Just Received my Atomos Samurai

Samurai mounted onto F3

Samurai mounted onto F3

powervideo said:
Wouldn't mind seeing a picture of your rig with the Samurai. I'm still figuring out how to mount it.
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F3 rig small 3.jpgF3 rig small 6.jpg

Here we go. Samurai fixed onto the back on the F3 with a NogaArm- and here's the clever bit, I have attached some velcro to the bottom on the Samurai, and attached some to the top of my V-Lock batteries - so my Samurai effectively 'rests' on the top of them - resulting in them not sliding at all, sitting nice and snugly. Sparky.
 
Hi Andrew, it's a Movietube rig. Here is a link to it: http://www.creativevideo.co.uk/index.php?t=product/kinomatik_movietube_cr
It come's with front handles for shoulder mount work - which sit really comfortably - a handle on top to carry it around, which I have moved, and a section to attach a VF, which I have also removed as I am using my TVLOGIC solely as the VF. Don't use F3's VF or LCD at all. It is expensive but really, really well made. A also have a multiple D-TAP adaptor on the back to power monitor, led light etc. Sparky
 
Nope, on the other side is just the release switch for the hard disc, and a power button. You can't power it through AC power, but the two batteries that come with it will run for an entire day.
 
Sparky874 said:
Nope, on the other side is just the release switch for the hard disc, and a power button. You can't power it through AC power, but the two batteries that come with it will run for an entire day.
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Oh well, you can't have it all...
Now, I read in brochure that there is something called dummy dtap adapter. Did it come in the kit or you have to order it? I see BH has it listed on the web with no photo...
 
don't know anything about that! Can's see how it/ where it would connect either - but it would be very handy..
 
Sparky874 said:
don't know anything about that! Can's see how it/ where it would connect either - but it would be very handy..
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I suspect it's a dummy battery with dtap cable hanging out to connect to outside battery power (like swit battery I am using). I can not find anything about it on atomos (poor and unimaginative) web page. I guess, this is not priority for them at this moment...
 
My Samurai is coming tomorrow morning from B&H and I believe is one of the first delivered in the USA. I must say that I was surprised after a 6 month "pre-order" to see it also listed as in stock on the B&H website. I think that I will try to get it working with the current F3 firmware and worry about upgrading that later, since I do not have S-LOG anyway. I hope it comes with a proper mount and that I do not need to upgrade the firmware on the unit immediately.
 
Does anyone know if they manufacturer has provided a way to power the unit via 12 volt battery systems like Anton Bauer and V-lock batts? SmallHD to my delight provided a 12 volt jack between the two battery mounts on the rear of their DP4 EVF. Makes for a much more elegant and less complicated setup and maintenance during a long shoot.
 
Andrew Stone said:
Does anyone know if they manufacturer has provided a way to power the unit via 12 volt battery systems like Anton Bauer and V-lock batts? SmallHD to my delight provided a 12 volt jack between the two battery mounts on the rear of their DP4 EVF. Makes for a much more elegant and less complicated setup and maintenance during a long shoot.
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Once you register the Samurai, Atomos will send you a D-tap cable to power from V-mounts and AB's. I haven't got mine yet, but I've only had it for two weeks. I did a commercial yesterday and it worked great, fired every time, and I could even do a quick Premiere ProRes422 edit on my MacBook directly on the Atomos docking station.
 
Thanks for that Peter, very good to know. One more question... Can you or someone tell me how much the Samurai weighs? I'm interested in the weight without batteries attached but many would be interested with the weight including batteries.
 
I am still on the fence about what recorder to get. It is between Samurai and PIX 240. I know that there are significant price difference between 2. It is almost double by the time you complete the set with PIX 240 (with more features, more weight,...). I would like some input from other who "decided" on Samurai, why they went with it over PIX...
Another thing is I have seen PIX at the local rental place, mounted on camera (huge and heavy), where Samurai is still MIA here in Toronto (expected any day at Vistek), and I really like to "feel" my gear before dropping $$...
 
Steven

I will answer your questions differently detailing why I bought the Pix240 over the Samurai.

I did not like the construction of the Ninja. It just felt too lightweight and too flimsy.I was conerned taht Samurai wold be of the same construction. I want both SDI and HDMI outputs live simultaneously. Samurai initial specs called for just SDI and at IBC they announced the SDI to HDMI module. I did not like Ninja's touch screen and I don't like touch screens in general. I wanted access to all of the ProRes and DNxHD codecs. I wanted more robust audio options. And I wanted something that would also be potentially more rentable.

My feeling is that for the moment the ProRes/DNxHD recorder market belongs to both SD and Atomos. Atomos will take a price-conscious segment and SD will take a higher end market sgement. SD has been pretty good so far about fixing problems quickly and the worst outstanding problem is the macroblocking in dark areas in DNxHD. I am confident that will be fixed quickly.

I can see tons of reasons to buy either. Hoping at some point actually to have a Samurai to review and then I can speak more authoritatively about it.

Both are also produced by companies attentive to customers.

And I never make a major purchase without "feeling" it. Agreed.

Ned
 
Received my Samurai today and everything seems to work well. I was able to take test footage and upload to FCP X without a problem. I formatted a 750 GB drive (Hitachi) and it will go for over 9 hours on HQ mode. At first was not getting good sound but kept it on channels 1/2 and highlighted the red REC button on the audio sub-menu. The mini cable plugs into a normal HD-SDI cable and from there into the A port which was activated. Overall very satisfied so far. The images seem to be much better than the SxS card -- richer color, less blocky. The only thing I cannot figure out is how to trigger record on the Samurai from REC on the camera. I attached it to the Berkey plate opposite side of the Cineroid EVF which seems to balance nicely right to left and a little aft for front to rear balance. It did not come with a dummy battery which would allow for D-Tap use! I have no experience with other recorders but this one seems very intuitive and nice. I did read the Ninja manual (no Samurai yet online) and this helped.

I just re-read Power Video's post about this and now I get it, you need to both set the timecode button to HD-SDI and then set the button for TC which turns yellow (2 buttons total) and then it does trigger off of the camera record button!
 
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Hi,

I am on the fence of ordering the samurai for my f3...I was wandering can it replace the need of an external monitor such as tv - logic...I would love to be able to use my samurai as an external recorder and also for critical focus assisting...can it make work and replace the need of an additional item such as an external monitor? anyone of you tried to do it this way?
 
Hi,

I have one more question on the subject of the samurai...does it have also hdmi input...it would be great to be able to use with both cameras the f3 as well as the fs-100...can you check this info and let me know...thanks
 
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