With a few weeks to play with the new Ninja, I can report that Atomos has crafted a useful device with a tremendous amount of potential. It’s a great looking unit, comes packaged in a handy, pelican-like hard case and, most importantly, the Ninja will produce bitrates that meet (and exceed) broadcast standard footage. Utilizing Quicktime’s ProRes codec, the Ninja should --as advertised-- streamline your workflow…the trouble is, it doesn’t.
To get straight to the point: the Ninja’s biggest drawback is its HDMI input. Because of it, you can’t use a Canon DSLR (thanks to Canon’s overlays) and if you’re using the Sony EX1R, EX3, F3 or the Panasonic AF100, then you’re stuck with the 60i signal these cameras output. Yes, you can convert the 60i to 24p, but this costs time. Atomos is working on an application to simplify this process, but even with their fix, your workflow has mushroomed. This is not the plug and play functionality I was hoping for.
It should be noted that there are currently NO cameras on the market outputting a native 1080p24 HDMI signal. What this means is, in order for you to edit 24p, you need to convert the footage captured onto your Ninja.
It should also be noted that because of the EX1R and EX3’s smaller chip / high noise floor, the Ninja’s higher bite rate recordings will not deliver footage with a noticeable improvement over what's captured in camera. If you’re determined to acquire a higher bit rate but unwilling to spend any extra dough, you could easily transfer your EX1R/EX3 footage as ProRes files within FCP. This will take time, but it won’t cost you a penny.
The next stumbling block to plague the Ninja is its playback ability. Currently you can’t review what you’ve shot on the Ninja in anything but software driven proxy resolution. In other words: this is unwatchable pixelated video, useful for confirming something has been recorded, but useless for anything else. Atomos is hard at work on a firmware update that will allow for “hardware (full frame rate and [as near as we can to] full resolution) playback which will be available in a future firmware release for all users.” Atomos’ CEO Jeromy Young has told me this update will be available within the next 1-2 weeks.
 |
| (L to R) Power Button & Magic Caddy Release Latch |
While the overall build quality of the Ninja is solid and sleek, one design flaw sticks out like a sore thumb: the Magic Caddy’s release latch (see above picture). This latch doesn’t have a distinctive/defined movement and because it’s placed on the opposite side of the Magic Caddy, it makes it very difficult to hold the release latch and pull out the Caddy at the same time. If you're in a hurry when swapping drives, you'd better ask for a helping hand.
Atomos has done a great job packaging a solid unit inside of a cool "Ninja" branded hard case, but they've also cut a few corners. The battery charger and its power cord are light and plasticky and compared to the quality of Sony's chargers, I don't see this stuff standing up to life outside of its carrying case. Nothing says "Made in China" more than the ill fitting USB power cable for the Master Caddy Docking Station (see picture below). Odds are you won't be using this cable, but it's little details like this that add up to a less rewarding purchase.
 |
| Arrow pointing to the ill fit / gap between plug and Master Caddy |
The last thing to frustrate me is that Atomos didn't bundle an HDMI cable with the Ninja. I understand there's lots of choices to make when selecting an HDMI cable and that Atomos didn't want to make the choice for you, but I'm always annoyed when I’m forced to go out and buy something essential to the operation of a device. In other words, when you do buy a Ninja, make sure you've got spare HDMI cables on hand...otherwise you'll be waiting for Monoprice to ship you the $2 cable required to connect the Ninja to your camera.
Make no bones about it, the Ninja is a first generation device and like so many other first generation devices, it’s a work in progress. It's competitively priced, has an easy to use touchscreen interface, an intuitive OS, look and feels great, has brilliant storage options, is useful as an external monitor and offers the ingenious option of hot-swappable batteries. Yet despite all of the things it has going for it, there's no way around the fact that the Ninja's HDMI input (and its subsequent workarounds enabling you to shoot 24p footage) will be a deal breaker for many shooters.
That's not to say it won't work for you. If you want to spend as little money on an HDR as possible
and you have lots of spare time on your hands, the Ninja's workarounds may be of little concern to you. But with Atomos' HD-SDI based Samurai slated for release this summer, the real heir to the throne of portable HDR has yet to be crowned.
0 Yorumlar