Ninja - worth it for Nikon?

Michael Carter

Michael Carter

Veteran
I've read dozens of threads and reviews for the Ninja 2, from "hardly see a difference" to "amazing". I'm particularly interested in using it for keying/greenscreen.

I'm pretty shocked at the keys I can pull from D7100 footage... does anyone have real-world experience pulling keys from Ninja footage? I'm liking the D7100 image better than my "pro" camera, and I'm getting killer audio with the Tascam DR-D60... wondering if adding a Ninja would be a good value? Seems like one of those pieces of gear that would stick around for several camera generations.
 
Yes, but that addresses the Hyperdeck Shuttle. Curious if anyone's used the Ninja for serious compositing, as that's where compression artifacts become very visible.
 
The ninja and the shuttle should give you the same image quality, I think. But yes, if greenscreen is what you're doing, you definitely want feedback from people having used it for that.
 
I'm not that interested in the shuttle, seems like the interface of the Ninja is worth it, and the automated pulldown of the 2. I just wrapped a day of green screen with the 7100 and it's looking pretty nice, but start pushing things in Keylight and you'll see some macro blocking in screen matte view. It's still quite a leap from AVCHD, which really still is kind of shocking after testing keys with Canon & Nikon DSLR footage in the past.

Dunno if $650 is worth it though... with the GH4 looming and the BMC 4k price drop, my compositing-gear dollars may be better spent elsewhere. But maybe a GH4+Ninja would be pretty killer and allow one to wait on a Yaghe purchase.
 
What I mean is: even if you're not interested in the shuttle, whatever IQ it gives you is what you're going to get with the Ninja (plus, you get the better interface and a small field monitor for free).
 
I'm still unsure if the hdmi signal out of the D7100 is a padded 4:2:0 or a real 4:2:2. If the former, one wonders how much of an improvement it's going to be.
It would definitely be good to hear from people with first hand experience....
 
I own the ninja 2 and I would go with the Blade nowadays, better everything in terms of UI,waverforms,rgb parade and modstly better display. Not tu mention profesional connectors, not the weak HDMI (already have to change a broken connector,which eventually ment,replacing the whole motherboard -600€)
 
That's the big question for me though - is the camera really outputting 422? My favorite projects have lots of keying, it's really what I enjoy doing. The most creative projects seem to have the lowest budgets though. By summer I'll own something better suited... Gh4, BMC, right now it seems iffy to commit. But if $600 gets me cleaner keys from the Nikon, I'm all ears...
 
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