HPX170 and Atomos Ninja 1,2 or Samurai Do They Work Together

R

Robertofish

Active member
I am looking into getting camera around the 3000-4000$ range or less would be nice, either used or new doesn't matter as long as the condition is good! I think that P2 cards are a very expensive way to go since with DVC Pro HD, you get 1gb per minute and 64gb=64 minutes is $600+, so I noticed that the Atomos Ninja 1,2 and Samurai are around the same price as buying 2 or 3 P2 cards and if it works you can have 220mbits video recording in Pro Res 422 HQ, I edit my footage on a mac pro with Final Cut Pro so itll work getting into editing! The question is will the HPX170 work with any of those, is there anything I need as well as just the camera and HD-SDI recorder to get it working ie cables or converter boxes etc?

Thanks
 
Seeing the HPX170 has SDI out, I would go for the Samurai. Basically the Ninja 2 and the Samurai are the same, except the Ninja relies on HDMI in and the Samurai on SDI in. Both have loop through. In short, if you bought the Ninjas you'd have to buy a converter like fx. the BMD HDMI > SDI or wait for Atomos to put out their S2H unit which will sit on the back of the Ninja and convert the SDI signal to HDMi.

But there's no reason to go backwards in tech... SDI is the way forward, and your next camera is more likely to have SDI as well than HDMI.

I just bought the Samurai and I'm loving it. You get all you need to get up and running, except SSD drives, but those can be had for a cheap amount. I bought two 256gb Samsung 830 SSD drives and they will hold 2.5 hours of HQ footage each.
Opposed to cards, you can use the Atomos units with any camera that delivers a signal out through it's HDMI / SDI port.

Apart from that you get:

- Docking station for your computer
- Firewire 800 cable
- USB cable
- 2 mini BNC > BNC cables (which Atomos will upgrade for you if you write them on their website. And since the included package cables are a bit on the short side, it's nice to get the longer ones they send... for free. Along with a D-tap power converter) NOTE: you have to buy a seperate female > female BNC cable to attach to the converter cable that comes with the unit.
- 2 NP-F570 batteries
- dual charger with 4 options for power supply.
- 2 drive caddies... case has room for 4 caddies, so you can buy extra from Atomos.

All delivered in a Pelicase type case.

I love when companies like Atomos supplies the amount of support and service like they have so far. 2 thumbs up!
 
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For long form recording, there is merit to an external recorder. But the devices require separate power, need a cable connection, are likely more prone to operator error and must be externally mounted which adds up to a pain in the field and will make hand held shooting more difficult.

P2 is very reliable and just gets the job done. There might be reasons to use an external recorder, but saving a few bucks and creating a hassle shouldn't be one of them.

Grant
 
Does the Samurai increase record quality or is the only benefit that you are ready to edit when you get back to the studio? As far as operator error that you mentioned how likely is this? Does it happen all the time, will you know when it happens? Or is it like tape drop outs, where they barely ever happen but can? Is there anyway to mount a samurai onto a camera? Hot shoe or something like that? Thanks for the info so far it has really helped!
 
The HPX170 already has a 100-megabit high-quality 4:2:2 codec. You won't really get anything out of the Samurai that DVCPRO-HD doesn't already give you, IMO. Maybe in 720p mode, but that's about it.

Seriously, there's no way I would bother with the hassle and complexity of something like an external recorder, instead of just getting some used P2 cards and using those.
 
I have the HPX170 with the Atomos Samurai. The difference between the image recorded on the P2 card or SDI to the Samurai is different. I first noticed this at Church. They were projecting the SDI image from the HPX170 directly to large screens. Their image was beautiful. I was shooting with my HPX170 to the P2 card and my image never equaled what I was seeing on the large screen. I bought the Samurai and started recording SDI to it. I was amazed, what a difference. Now I record direct to the Samurai and love the image. This recorder has brought new life to the HPX170.
There are other benifits to use the recorder.
1. Long record times.
2. Pro Res 422 HQ
3. Wave form monitor on the Camera while having focus peaking on the Samurai.
4. ect...
The more I use this combination the more I love it.
 
I would be quite interested to see a side-by-side recording of the Samurai vs. the onboard P2 recording, if you have the time to shoot something...
 
Here are two images from what I recorded. I recorded to both the P2 card and the Samurai recorder. The HPX170 was set at 1080i/24pa. The Samurai was set to record at 24p.
HPX1.jpgHpx1a.jpgSamurai1.jpgSamurai1a.jpg
 
In the timeline shots, it is the same picture of the DVCPRO timeline. I was just trying to show the chip properties. I had put the clips on top of each other so I could get the same frame. When I got the properties of the Prores 422 clip I forgot to mute the top timeline so the Prores chip would show. Hope that makes sense.
 
As I see them they are very slightly different, but I don't see one as being "better" than the other. Am I missing something here?

Grant
 
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