VaricamLT: Can the Varicam LT Record to the Shogun Inferno Without P2 cards in camera?

puredrifting

puredrifting

Major Contributor
Just saw that Atomos added 10-bit Dual Link RAW recording from the Varicam LT to the Shogun Inferno with it's latest firmware update. If I didn't want to use P2 Express Cards, is the Varicam LT capable of just recording Proxy internally and to the Shogun Inferno externally? Would the Varicam LT trigger recording on the Inferno?
 
Yes, you can turn off the internal recording and only output RAW to an Atomos or Convergent Design recorder. It's an interesting way to go, especially if you want to save money by not purchasing expressP2.
 
Mitch Gross said:
Yes, you can turn off the internal recording and only output RAW to an Atomos or Convergent Design recorder. It's an interesting way to go, especially if you want to save money by not purchasing expressP2.
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Saving a few here and there in the short term. But nothing beats recording directly to P2 or P2 Express w/ full metadata and confidence that the footage is in its native, and virtually impossible to corrupt it. I recalled there are about 20+ screws just to hold the P2 slot for P2 HD cams when I opened the 2/3" cam. Talk about being overly secure. That's a lot of screws just to hold the dual P2 media slot. Panasonic is serious when they mean reliability and durability.

This method reminded of the Firestore external recording via Firewire about a decade ago. In retrospect, the lost footage associated with external recorders costed me 100x more than buying the P2 media itself. I'd not risk tethering the recording to external recorder on super important, 1-take only shoot.
 
Dating back to the original nanoFLash, I can't recall a single time I've used an external recorder on my Tape Vari, P2 Vari or C300 without recording to primary, internal camera media. And it's saved my @$$ MORE THAN ONCE! The cost of the media/cards would have paled in comparison to telling a client their shoot was lost(and possibly losing the client), because there was an issue with the external recorder. I doubt there are many people doing this that haven't heard of at least one failure from a nano, Odyssey or PIX, whether it be a power cable issue, signal cable issue, internal HDD/SSD issue or other failure.
 
I would purchase at least one or two 256GB P2 Express Cards. But I do get these long days where I am required to shoot many hours of footage and I will not be able to afford to drop $5k to $10k worth of P2 Express cards. I can rent them, which is a PITA on long shoots like the two weeks I shot in Brazil a few months ago, or I could have an Atomos or CD recorder and shoot on Proxy cards? Thanks for the details Mitch, that's good to know.
 
puredrifting said:
I would purchase at least one or two 256GB P2 Express Cards. But I do get these long days where I am required to shoot many hours of footage and I will not be able to afford to drop $5k to $10k worth of P2 Express cards. I can rent them, which is a PITA on long shoots like the two weeks I shot in Brazil a few months ago, or I could have an Atomos or CD recorder and shoot on Proxy cards? Thanks for the details Mitch, that's good to know.
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Are you going to record several hours in raw? In that case you'll need six 256 GB SSD:s to replace a single 256 GB P2 (if recording 4K), which will last for 72 min, if I remember the numbers correctly.
 
Milan O. said:
Are you going to record several hours in raw? In that case you'll need six 256 GB SSD:s to replace a single 256 GB P2 (if recording 4K), which will last for 72 min, if I remember the numbers correctly.
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He won't have to shoot in raw however? Can't the recorder take it down to ProRes LT for him?
 
AFAIK it can't (or rather, it doesn't for now), but you can record the regular 1080 PsF output from the camera in different ProRes formats. Since Puredrifting mentioned the new firmware for the Atomos, I guess he is aiming for raw, which will result in a lot of data.
 
From VariCam LT RAW:

Atomos Shogun Inferno can record VariCam LT in 4K RAW to 30p or 4K RAW -> 4K ProRes up to 60p. Not sure specifics on other models but I believe the info is on their website. Note that 4K 12-bit and 4K 10-bit VFR or above 30p require Dual-Link SDI input, which is only available on certain Atomos recorders. This makes the Shogun Inferno the best match for Atomos recorders and the VariCam LT.

Convergent Design Odyssey7Q+ and Odyssey7Q with RAW Bundle enabled can record 4K RAW up to 60p, including all frame rates and bit depths. In June these will also support 2K RAW recording up to 240p.
 
I would typically not want to shoot RAW for these projects, Prores would more than suffice. I shoot Prores HQ right now with the C100/300 and the Atomos Ninja Blade and my clients are very satisfied with the image quality. Mitch, would there be a way to output a 4K signal to a Shogun Inferno that could be recorded to Prores HQ 4K while recording proxy on the SDXC card but not recording to the P2 Extress card?
 
No SDXC proxy recording without P2 recording. However...

You can seriously dial down the P2 recording quality so that it can act as an effective proxy, plus get an SD card super-compressed proxy. For instance you could set RAW out to UHD, Main (P2) to an HD 1080p down convert at 25mb and the Proxy (SD) to 6mb. This will give you a long runtime on the two internal cards.

You can explore the various available combinations on the VariCam LT control panel simulator on our website.
 
Mitch Gross said:
No SDXC proxy recording without P2 recording. However...

You can seriously dial down the P2 recording quality so that it can act as an effective proxy, plus get an SD card super-compressed proxy. For instance you could set RAW out to UHD, Main (P2) to an HD 1080p down convert at 25mb and the Proxy (SD) to 6mb. This will give you a long runtime on the two internal cards.

You can explore the various available combinations on the VariCam LT control panel simulator on our website.
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Cool idea, thanks Mitch!
 
I don't see an option on the 7Q+ where I can record anything other than CinemaDNG off the Varicam without a P2 card in the slot.
 
When taking in a RAW signal from the VariCam LT, the Odyssey7Q+ currently only records in CinemaDNG. The Atoms Shogun Inferno can record in CinemaDNG up to 30p or in ProRes up to 60p.

The secondary recording formats I was referring to are for the internal recording in the VariCam LT itself, on the expressP2 and the SD cards. The camera can output RAW as well as simultaneously record to these cards, and it can do so in a great variety of formats. So many in fact that I suggest playing with the various options either on the camera itself or our VariCam LT simulator, located on our website.
 
Mitch Gross said:
Yes, with the latest firmware the Atomos Shogun Inferno can record UHD in ProRes up to 60p. In CinemaDNG it tops out at 30p because the files are too large for a single SSD SATA bus beyond that point.
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Thanks Mitch, that's good to know, Prores would more than suffice for my upcoming projects. IMHO, RAW is only for VFX. If you are not doing VFX, you are just wasting storage and throughput shooting RAW.
 
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