AJA Ki Pro Mini Compact Field Recorder

Comments about AJA Ki Pro Mini Compact Field Recorder:

We first used this product on a commercial shoot to record ProRes 422 HQ out of the new Sony F3. Not knowing the ins and outs of this product really hurt us.

Beware of the CUSTOM clip name function, which is a function designed for each clip getting a different clip name. Scrolling through the menus of the Ki Pro, we accidentally turned CUSTOM clip on, which when not renaming each clip, overwrites the last one. The Ki Pro will NOT give you a warning telling you that you are about to overwrite the last recorded clip. We took the card to offload the footage to find only one clip with the name CUSTOM. We lost a half day of production.

The Ki Pro was also not able to record overcranked. We had to record all of our overcranked material to the internal SxS cards.

We absolutely hated this thing at the beginning of production. But by the end, we found it does the job when you know it's ins and outs.

Get familiar with the interface before you go into production.

Comments about AJA Ki Pro Mini Compact Field Recorder:

I use this product mainly to record footage from my Sony ex1 straight into Apple Prores. It's very light weight and easy to use. I've had it for about 2 weeks and simply love it. I do wish the device were able to automatically switch media slots as cards become full, it's not a deal breaker for me but it would be convenient.
The Ki Pro does take a little while to boot up and power down as well.

Comments about AJA Ki Pro Mini Compact Field Recorder:

I did a pre-order of a pre-order to get mine, but I may have been too far out in front.

The Ki Pro Mini's issue? You think you're getting a complete system - but you still have to buy batteries, adaptors, something to mount it on - even something to put it on a table!! Will sell mine, and wait for whatever will be next - and things like this will be coming faster and faster...

Comments about AJA Ki Pro Mini Compact Field Recorder:

AJA's Ki Pro Mini is a great little device that will extend the life and usefulness of many pro-sumer and professional video and HDSLR cameras. Simply stated, if your camera can output an HDMI or HDSDI signal then this device can encode it in glorious Apple Pro Res 422. This means that many cameras which natively encode video in low-bitrate, low-color-space formats, such as Sony's EX1, EX3 and F3 and Panasonic's AF100, can now record to a format that preserves much more of the image information these cameras are capable of capturing.

One of the few drawbacks to the device is that its power connector is located, awkwardly, on the bottom of the device - though this is a very small problem which is easily dealt with. The other issue is that it does not include a camera mounting system - but one is available from AJA for a reasonable price or one can be machined fairly easily.