FS7: shogun flame questions

L

Lenilenapi

Carbonite Member
I just worked with a Shogun Flame for the first time today and frankly was less than impressed, but it wasn't my unit and maybe I didn't know how to set it up properly. None of my questions have anything to do with recording quality or capabilities - I was disappointed in it as a monitor especially as compared to my Odyssey 7Q+ that I used on the same job a month ago.. So here are my complaints. Let me know if there are solutions as I need to work with one all week ( clients).

1- This is not the biggest complaint but the general look of the monitor I found kind of dull which surprised me as its supposed to be much sharper and brighter. The blacks seemed milky and it just didn't have much snap. Granted I was indoors and if outdoors I'm sure those 1500 nits would have proved their worth, but indoors I just didn't dig it. I had all the basic setup sliders at mid point and I don't know if I was using it i the Rec709 mode or what. Where would I look for that.


2. Ok here's the real complaint :
To use any of the monitor tools - like peaking for focus, or 2:1 push in for focus or even to access the waveform I had to first go into a general menu then pick say the peaking or 2:1 menu , then to turn peaking off I had to again go through the general menu first. Well this job had me moving very fast and it just took too long. With the Odyssey with the touch of button I have my red peaking on and another touch and its gone. Easy to quickly double check. Likewise for push-in (2:1) to check focus and with a finger touch I can move the focus area where I want it - fast and efficient. I just didn't use those tools on the Flame because they took too long. I use them constantly on the Odyssey.

I think the same was true for putting up exposure tools like waveform or zebras, but I didn't try.

Are there programmable buttons that allow you to do this quicker? If so where.

3. The color peaking didn't seem to have an adjustment on it and I just saw red on everything so I found it useless - Did I just miss that. Color peaking is a tricky thing. to design right. On many monitors and viewfinders its absolutely useless and on others its great.

That's basically it.I love shooting with the Odyssey and today was just a bummer. Hopefully it was operator error?
I didn't have them together so perhaps if there was a direct comparison I would have seen the advantages of the sharper Flame screen but it certainly didn't jump out at me.

Mainly felt like the Odyssey was really designed more by people who know how we actually work in the field.

Lenny Levy
 
Last edited:
A few of your complaints are valid, Lenny. The menu system is a little cumbersome, but, honestly I didn't find it much more cumbersome than the odyssey. I guess it's just personal taste, but, I think, also, muscle memory is important with these devices.

The "trick" to the Flame, at least for myself to learn, was how to be sure the LUT mode matched the camera mode. I.E., if I'm shooting slog3, I need to be in slog3 mode. Tapping the Auto HDR mode is the easiest way to set up the monitor brightness, however, I found it just as fast to manually set brightness to taste, then set the wfm so that max brightness kisses the spot where it begins to clip. Understand that setting monitor brightness works in 2 different modes. When shooting hypergammas, the brightness is set for convenience and visibility. But, when shooting Slog mode, brightness is set for proper exposure. Once I got the hang of it, my exposures are always nailed. But, I had to get used to the monitor display.
 
I was an early adopter of the Shogun and then the Ninja Assassin and then the Ninja Flame. Now the Inferno is coming out soon...

OP, I think you're just used to the 7Q. I am so fast with the Atomos recorders that I truly might be able operate them with my eyes closed. But when I first used the 7Q (a while ago), it was like rocket science coming from the Shogun.

The monitoring options with the HDR are definitely the trickiest, but everything else is extremely straightforward. I think the Flame is very bright and the LUT monitoring is fantastic. As far as peaking, there is a slider to change the color.

You do have to enter and exit the menus like you mentioned, but the interface is so intuitive. Like cuervo said, muscle memory here really is important, and it will all come natural with more experience.

Both can do the job well, but one thing Atomos will never beat is CD's customer support with Mitch on this forum.
 
Thanks for your responses. I worked with it today and liked it more I think because it had accidentally been set at a gamma around 2.70 instead of 2.22 which is the default. I thought that just looked snappier and it was easier to judge exposure and focus. I did notice that its sharp. Tomorrow I'll get to use it outside which will be interesting.
However I don't think there is anyway I could ever compare the ease of using the focus and exposure tools compared to the 7Q. And it still seems to me the color peaking is too strong and useless - something I've seen on many monitors. The waveform seemed OK though - liked the transparency slider.
My only disappointment with the 7Q is the brightness and I think the accuracy of the color seems to vary with the shot. Don't know
how the Shogun compares but the old Small HD OLED was definitely better. However all told I still think the 7Q is the bomb.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top