only an SSD...
 
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