FS7: Shogun Inferno with FS7, Early Impressions

basspig

Veteran
I received the Shogun Inferno this morning from B&H. I have been putting it through a series of basic tests today.

First and foremost, it finally records DCI 4K from HDMI!

For an early release unit, it does have some minor issues which I think will be addressed in firmware updates later:

Atom HDR needs work. The shadow areas take on a nasty posterize/solarized effect. This can be seen as you turn down the iris on the camera, focused on a yellow wall, a dark magenta, rough edged shadow starts to take over the darkest parts of the frame and then fill the frame. Not apparent with other display options.

Using the Zoom focus magnify function, the displayed magnified area looks like a halftone screen. Not necessarily a bad thing, but different from how Shogun handles focus mag.

One other display issue is that it seems to lack a letterbox mode, so it is not possible to see the whole frame without scrolling left and right when recording DCI 4K input.

The fan is pretty audible, even from 3 feet away. It's a soft white noise with a hint of a whistle like a turbine whine. When Shogun Inferno is placed into playback mode, the fan speed is reduced and is much quieter.


The screen is bright, in fact, it's very usable in direct sunlight. It was tested outdoors about half past noon on a clear day. It's easy to pull focus with this display. It can also display deep shadows as well as highlights quite well. In most situations, Atom HDR did a better job of displaying the dynamic range of a scene than any of the M LUTs I had been using prior with the Shogun.

I did some shooting with my polarizing filter, to get those deep, dark blue skies. The benefit of Prores HQ is that there are zero artifacts on the sky with the dense foliage all over the frame. And, the smallest, distant branches resolved to the pixel, preserved in the recording, greatly softened or lost in the XAVC version.

I did some testing at 4K 60P. I found that the FS7's output downscaled to UHD at this frame rate, but I was able to make a good test recording. However, a pan across my studio resulted in a file over 4GB!!

Given the amount of BTUs it puts out, I can imagine it sucking down the batteries like nobody's business.

Like the Shogun, it's screen protector has printing on it and has to be removed and replaced in order to use the unit.

I've yet to test the audio inputs.

The unit came in a yellow "pelican" style case, just like the original Shogun, with accessories neatly organized. I'm using a Sandisk 480GB Extreme Pro SSD with it. The reader, though it looks like the reader from the original Shogun, appears to have a much faster USB chipset. It's read speed is about 280MB/sec, vs. the 99MB/sec of the old reader.

Overall, it's a keeper. A definite upgrade over the Shogun. If Atomos works out the Atom HDR posterizing at very low luma levels, it could be considered a nearly perfect display.
 
Thanks for the info! I'm waiting for reviews of units in the wild before I purchase one. I certainly appreciate the input of those with an itchier trigger finger than mine.

Are you able to check what HFR options are included at release? I've read so much mixed info about what is included on release and what is going to be in future firmware updates. Does it currently include either 1080p120 or 1080p240?

Also do you have any way to check if 2K prores can be recorded from a 4K raw signal (ie downscaled from 4K for maximum quality like on the 7q)? Or would that require an XDCA unit to test?
 
Thanks for the info! I'm waiting for reviews of units in the wild before I purchase one. I certainly appreciate the input of those with an itchier trigger finger than mine.

Are you able to check what HFR options are included at release? I've read so much mixed info about what is included on release and what is going to be in future firmware updates. Does it currently include either 1080p120 or 1080p240?

Also do you have any way to check if 2K prores can be recorded from a 4K raw signal (ie downscaled from 4K for maximum quality like on the 7q)? Or would that require an XDCA unit to test?


As far as I know, any frame rates higher than 60 need to come from RAW and that requires the XDCA unit.
I use it with the FS7, which is limited to 60FPS output via HDMI.

I did take a few minutes and make a video that shows the Atom HDR artifact:

As can be seen, the magenta splotch grows in size as the lens is stopped down. This artifact does not appear in other display modes and does not get recorded to the drive.
 
Thanks Basspig.

Have you tried out the colour peaking function at all? I've seen reports of a bug where the chosen peaking colour tints the entire display image, but only in either HDR/normal display mode - I can't remember which one!
 
I saw that peaking bug in normal mode...definitely needs to be fixed. Didn't work for me in any color via SDI.
 
