New Pricing on Atomos HD Range

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thirtyfivefifty

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As per press release:

"New pricing on HD range has also been announced at IBC. The Samurai Blade, Ninja Blade, Ninja 2 will see a price reduction in excess of 50%, taking the Ninja 2 to the lowest price seen for a Recorder Monitor and the Blade series offering incredible value for HD monitoring and ProRes / DNxHDrecording.

Samurai Blade; US: $ 495 ex. TAX, EU: € 495 ex. VAT, GBP: £ 349 ex. VAT
Ninja Blade; US: $ 495 ex. TAX, EU: € 495 ex. VAT, GBP: £ 349 ex. VAT
Ninja 2; US: $ 295 ex. TAX, EU: € 295 ex. VAT, GBP: £ 209 ex. VAT"

http://www.atomos.com/wp-content/themes/atomos/PDFs/Atomos_IBC_2015_Press_Release.pdf
 
The Ninja2 is a steal (compared to what I paid for mine!)

Alas we are now in 4K world, so its no doubt just to get rid of stock...
 
Does the Ninja Blade's start/stop function work with the GH4? If so, B&H is probably getting a little more of my money this week...
 
how bad/good is ninja 2 for monitoring? It's only 800x480...so kinda low res but maybe it's still decent?
 
The Ninja2 for me, is just a bigger screen, which has focus peaking etc - the res isn't great but the screen is much bigger for me

Yes, the Ninja Blade does work with the HDMI triggering for ON/OFF for the GH4, the only one left that doesn't is the NinjaStar (which due to the pricing now, they might of dumped?)
 
Ninja2 screen is horrible, however it is good for checking focus and when you need something bigger than the camera's LCD. I wish these price drops happened a month ago, I would have gotten the Blade. Not too distraught though because I was always going to grab the Shogun anyway.
 
The Black Magic Video Assist, still looks better for the same price. 1920 Screen Resolution, records on a SD card, and both HDMI & SDI connections.
 
So does this mean we will get a K4 Ninja Star? That's what I am waiting for. i don't need the bulkiness of a 7" monitor recorder.
 
VMT said:
So does this mean we will get a K4 Ninja Star? That's what I am waiting for...
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All the signs are pointing toward it. The heat generated by the processors was probably a bit too much to bear for the last cycle but the new 14-16 Nanometer tech that is now making its way to the smartphone market is far more efficient and the small body recorders - including the in-camera-body 4K - are becoming more prevalent. The cost of media and SSD's is dropping precipitously too. At some point, most cameras would be able to record 4K internally anyway, so the drive to beat that arrival is something all external recorder manufacturer must undertake sooner rather than later.
 
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PlanB said:
The Black Magic Video Assist, still looks better for the same price. 1920 Screen Resolution, records on a SD card, and both HDMI & SDI connections.
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Don't assume that resolution means everything. There is a lot that makes up the quality of the screen than just resolution. Even a 800x480 Atomos trumps the color and contrast quality of a 1280x800 Lilliput monitor. A Lilliput monitor could have 4k pixels and still look like garbage.

Besides at 5" the pixels really start to get very tiny. The Atomos 5" 1280x720 Ninja Blade already uses 326 pixels/inch. That is iPhone retina territory which has insanely tiny pixels. Cramming 1920x1080 in to the same 5" space doesn't necessarily make the monitor better for focus. It will be virtually impossible to tell the difference between a focus point that would look different on 1280 vs 1920.

We already know the Video Assist is a TFT display and not an IPS display like the Atomos. all the really good monitors use IPS. Not only because IPS has a better viewing angle but because IPS tends to be better made panels. If BMD is already using a cheaper quality TFT panel we have to question what other corners they cut to make the monitor affordable. It could be a 6bit panel. Of course I don't really know if the Ninja is a 8 bit panel either but it is well known to have a very good 1280x720 display. We know absolutely nothing about the overall visual quality of the Video Assist right now other than it packs some extra pixels. All we really know is that it is a TFT display and therefore not likely of the best possible quality.

We also don't know what software features the Video Assist has right now. We know it has peaking, histogram and audio waveforms but so does a $130.00 Feelworld monitor. The Atomos has vectorscope, waveform monitor, RGB and Luma parade, S-log C-log and likely in the future v-log, anamorphic stretch and false color.

In terms of weight I thought the Atomos would be a lot heavier because of the HHD used for recording but its actually only 3oz heavier than the Video Assist. Without batteries and media the Video Assist is actually 2oz heavier than the Ninja Blade.

