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Atomos Samurai
  • Has anyone already experience with the Atomos Samurai?
    I am interested if the display is good enough for focusing and if recording can start automatically via SDI when you hit record on the camera.
    It would be a much cheaper and handier solution than a nonoflash and a decent 5" monitor.
  • 13 Replies sorted by
  • Recording will start when hitting record on a camera with SDI. It will detect the record flags in the SDI stream as well as timecode flags. As for focusing, they say yes, but of course they'll say that. I don't believe it'll have peaking when it ships in 8 days tho. I have been paying very close attention to the Samurai's development, I plan to get one in the near future for my AF100.
  • Same here. Want one for my AF101, but only if the monitor is decent enough for focusing.
  • No, it isn't. Great for checking if you have signal or have recorded something, but not more.

    I doubt that the Samurai holds more value for you than the Ninja, since both outputs are crippled on the AF100. The only advantage are safer plugs with SDI.
  • The samurai reads pulldown flags and will automatically remove pulldown were as the Ninja will not.
  • Well, they could add that for the Ninja in firmware if the camera supports it (like the FS100). But I admit that this saves you some time and space instead of doing it in post.

    It won't work for the GH2 anyway, as long as we don't get a clean cadence.
  • HDMI doesn't carry pulldown flags in the stream, so it's a lot more difficult to remove the pulldown. The only external recorder the removes pulldown from a HDMI stream is the Nanoflash. It uses a nonstandard removal prossess by detecting duplicate fields.
  • Has anybody heard anything about the Samurai?
    Any reviews or anything, since shipped while ago now...
  • Atomos has unveiled a new firmware developed for its Samurai Blade field recorder, namely version 5.1 (or AtomOS 5.1 as the producer calls it), which can be installed regardless of the operating system.

    The new firmware adds an LCD screen adjustment option in Menu → Display Options → Adjust Screen, and some user adjustable Y-Lift, Y-Gamma, and Y-Gain slider controls (and a reset button).

    Moreover, standard C-Log and Rec 709 preset buttons have also been added, but only to monitor; these new buttons are not designed to adjust recording.

    In addition to that, this new release updates the horizontal audio level meter clip indicator making it more visible and with proper colors, partitions the sectors to 1MB boundary so that it increases SSD performance, and improves the audio meters’ accuracy and responsiveness.

  • Do the Atomos Samurai Blade Recorders support Sandisk Ultra II SSDs??

    http://pricespy.co.nz/product.php?e=2800344

    As I want to get this. But it isn't on the list of approved drives: http://www.atomos.com/drives/

    But Sandisk Ultra II SSDs are listed as recommended for Shogun / Ninja Assassin. I'm assuming they only have older SSDs listed for their older recorders as haven't tested newer drives with it, but from the specs, and because it works with Shogun, it should be able to work fine with the Atomos Samurai Blade? Is this correct?

  • Having just got a recorder, I've written an entire blog post about my decision process to buy a recorder/monitor:

    http://ironfilm.co.nz/which-recorder-monitor-is-best-for-the-sony-pmw-f3/

    Basically my logic process then went, if: a) you have a bit more cash, get the PIX-E5 Because aside from its price (which is pricey relative to a Samurai Blade or Video Assist, however PIX-E5 is cheap compared to any of its direct competitors!) it is practically almost flawless! Especially as I feel 5 inches is the “sweet spot” for an operator’s monitor while shooting, but if you disagree there is always the PIX-E7 instead with its 7 inch screen.

    b) don’t mind focus peaking / waveforms / vector scopes / etc are missing, get the BMD VA! Some people don’t mind living without these and don’t see what is the big deal, others would shudder at the thought of being without them….

    c) otherwise…. am left with the last choice of the three :-P Get a Samurai Blade

    Or at least, that is how my thought process went.

    Thus personally I went for the Atomos Samurai Blade, which I’ll use with my PMW-F3. It arrives next week! (it just arrived today at my reshipper service in the USA)

  • I think you're going to love it, though it doesn't record 12bit 444, as your blog seemed to suggest. You should think about the Atomos Spyder calibration probe too