We all know that the Nanoflash is the “bees knees,” but if you can live without HDSDI, then Atomos Ninja may be the affordable alternative for you. Its great for HDSLRs and other cameras with an HDMI out.
Instead of recording to flash memory cards. The Ninja lets you record NLE ready ProRes video onto cheap 2.5″ laptop drives. For a little more dough you could go with SSD drives. So a $100 500GB drive, will give you 7.5hrs of ProRes 422.
ProRes offers robust image quality, thats ready to edit with no need for transcoding on both FCP and the latest version of AVID MC. (not sure if premiere likes ProRes yet) Lets not forget, that’s 4:2:2 and not 4:2:0 like you might be recording onboard. The Ninja also has a cool dual battery system that lets you change out one battery while the other is still running the device. I know what you’re thinking, but it’s still nice to have. The touch screen display doubles as a monitor, but I don’t think I’d want to judge critical focus at a resolution of 480×270.
It, of course, is capable of recording all sorts of 1080 and 720 HD flavors, but conspicuously missing are 720p24 and 720p30. What’s that about? Anyway… The Ninja offers cheap storage, instant backup, and a robust – edit friendly file format with target price just south of $1k, sometime in December. It’s something to consider.
