The Ninja looks cool....but...

The Atomos Ninja looked interesting when it appeared back in September, and I'm still intrigued by it. MacVideo.TV has posted an interview with Jeremy Young, CEO of Atomos, where he goes into quite some detail about it's features and how it functions. You'll find out a lot about this $1,000 digital recorder that uses the Apple ProRes codec and saves to 2.5" Notebook HDD or SSD drives. The Ninja uses dual batteries for power, records two analog audio channels in addition to HDMI audio, has LANC passthrough (and control) and boasts a simply touch-based interface.It will be available in December for $995.

With any new company coming out with a product like this, there's always the question whether they are going to be able to deliver on time, for the price - and with the quality - they are promising. We really have to wait until it's out and has been reviewed before buying.

The problem for me is that as cool as this seems, I don't really have any cameras that can be used with it. The Canon 7D [B & H $1,599 - $100 rebate] does output HD video via HDMI, but it's not the full 1920x1080 (it's 1620 x 910), and it has a record icon on it. I've read of people taking that video and scaling it up and removing the icon, but that seems like a lot of work! The Ninja just makes me wish that Canon would send out the full frame out the HDMI port. Maybe the Canon 5D Mark III?

But the Sony HXR-NX5u [B & H $3,999] spits out uncompressed video out it's HDMI port, so the Ninja would be a great playmate for that; or maybe the Sony NEX-VG10 [B & H $1,999.99].


Macvideo.tv: Enter the Ninja: affordable 4:2:2 10 bit ProRes recorder (parts 1 and 2)
Atomos.com

NotesOnVideo: Some Interesting New Products
NotesOnVideo: Canon 7D - what resolution is the video really?

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