Atomos - NAB 2015
An interview from the 2015 National Association of Broadcasters Convention in Las Vegas with Jeromy Young of Atomos. Atomos creates easy to use, cutting edge products for creative professionals that merge recording, monitoring, playback & editing into a single touchscreen device to enable faster, higher quality and more affordable video production. In this interview we talk with Jeromy about the latest updates to their renowned Shogun 4K Monitor/Recorder, as well as their newly introduced "Bare Bones" price points for the Shogun, Ninja 2, Ninja Blade and Samurai Blade.
The Atomos Shogun was one of the success stories of late 2014, making 4K affordable, manageable and accessible to more filmmakers and helping to accelerate the changeover from HD to 4K all while making production simpler and more affordable. A new variant of the Shogun called Shogun ‘Bare Bones’ will soon be available at an even cheaper price point of $1695.
The current Shogun model (MSRP $1995) includes not only the main Shogun unit but also over $500 of accessories to get users started right away (HPRC hard case, AC adapter, SSD media cases, D-Tap adapter, 5200mAh battery, battery charger, XLR breakout cable and SSD docking station). Customers and channel alike have requested a unit only with AC adaptor version, in order to utilise legacy equipment they already own from Atomos and camera products as well as making a second Shogun unit more affordable. In an effort to meet this request and drive 4K adoption even faster, Atomos has announced a ‘Bare Bones’ version of the Shogun that removes all accessories except an SSD media case and AC power supply, and have also included a high quality soft carry case for protection, all for the low price of $1695. The complete suite of accessories will also be available for $395.
Available via free download over the coming months, Shogun users will gain the following:
• Anamorphic de-squeeze for Panasonic GH4 and standard lenses
• RAW recording to ProRes, DNxHR and Cinema DNG for compatible RAW formats
• Expanded RAW compatibility to include Sony FS series, Canon, Arri and AJA
• 3D LUTs on HDMI/SDI output
• Cinema 4K DCI support
• Uncompressed V210 support
• Genlock
Handling RAW in high-end cinematography is vital with some cameras on the market only outputting their 4K content in RAW data format over SDI, these include Sony FS700, FS7, Canon C300MkII and C500). On the post production side, some people request to keep the RAW format for grading while others would prefer to encode to a more edit friendly format like ProRes or DNxHR with 3D LUT’s applied. The Shogun will maximise flexibility for the user with the ability to take the RAW data from the camera and record direct to RAW (wrapped as Cinema DNG) or to edit friendly Apple ProRes or Avid DNxHR codecs in 4K, UHD, 2K or HD.
RAW recording, until now has been both an expensive and cumbersome challenge. Individual RAW licenses that can cost up to $1995 are now available for free with the Shogun and they can be recorded to affordable, reliable off the shelf SSD from brands like Sandisk, Transcend, Intel etc. With RAW options available for Sony FS series, Canon C500, Arri Alexa and AJA CION no other monitor-recorder on the market offers more RAW recording options than Shogun. Sony FS RAW will be available from mid June, while Canon C500/ Arri Alexa / AJA CION RAW will be available from the end of June 2015. Shogun will be updated to accept and record Cinema 4K and 2K DCI (4096 x 2160p) in addition to the 4K UHD and HD it already is capable of receiving (3840 x 2160p). Available via free update mid June 2015.
Another free update made recently for Shogun users was the addition of 3D LUTs, covering both standard LUTs (C-Log, S-Log 2/3, V-LUT) as well as user defined LUTs in the standard “.cube” format. Up to 8 can be stored on the Shogun which can be accessed via a simple monitor button at the bottom right of screen. Not only are Atomos LUTs flexible, they are also the most accurate on the market, offering 65-point accuracy. At NAB 2015, they announced that LUTs will be available to toggle on/off not only on the Shogun 7” screen but also out to a larger TV via the HDMI and SDI loop out. DOPs can record with a LUT applied for maximum post-production flexibility, while director’s can easily see the final image quality during review. LUTs on the output available via free firmware update end May.
Sure to be a huge deal for documentary, sports and wildlife videographers, the Shogun will introduce Pre-roll Record. Even with Shogun not in recording mode, it will continually buffer content internally allowing the user to record the previous 8s of HD recording or 2s of 4K the moment you hit the record button. It goes back in time to ensure missed takes are a thing of the past.
Time lapse lends itself to creative angles on everyday scenes and has traditionally been limited to photography. The Atomos video time lapse feature maximizes video creativity by allowing both the duration of recording in number of frames or length of time and the interval be altered depending on the director’s intent and even multi stage recording is possible, altering the time and duration throughout the period of the shoot. Essentially they have made time lapse keyframeable and flexible in the video arena. Creative customers will be amazed at what they can achieve with this feature.
For more information please visit: http://www.Atomos.com
