ATOMOS ATOMNJA001 Ninja Video Hard Disk Recorder

Comments about ATOMOS ATOMNJA001 Ninja Video Hard Disk Recorder:

Use with Sony V1U. Video is beautiful. Overall great product. A couple of flaws with the firmware: 1) Even if you leave the battery on the Ninja it has to have the date and time set each and every time you turn it one. That's just dumb. 2) The Dock is not compatible with OSX Lion with firewire 800. The firmare updater for Lion made the dock not work at all for Lion or Snow Leopard - firewire or USB. Dock now dead.

Comments about ATOMOS ATOMNJA001 Ninja Video Hard Disk Recorder:

I gotta say, I love this, I use along with my GH2, I'm currently using as a back up to the SDHC cards that can go wrong. But keep in mind that the HDMI of the GH2 is crippled, and in order to use the ninja's footage if recorded with a GH2 you will have to do some work to de-interlace the footage. it's working beautifully, the batteries last a long time, I love it.

Comments about ATOMOS ATOMNJA001 Ninja Video Hard Disk Recorder:

Nice solution to Prorez conversion and recording. Firmware upgrade big improvement.

Comments about ATOMOS ATOMNJA001 Ninja Video Hard Disk Recorder:

I bought this as a backup recorded to the in-cam recording on my Sony NEX-FS100U.

This is a complete product now that the V2.01 firmware has been released. It fixes major flaws in the product: full speed/quality playback, full timecode options including TOD, renaming of the drive, sequential file naming, and more have all been added.

It records for hours at ProRes 422 on a 500GB Hitachi drive, and is fairly rugged. The resultant 422 files have more latitude than the built in codec in both color reproduction (2x at least) and much less compression on rapid movement. I am finding significantly more detail on things like foliage and other detailed backgrounds that even the excellent codec in my camera can't quite reproduce perfectly.

I have had three minor issues:

1) One battery was DOA. Atomos support has been outstanding and is working to get me another.

2) I was not able to get the included (by B&H) Magic Bullet Grinder to properly reverse telecine 60i footage. Compressor, however, worked fine. (I didn't test anything else). If you don't know, on the FS100 and many other cameras, if you set your recording to 24p, for compatability reasons the HDMI output still is set to 601. But the 24p progressive frames ARE still in that 60i stream; they just need to be extracted by a process called reverse pulldown or reverse telecine. The Ninja doesn't do this in hardware; it has to happen afterwards.

The good news is this process is very quick; and if you are recording 25p (non US) or 30p (US/Japan) you can skip this step.

3) The battery holding mechanism is extremely solid. Perhaps too much so; it's very hard to extract batteries. I scratched the back of the unit where the batteries mount pretty badly just removing a battery. I can't imagine chnaging batteries while recording; the recorder would be jostled pretty severely doing that. The included batteries are the worst in this regard; other Sony batteries I used are easier to remove.

The drive caddy extraction isn't obvious. The slide mechanism to remove it isn't spring loaded as you'd think; but once you finally understand how it works you'll have no issues.

The caddy case itself is plastic and scratches very easily as it goes in and out. The rest of the body (except the battery mount) is metal and well-built.

Overall, for the price a highly recommended product that needs a few tweaks in physical design. It does lack HDMI passthrough, which would be nice as well.

Comments about ATOMOS ATOMNJA001 Ninja Video Hard Disk Recorder:

We use the flexibility of the small device as an additional recording tool. With the possibility of easy integration of Final Cut, it brings us a big advantage. In addition, the device has a nice look ...

Comments about ATOMOS ATOMNJA001 Ninja Video Hard Disk Recorder:

Using the Ninja with the Sony NEX-FS100. Works like a charm. Very robust, dropped the unit from eye level twice and the unit still functions without skipping a beat. Playback is bad though, but I'm told by Atomos that a firmware will fix it.

Comments about ATOMOS ATOMNJA001 Ninja Video Hard Disk Recorder:

This is an amazing product for any HDMI output Camera. I get 10 Bit 422 from any source which is perfect for compositing and editing with grahics, no banding!!I have used it with the FS100 and my old Z7 - No Tape, long recording and direct to ProRes ready to edit. Instead of logging and capturing footage by tape or memory card I edited directly from the $50 500GB disk form the Ninja. 5 Hours of HQ ProRes - sweeeeeeet, this saved me 75% of my production time and I didn't have to make a coffee while a transcode happened.It's really light and strong, anyway I just love it and love the time and money it saves me....I used 24p on one shoot and then used "Grinder" from Red Giant included in the B&H bundle to reverse Telecine the 24p that's wrapped in 60i from the camera.The Accessories are killer also, its great to see a manufacturer including everything for one price!

