Pro Moviemaker November/December 2021 - Web

GEAR MINI TESTS

The latest and greatest monitor/recorder, two very different monopods, a nifty device tomanage your cables, andmore – tested and rated

WORDS ADAM DUCKWORTH

ATOMOS NINJA V+ PRO KIT £1679/$1699 atomos.com

SPECIFICATIONS Screen: 132mm/5.2in

touchscreen, 1920x1080, 3D LUT support, anamorphic desqueeze Brightness: 1000 nits Video formats: HDMI 8/10-bit 4:2:2, 8KRaw/30p, 4KRaw 120/60/30p, DCI 4K and 1080 120/60/50/30/25/24p, UHD 4K60/50/30/25/24p, 1080i/720p 60/50 Encoding formats: ProRes 422, HQ, LT, Raw, RawHQ 8/10-bit 4:2:2 to 120p. H.265 10-bit 4:2:2 to 120p, 8/10-bit 4:2:0 to 120p Memory: 2.5in SSD/HDD Audio: 12 channels 24-bit 48kHz Connections: Line/mic in, 3.5mmheadphone out, HDMI in/out, remote, AtomX expansion port Power: NP-F series battery or continuous with adapter Dimensions (wxhxd): 151x91.5x31mm/5.9x3.6x1.2in Weight: 360g/0.79lb it kept on recording with no heat issues. For many people, that’s worth the asking price alone. And the internal Canon Rawwas very similar to the ProRes Raw recorded to the Atomos. Of course, if you shoot with a Sony, Panasonic, Nikon or another mirrorless Canon that has a clean HDMI output, you get the same results as the normal Ninja V. The quality of the footage can be improved, as many cameras record 4:2:0 in 8-bit internally, but 4:2:2 in 8- or 10-bit via HDMI output. That gives more colour information and is a huge benefit if you are shooting log footage. There’s the same AtomOS operating system, which is easy to get to grips with. The touchscreen is responsive

The Atomos Ninja V has been a sales smash in recent years. It’s acted as a saviour for many independent filmmakers who love the monitor/ recorder’s pro-style tools: like waveforms, no recording time limits and the ability to unlock 10-bit footage and 4K/60p 10-bit HDR video direct from your camera’s sensor – over HDMI onto an SSD. And, of course, if your camera can output a Raw signal, the Ninja V can record it as ProRes Raw – for the ultimate quality. Using standard SSDs inside one of the supplied Atomos caddies or a new AtomX SSDmini, which is much smaller, a 1TB version will record up to 150minutes of 4K in edit-ready ProRes. Just download it to your computer and it’s good to go. If you also record to your camera’s card, there’s an instant backup, too. However, time moves on, and cameras can increasingly record in 8K and 4K/120p. The original Ninja V couldn’t handle this. So, Atomos has launched the Ninja V+, essentially the same design and 1000-nit spec, apart from a new, grey body and larger screen. And it has a more powerful chip inside. This allows for 8K/30p and

4K/120p ProRes Raw recording. That’s if you have the right camera, which at the moment means a Sony FX6 or FX9, Z CamE2 and E2-M4 for 4K/120p – or Canon EOS R5 for 8K/30p. To use it with Sony cinema cameras, you need to buy the Ninja V+ Pro Kit. This comes with the AtomX plug-in SDI module, which brings 12G SDI I/O to the Ninja for 4K/60p and 2K/240p. This allows you to use the SDI output from the Sony cameras directly into the back of the Ninja V+. The kit also comes with a free H.265 licence to activate 10-bit 4:2:2 and 8-bit 4:2:0 in XQ, MQ and LQ quality settings. If you have a Canon EOS R5 mirrorless, the Ninja V+ not only allows you to record 8K and 5K ProRes Raw, but best of all, lets you do so for an extended time. The Canon is notorious for overheating, and although we didn’t manage to do extensive testing with the Ninja V+,

PLUS POINTS The latest Atomos will now handle 8K and 4K/120p, if you have the right camera

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