I saw that peaking bug in normal mode...definitely needs to be fixed. Didn't work for me in any color via SDI (didn't try HDMI).
 
Thanks for the write-up. It sounds like a pretty solid monitor. I'm curious about UHD in 60p from the FS7. (I think it was you who brought this to my attention in the past.) So, can the FS7 output UHD at 60p in 10-bit? I thought I remember you saying that the FS7 was limited to 30p at 10-bit 4K/UHD via HDMI, and 30p at 8-bit 4K/UHD via 3G-SDI.

It's tough to figure this type of hung out because Sony doesn't publish specs (that I can find) about this, and Atomos sort of does, but it can be ambiguous.
 
Does the Inferno have the same menu system as the Flame where to get tofunctions like peaking, or push in it takes multiple buttons every time you want todo a quick check?. That was a deal killer for me compared to the odyssey.
 
Thanks Mark for the review. I'm eagerly waiting for a similar one on the SmallHD 1303 - anyone came across one? Also Mark - what makes you think all Infernos suffer from this magenta cast and posterization of shadows, and not just your unit? Thanks,

Piotr
 
I have found that the footage from the Inferno is coming out lighter than the footage from the FS5.

118222[/ATTACH]Shogun Inferno.jpg
 

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Since I started using external recorders a few years ago, I've learned that they all play differently with cameras.

The information is being sent through HDMI or SDI out to a box that may process it in different ways, so it's always possible for the result to be a little different than the internal recording? The way the camera sends it could be considered as well.
 
haha...well you want that extra color information and better codecs to work with, but I don't know if that's something you will be able to see with your own eyes on the recorder (it's more for post).

Gamma/exposure changes, crushing blacks, etc...those are some things recorders may do to a signal that's not always welcomed.
 
Thanks for the write-up. It sounds like a pretty solid monitor. I'm curious about UHD in 60p from the FS7. (I think it was you who brought this to my attention in the past.) So, can the FS7 output UHD at 60p in 10-bit? I thought I remember you saying that the FS7 was limited to 30p at 10-bit 4K/UHD via HDMI, and 30p at 8-bit 4K/UHD via 3G-SDI.

It's tough to figure this type of hung out because Sony doesn't publish specs (that I can find) about this, and Atomos sort of does, but it can be ambiguous.


I don't know what the bit depth is at 60P. I will do some experiments with shooting a gradient and looking for banding. If it's 8-bit, that should stand out pretty prominently. There is some question about bit depth and also color subsampling at this frame rate. It is, however full resolution and quality at 30P.
 
Just having fun. Although it's really the job of Atoms to explain and not me.

Read up on the difference between video range v data range, also known as Legal v Extended range.
 
Thanks Mark for the review. I'm eagerly waiting for a similar one on the SmallHD 1303 - anyone came across one? Also Mark - what makes you think all Infernos suffer from this magenta cast and posterization of shadows, and not just your unit? Thanks,

Piotr

I think it is a firmware coding issue that affects all units of 8.0 revision firmware. It seems as if some of the color channels have fewer bits assigned down in the shadow region. Could be at the display interface. They claim to be using some sort of technique to create a pseudo 10-bit display resolution. Maybe that's where the artifact is coming from. At mid tones, it doesn't band like the original Shogun. So in that respect it is better.

Few will notice this magenta artifact unless testing in a dark room. The areas affected are too dark for the human eye to see any detail. But the camera is pulling detail out of that shadow and the Inferno's display digs deep into the shadows to see information there. Black objects at appear to have no detail to the naked eye are resplendent with gradients of color and details.

Outdoors on a sunny day, there are no artifacts, because everything in the picture, even the shadows, are above this threshold.
 
Thanks Basspig.

Have you tried out the colour peaking function at all? I've seen reports of a bug where the chosen peaking colour tints the entire display image, but only in either HDR/normal display mode - I can't remember which one!

I briefly played with the peaking and noted no unexpected behavior. I personally don't like the colored outline peaking display method, so I don't use it. And besides, with my reading glasses on, I can focus perfectly just off the display itself. The only peaking function I actually liked was the one on the FS7 VF, a transparent edge that appears around the objects in focus. Like a hyper sharpening effect. Colored peaking junks up the image too much.
 
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