I'm not saying the Video Assist is a bad monitor at all but there are way too many unknowns right now to just assume it looks like a better monitor. extra pixels are rarely an indicator of quality and there are many other factors that indicate if a monitor is a good visual tool. There are already so many 1280x720 monitors out there that range from garbage to gorgeous. Don't just assume any 1920 monitor falls into the gorgeous category. Wait for some serious professional reviews that compare the Video Assist to other high end professional monitors.
 
All great points, which is why I pre-ordered the BMD VA Assist and will be picking up a Shogun. The video assist will be used as a second monitor and a way to shoot straight to SD cards for handoff.
 
I'm eagerly awaiting to see some reviews of the BMD VA. The biggest thing holding me back from a Blade is that I need both HDMI & SDI (which could be fixed by an add on adapter), plus I'd like 1080p60 (something that can't be fixed with an add on).

Still the new prices are just insane.
 
Thank you! I'm getting another blade.
It does help with focus when the camera has a lacking LCD. Heard the ninja 2 screen wasn't very good
 
Just curious: what happens to retailers when a manufacturer drops the price of an item by half? I'm betting they paid more than $500 for Ninja Blades wholesale. Do retailers get some kind of compensation or are they expected to eat it as a cost of doing business?
 
zijital said:
I'm eagerly awaiting to see some reviews of the BMD VA. The biggest thing holding me back from a Blade is that I need both HDMI & SDI (which could be fixed by an add on adapter), plus I'd like 1080p60 (something that can't be fixed with an add on).

Still the new prices are just insane.
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I think the VA has mini sdi and hdmi
 
WOW!!! Is making me keenly consider them now.


zijital said:
I'm eagerly awaiting to see some reviews of the BMD VA. The biggest thing holding me back from a Blade is that I need both HDMI & SDI (which could be fixed by an add on adapter), plus I'd like 1080p60 (something that can't be fixed with an add on).

Still the new prices are just insane.
Click to expand...

I possibly could live without HDMI, but lacking 60fps is a bummer as is half of the reason why I want a recorder for my Sony PMW-F3.

Hmmm... will have to wait for the BMD VA still it appears, then I can make up my mind which set of features I want to trade off for with BMD VA vs Samurai Blade.
 
Ordered another blade. I still expect the vast majority of our work to be HD and even some SD for a few more years and the recorders help with focus, backup recordings and extra color room if needed for post.
I will continue easing into 4k mainly for re-framing slowly until it is required.
 
The Ninja Blade has 326 pixels per inch which is what the retina iPhone 5 and iPhone 6 has. Thats a pretty dense screen and few can see pixels beyond 326 ppi.
The BMD Video Assist has around 440 pixels per inch or even higher than the iPhone 6+ which is an insane amount of pixels packed into a 5" screen. Very few people can see the pixel density difference between an iPhone 6 and an iPhone6+.

Now where this gets very interesting is when you use a loupe like the Grid 5. A loupe blows up the pixels expanding their view. Sort of like using a magnifying glass on the iPhone. In this case I could actually see the BMD Video Assist having an advantage because using a 2.5x or 3x loupe makes the pixels larger for the eye and you very well could the difference between 326 ppi and 440 ppi. Technically a 3x loupe could turn the densities into 108 ppi vs 146 ppi. I say this in theory because I don't have a BMD to test this on but I am an app developer so I know a thing or two about pixel densities on small screens. Basically my point is if you want to turn a 5" monitor into a EVF by adding a loupe you will then see a rather decent advantage to the BMD Video Assist.

I will now be waiting for reviews of the BMD as well. I currently use a loupe on the LCD screen of my camera and it is a great way for me to shoot with. Just wish the LCD was higher resolution. EVF's of a decent resolution above 800x480 pixels tend to be very expensive so the $500.00 BMD + the $200.00 Grid 5 seem to be a pretty decent option for a 1920x1080 5" EVF which should be insanely detailed for focusing. I also kind of like the fact that the Video Assist supports 1080p 60p. While maybe not a format I use frequently it is nice to have that option as an alternative to recording 60i. I can always convert to 1080i 60i or 720p 60p in post so it gives me more flexibility for delivery for TV work with minimal quality loss.
 
I bit the bullet and ordered the Ninja Blade yesterday. This price drop couldn't have come at a better time. I now have a bunch of project where I need to record the feed from a presenter's computer, and I don't have time to wait for the Video Assist to be released and reviewed. Recording to my existing SD cards would have been nice, but SSD's are almost as cheap now (and cheaper, when compared to higher end SDXC cards).
 
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