Atomos Shogun - still worth having?

G

Greg_E

Veteran
As I'm getting back into live TV remotes, it's clear that I need to bring my own monitor to test feeds on cables. That's pretty easy. But I'd also like to have a monitor that I can calibrate so that I know it is accurate because you never know how good the monitors in the truck are going to be. I thought about BMD Video Assist 4k, but these can't be calibrated without jumping through a few hoops. But the Atomos stuff can be calibrated. Used Shogun recorders are within the budget I would spend, have 4k capability, HDMI and SDI inputs, and run on battery. Not sure I need the record functions, but it might be nice once in a while to archive some shows.

So is the Shogun worth having in this day and age? Looks like they stopped firmware in 2016 and it came out several years before that so they are potentially very old now.

Or is a BMD Video Assist 4K the better choice, and learn how to make a 3D LUT to handle the calibrations? I have a 5 inch VA at work and it seems to be a decent display, but I'd never bother calibrating something that small, and the 5 inch display is really too small for what I want to do with it.
 
If you can wait a bit, there's a 99% chance new Atomos 7" monitors/recorders are coming soon.

But if not, the Infernos are still worth it. Great products. (And the last firmware update was in June 2018.)
 
With those needs, might as well save a bit and get a Shogun Flame. You wouldn't need the extra features of the Inferno.

I find the Shogun screens to be very accurate. It's the only small monitor that I'll use away from my 24" Sony OLED that I feel I can trust. The high brightness would be a good asset for testing cable runs in exterior also.

I agree the new 7" monitors should be emerging soon, but I'm still satisfied with my Shoguns for now.
 
Used Shogun Flames are not that much more money, so that might be a good way to go.

An Odyssey 7q would be cool, but more than I want to spend even used. Would be neat to have the 4 inputs and switching once in a while.

I might try making a LUT for the 5 inch VA at work, buying a new device is always a better option when possible. If it is as simple as extending the desktop of my computer and placing the test patches on the VA, and then let the software build a 3D LUT, that might be easy enough to get a 4k VA working for me. Would need a REC. 709 to monitor and maybe a REC 2020 to monitor LUT, but most of the stuff I would be doing is probably going to be HD for broadcast, especially since that allows the common Sony cameras on these trucks to do 8x slowmo. The replays from those cameras looked great.
 
NorBro said:
If you can wait a bit, there's a 99% chance new Atomos 7" monitors/recorders are coming soon.

But if not, the Infernos are still worth it. Great products. (And the last firmware update was in June 2018.)
Click to expand...

Interesting...

So it seems Atomos are no longer bothering to provide FW updates for incoming camera LOG profiles and will just dump current models for new ones - good business model.
 
You read that and make that assumption? That's not a good human model...

Even if that's the case then they wouldn't be the first. People spend 10x as much on products only to see them be "put on the shelf" 18 months later.
 
Sorry if I came off harsh, but Atomos have a bad rep. Not just from this post, but the history of Atomos and their product support previously... (having owned Ninja, Star, Ninja2, Flames and now an Inferno I’ve seen it)

As example. The NinjaV has support for the Nikon zLOG - yet the Flame and Infernos does not - and now there will be new 7” monitors which I presume will also.
 
I know it's frustrating but this is the world we live in. Personally, I buy a product and only expect it to be supported for 6 months.

And I almost never buy anything more than $1500 anymore.

And I sell 99% of everything I purchase within 3 months.

The Ninja V also has support for Z-LOG because Atomos has an exclusive relationship with Nikon and ProRes RAW with that specific model. They want to sell more Ninja Vs and they are doing that (with this particular effort) by not supporting the 7" recorders (Z-LOG)...at least for now.

Their main goal is to make money...they (no one) do not care about you (us).
 
Then buying an old device that does what I want RFN seems like a better choice, not sure the used prices will drop much more and I doubt the new devices will be in the under $800 range that I'm looking at.

But I will need to check the tax laws, I might be able to deduct 100% next year and that might push me up to a 7Q+, need to see if that program is still in effect for NY.
 
TheTrickster said:
Sorry if I came off harsh, but Atomos have a bad rep. Not just from this post, but the history of Atomos and their product support previously... (having owned Ninja, Star, Ninja2, Flames and now an Inferno I’ve seen it)

As example. The NinjaV has support for the Nikon zLOG - yet the Flame and Infernos does not - and now there will be new 7” monitors which I presume will also.
Click to expand...

Atomos is not financially healthy. So they have to focus their resources where they think it will bring the most revenue and get them back to financial health. The fact that a company cannot make a healthy living on the monitor/recorder market does not bode well for those who need these type of products. Maybe their move to monitor-only products will return them to a positive position.
 
Paul F said:
Atomos is not financially healthy. So they have to focus their resources where they think it will bring the most revenue and get them back to financial health. The fact that a company cannot make a healthy living on the monitor/recorder market does not bode well for those who need these type of products. Maybe their move to monitor-only products will return them to a positive position.
Click to expand...

Generally speaking, I'm not a fan of the monitor/recorder for on-camera use. Takes up too much space on the camera. And honestly, not a fan of external recorders anymore, period. I feel we should be well past that, at this point. 10 years ago, they served a purpose, especially keeping tape cameras relevant(and producers that "just had to have ProRes"), but now, you're not gaining much, if anything over the internal native recording/codec(except RAW) of most cameras.
 
Unfortunately they are still necessary for those stubborn cameras (almost all of them besides a few and the cinema systems) that only output 10-bit or don't have a headphone jack or no peaking/waveform/zebras or a recording limit, etc.

You'd think we'd be past that (and we are getting there for the most part), but there's always something missing in one of these mirrorless cameras which is basically what these monitors/recorders are made for besides the RAW systems as you mentioned. ProRes is probably the last thing anyone thinks about when purchasing these devices; it's just the chosen and only 10-bit option by default (besides DNxHD/HR for some).
 
Having spent a while looking around, the Shogun Flame is probably the best choice. The Inferno doesn't really get me anything I can use. The Flame seems to have a better display and ability to handle HDR images that the old Shogun doesn't allow.
 
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