Atomos Sumo. Any good?

[CharlesPapert]

Curious to know if your Shogun was calibrated, John?

I've never done a side by side with the CD's, I fell sideways into the Shogun series because I shot a PSA that was to be played in reverse and the Shogun was the only unit that did a 1x reverse speed (I was told the CD's didn't have that exact setting, perhaps that was incorrect). The affordability factor probably played into this a bit! But believe me, I have had plenty of issues and notes for Atomos that I have passed on over the years--hard to get their ear if you aren't a blogger or a well known Aussie DP (that might have worked for you)!

The Sumo has been a real test of patience, in that it took so damn long for the multicam recording to be properly implemented, and insanely long for their own calibration software to become compatible (that one is unfathomable, really). I still wouldn't use it as a reference monitor, but it does make a fine director's monitor.

 

[John Brawley]

Curious to know if your Shogun was calibrated, John?

I've never done a side by side with the CD's, I fell sideways into the Shogun series because I shot a PSA that was to be played in reverse and the Shogun was the only unit that did a 1x reverse speed (I was told the CD's didn't have that exact setting, perhaps that was incorrect). The affordability factor probably played into this a bit! But believe me, I have had plenty of issues and notes for Atomos that I have passed on over the years--hard to get their ear if you aren't a blogger or a well known Aussie DP (that might have worked for you)!

The Sumo has been a real test of patience, in that it took so damn long for the multicam recording to be properly implemented, and insanely long for their own calibration software to become compatible (that one is unfathomable, really). I still wouldn't use it as a reference monitor, but it does make a fine director's monitor.

I don't know.

It came with the daily operator. I complained and asked but no one was able to get it anywhere near matching. I got very good at turning it on and off again though

Accurate, precision colour and accurate contrast with recording in a field monitor doesn't seem to exist.

Most of the field monitors out there now are all high bright and HDR which invariably means they are aimed at focus pullers who want to CRANK THEM and see eveything. They don't care about a nice solid black.

I've just gotten to know the damn 7q's so well I can expose by looking at them. But I need to move on.

JB

 

[Guest]

I was reminiscing with a friend recently and we reminded each other that when TV Logic first emerged in the film industry probably around 20 years ago, their early onboard LCD monitors came in incredibly crude unanodized aluminum housings and were considered the cheapo/low rent end of the spectrum. Of course the name is so familiar now, but at the time it seem kind of funny--TV Logic?! I'll have to see if I can find one in any of my set photos from that era to post.

That's wild. Would be interesting to see that. I don't think I ever saw the earliest versions. I was late to industry, as I was likely in tropics or some relatively remote place.

I think the first one I saw was working on a shoot with Nancy Schrieber. And yeah, that name "TVlogic" seemed odd.