HDMI Atomos Ninja Hard Disk Recorder 795$

Hi, I checked and pixel peeped as much as possible this evening, I found out as mentioned by Ralph B that the "while recording" clips have a nicer knee applied, everything looks a bit darker when recording except dark areas which come out a bit less dark. Final Cut and Avic MC see some clipping in non-recording clips. So it looks like the recording mode is better then nonrecording for Ninjas recording of GH2's HDMI.
Now to the disappearing clips. strangely there where double subfolders with the same name on the drive, a normally impossible thing for windows. I could rename them with a "a" numbering to recuperate. But some subfolders have definetely vanished.
About the numbering system for all editing systems we get a problem when clips are in seperate subfolders. I work mostly in Avid MC 5.0 I need to import every clip as a single AMA-Import this is tedious. I simply suggest a namingform of CLIP0000_0 for the first of a batch of 4gig to CLIP0000_1 for the next 4gig chunk etc. When recording is newly started give us CLIP0001_0 etc. So all NON -FCP editors can simply move all clips into one folder and happily import/link into their application. As Barry wrote Final Cut is not the only editing programm that works happily with Prores files. For 3D work for example we rely on Avid MC where we can watch 3d content directly on an attached 3d-monitor.

So this could be so easy, do we really have to create or use a renaming program ? Please pretty please....

Finally what i found out about the Fieldquirk: Only the second field of the interlaced clips recorded have this upperhalf-wrong-content syndrom; creating a 50% slowmotion cutting fields showed the effect clearly.

I hope the vanishing clips wer realy a user-fault. We will continue to test and I will comment on any similiar glitches if they happen. We will impose a 1 minute spinndown waiting time on every disk removal from now on.

Thanks for reading Matthias
 
It's 1.3.

Following up on my earlier question about the version of HDMI supported by the Ninja's input (confirmed above by Dave as 1.3): Has anyone actually tried connecting a computer GPU output to the Ninja and recording non-HDCP content at any of the supported 1280x720 or 1920x1080 frame rates?

I'm sure that this is not the primary market for the Ninja, but for those of us looking document software processes it is a very attractive piece of hardware. I'm hoping confirmation that this is possible before making a purchase.

Any input is appreciated, Jesse
 
Does the Samurai have HDMI to HD-SDI loop through? That'd be magical for larger productions to utilize the HDMI Signal with a much more robust and steady connection like HD-SDI.

essentially, cameras with only HDMI could now go HD-SDI for monitoring out.
 
my ninja just arrived!!
batteries are charging now so I'll join Matthias testing this recorder with the PAL gh2 very soon.
I'll post some footages later for you to play with.

David, I hope it's not out of topic but for those considering to buy the sony fs100, do you think the ninja has enough horsepower to record at 60fps 1080p? If not at prores HQ, at least LT?
Thanks,
Diego
 
Welcome on board, Diego.
Some tricks on the GH2: you need to set the cam to manual focus to get rid of the center-mark. And only 1080/50i (no 24fps-mode) works without later pulldown removal. Always record on the GH2 when recording on the Ninja.
Always wait atleast 30 seconds after shutting the Ninja off before removing the harddrive. Always connect the docking station to your computer after you inserted the disk, do not insert the disk into the connected dock.
Enjoy...

Matthias
 
Thank you Matthias!!
I did my first test and the quality of the clips is just amazing.

That being said, the first problem i noticed is a vertical green and magenta stripe on both the edges of the frame. the width is around 4 pixels.
here is a screenshot at 800% of this stripe
http://www.dropbox.com/gallery/2888648/1/ninja?h=98aaef

I agree with you that the folder thing is annoying but I can live with it for now.

The main issue is that I can't import clips in After Effects. It says it may be an unsupported format.....??
Final Cut has no problems in opening these files. The odd thing is that I manage to open the file in Photoshop Extended as well, so I can't see why Adobe AE doesn't work.
I really need to solve this issue since I do all grading in AE for my stock footages and I don't use NLEs very often.

Best,
Diego
 
a quick update....
as I mentioned, AE can't open files recorded on the ninja. However, I just tried exporting from quicktime the same file with the same codec (Prores HQ) and now it works....
 