Comments about ATOMOS ATOMNJA001 Ninja Video Hard Disk Recorder:

If you have the right camera (more on that later), the Atomos Ninja does *exactly* what it claims to do, it does it well, is well built, has fantastic battery life, has a great screen, is the perfect size, and comes with every single thing you need to use it out of the box. I have not used such a great little product since the ADVC-55The screen requires a little *extra* push so that you don't accidentally stop or start recording. I think its just the right amount. It can be *very* bright, which will be helpful in daylight.The battery life is amazing - i set it up to run until it filled a 500 GB WD Black (more on that later) - and it dutifully recorded 4 hours 41 minutes of footage without a single problem. I left it on monitor live view, and it still had about half a battery left.They thought of the little things - the power button is indented, and requires 5 seconds of push until it shuts down - so accidental pushes don't cause problems. Top and bottom 1/4' screw mounts. Cool and easy to read screen font, locking mechanisms for both the batteries and the hard drive, you don't *actually* have to screw the hard drive into the caddy ( i can't see why i ever would) because it is perfectly shaped. Plug port for the HDMI feels like its welded into steel and won't ever get loose. Firmware updates are stupid easy, and can be done from a Mac or a Micro Soft WINDOWS computer.You *MUST* go to Atomos' website, where they list a list of DSLR cameras that DO NOT HAVE full quality HDMI ports if you can't tell on your own. If your camera doesn't have a full quality HDMI port - that isn't Atomos' fault. For [$], I would like to think you'd do a little research on your own camera.Also - MANY cameras shoot 24p, but telecine the footage into 60i. This is not Atomos' fault again! If you don't know how to use Compressor to reverse telecine your 60i footage to get pure 29.98p footage, that is your fault and you have no business buying a[$] recorder to begin with. Atomos is going to make some software to do reverse telecine, but really, who cares? If you are using iMovie or WINDOWS movie maker, you should probably not buy this.Atomos' has released a number of software updates, and each has brought more capability. 24p (from cameras that will send you 24p) works now. The only thing that still doesn't work is full-quality playback. Atomos has said that they are working on this and that it is coming.Here are the list of hard drives and SSDs that have been tested: [@] short, the Ninja is fantastic, does everything it says it does, couldn't be easier to use, was well thought out, and is built like a tank. I couldn't have wanted anything more.

Comments about ATOMOS ATOMNJA001 Ninja Video Hard Disk Recorder:

I purchased the Ninja because I wanted a device that could record to Apple ProRes and let me back-up footage on hard-drive fast and easy. I mostly use it on an AF100 and I'm glad to have this as I can back-up to both SD card AND hard-drive. Footage looks great and the device works well enough. I only have two things to say against it. First, there's no way to watch footage back (playback is choppy) as it needs a firmware update and the file naming system is really annoying (lots of folders with 0000.mov file names, a real pain to work with in post prod). Oh, and the hard drive caddy plastic seems a bit flimsy but fits well and snug in the Ninja, so no real issue here for me. The firmware update is coming really soon though to fix these two issues so it's not such a big deal breaker. All in all, great device and with the firmware update coming soon, this device is a really nice investment for the price point!

Comments about ATOMOS ATOMNJA001 Ninja Video Hard Disk Recorder:

I bought this for recording a long webcast - plugged it into my Matrox LE and it worked flawlessly. I sent the switched feed to the Ninja - recorded over 6 hours on a 500GB HD in ProRes HQ. Have also used it with the Panasonic AG-AF100 - worked flawlessly there as well. Revolutionizes and speeds up workflow - allows us to drop these ProRes files right on the timeline (from the harddrive) and start editing in FCP7. Can't wait for the Samurai, as we'd prefer to work in HD-SDI. Note - HDMI spec doesn't support 1080P. This is not an Atomos problem, this is a HDMI Spec problem. We shoot in 720P so it's a non issue for us. 1080i works fine too - if you need 1080P, wait for the Samurai or find another SDI based recorder.

Comments about ATOMOS ATOMNJA001 Ninja Video Hard Disk Recorder:

Use with FS100. wish this or the cam came with a 1/4 inch screw so could be mounted right away. Records just fine, but wish there were framerate conversion options. The screen is low res, and you have to press the screen hard for it to register touch. in the end, it does work and records nice looking images. Case and accesories are all very nice.

Comments about ATOMOS ATOMNJA001 Ninja Video Hard Disk Recorder:

The Sony camera records and feeds 24p out through HDMI, the Atomos Ninja, would not record that 24p signal. The recorder would only work in 60i, with the Sony HDR-CX700. Looking at 60i AVCHD from the camera and 60i off the Ninja, I could see very little difference, but who want's 60i anyway.
I contacted the Atomos customer support, for me they responded, but replied it recorded 24p, but again when it got 24p, it would not see the camera. It became "it does 24p", but your 24p camera is the problem.
The build quality is okay, I liked the ability to use my own drives, but the HD casing is tight to remove and insert drives in and out of the Ninja body, it scratches up the caddies pretty quick. I also had trouble working with the Ninja firmware upgrade / downgrade, it would not return to it's basic firmware.
I ended up returning this, I really wanted it to work, but for my use, it failed. I give it 2 stars because I like the idea of it, the interface is nice and simple, it uses cheap batteries, but in the end it just became something totally frustrating.

Comments about ATOMOS ATOMNJA001 Ninja Video Hard Disk Recorder:

Currently, not for use with Canon HDSLRs.

But great if you own a camcorder, and want high bit rate, on-the-fly conversion to ProRes. No transcoding, and your video will look much better to the naked eye due to the significant bump up in bit rate.

You must have a clean HDMI signal out from your camcorder (EX3, F3, XF305, XF105, AF100, etc.) to be able to record to the Ninja.

Doesn't record in 24p.

See the Atomos web site for complete details.

Comments about ATOMOS ATOMNJA001 Ninja Video Hard Disk Recorder:

We put a Hitachi 7200 in the master caddy. Update to firmware 1.04. Prores 422.
Everything work as advertised UNTIL ....
Whether using analog or HDMI inputs : THE SOUND IS WEIRD, LIKE ACCELERATED, USELESS. Great video image is worthless WITHOUT THE SOUND RECORDING.