Hi Diego,
I saw this stripe as well and mentioned it already in a direct post to Dave from ATOMOS, I saw some leftoverframes on my clips at the end of the recording as well. do you have these too ?
Did you already rig a soundsystem for the Ninja ? I need to find a way to go from XLR out of the Sounddevice mixer to 3.5mm first .
When comparing the presets on the GH2 which one did you choose for best CC-possibilities. I tried nostalgic and cinema and think that cinam darkens to much and that nostalgic blows the whites more...:-) Not sure yet what to do.

Matthias
 
Hi Boon,
as far as I can see in slowing down clips to 50% by using an algorythm that makes a single frame out of every field, there were only frames produced that resulted from a single field each. Further there were no duplicated frames found yet. If there would be some mismatch with fieldorder we would get some double frames in this slowmotion when fields would have been inserted somewhere like in 24p to 60i.
If the GH2 was not recording true 50i, then we might run into problems, but I can not imagine this being the case. What is nice about Pal :there never was a dropframe/nondropframe version of the standard so the engineers have probably no way to implement it with the GH2 when they want to stay within the HDMI norm.
Thats it for now Matthias
 
@ Matthias
I'm sorry I can't help you that much on audio stuff. Since I do stock footages (mainly lifestyle, business, etc), audio is off most of the times. I have a Rode that is taking dust on my shelf :)
I still have not experienced issues with leftoverframes, but I just came back from the country where I recorded some more clips for testing the ninja and I'll let you know soon.
About presets, personally I find that "Smooth" is the best with skintones. I lowered the sharpness -1.

@Boon
Apart from what has been mentioned here, I think the ninja is doing his job pretty well with a pal gh2. As Matthias mentioned, forget 24p and stick to 50i.
Later today or tomorrow I will post a couple of footages to let you compare the difference between AVCHD and Prores. I graded a test clip I did this morning in the studio and it's amazing how you can stretch the curves before you get artifacts.

Best,
Diego
 
Ok guys,
here is a 2 seconds clip recorded in prores. It has not been graded, so you can play with it.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2888648/tree.mov.zip

I apologize it's a bit short but you know what? I took 5 clips this afternoon but didn't check if the ninja recorded them....when I came back to studio I discovered that 3 of them are missing. Probably it's my fault.

Anyway, a longer clip is uploading now so I will send you the link to download it shortly.
Best,
Diego
 
Hi Diego,

We've never lost any clips as far as I know, so can you verify that your Ninja is recording properly? What type of media were you using?

Thanks

Dave Shapton
Atomos
 
Hi Dave,

I'm using a 128GB SSD from OCZ. But I think it's just me, not the ninja. Probably I pushed Rec on the lcd too soft and didn't check if it was recording....
I just finished recording some more clips and had no problems.

Do you think the next firmware will add thumbnails to recorded files? I think it would speed things up when checking takes.

Best,
Diego
 
Hi Dave and Diego,

Very good idea with the thumbs, better yet when we get the fully functional playmode.

Matthias

Good idea but the trouble with thumbs is that you can make the interface very much more complicated, and, potentially make the whole system slower as it searches for thumbnails etc. What might be more useful is a very easy way to see the last few shots.

These are all aspects that we'll be looking at. Remember that the Ninja is not just an individual product, but the first of many that will constitute the Atomos "Platform" - so development will continue for a long time and you'll find that the platform grows in functionality and utility as time passes.

Dave Shapton
Atomos
 
Hi all,

here is a clip of the sky I recorded yesterday, ungraded.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2888648/sky.mov.zip

I think this is the case where prores really helps since avchd would have had a hard time with gradations.

This morning I'm gonna test the ninja with a HDMI splitter from smallhd to see if I have any problem with the signal when connecting a DP6 and the recorder to the gh2.
Later today I have a shooting for stock, so we'll take the ninja in the field and see how all this rig works.

Best,
Diego
 
@diegocervo, Thanks for uploading those clips, this set up looks quite promising for PAL land. The footy is being reported as Pro Res HQ 25p, did you de-interlace, or did it come straight off the Ninja?
 
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