Atomos Ninja 2 Video Recorder, HDMI Input and Output, 800x480 Touchscreen Operating System (No Hard

I've been using the Ninja 2 with my Nikon D800 and Adobe Premiere for over a week now. Everything works very smoothly. The physical setup a very easy and you will need a decent cage to put everything on. I am using the http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00939A2LG/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i01 with my D800, the Ninja 2, an http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003MNO59O/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00 and, my old dual XLR Tascam Recorder, a few good XLR mice, and a external LCD facing forwards. A note on the external LCD, make sure it supports the frame rate you choose to use, in my case 1080 at 24p a lot of the cheaper ones don't. The whole rig sits on a http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003UOMWOK/ref=oh_details_o06_s01_i00 which provides a very stable base with excellent smooth tracking motion. The clean HDMI from the D800 goes straight onto my 240GB SSD http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B009SIJ7G8/ref=oh_details_o00_s01_i01 which fits very well into the Ninja 2 caddy. Transferring the recorded ProRes files is then effortless as the caddy slots into the supplied dock connected to my MacBook Pro or iMac through USB 3.0. Its then straight into Premiere for immediate editing of the beautifully captured video. The workflow with the Ninja 2 is very streamlined and I love it. The quality of the video is excellent and the build quality of the device and accessories is also excellent.

The first thing I did when got the dock loaded with my SSD was to format it in the Ninja 2 and then download the updated firmware for the Ninja 2. You then just slot the caddy out of the dock and into the Ninja 2 and the firmware update completes automatically. Make sure you get the settings right on your D800 HDMI options (google that for instructions) and you will be all set. The Focus Peaking, Zebra and False Color all work perfectly. The touch screen has a nice feel and resolution. The carry case you get with the kit is first class. This is a very well thought out device and if you need that bump in quality from the form of the compression standard in your DSLR, and convenience of direct to ProRes (or other formats) to enhance your workflow then this is an excellent choice. I'll be buying a few more of these this year. Highly recommended.

The reason I got this was to take uncompressed HDMI from my camera at 4:2:2 so we could get a proper chromakey on for a video project. This product is very easy to use. It is incredibly well packaged (though I hear that's changing when the price drops). This purchase came with 2 HD enclosures, 1 HD dock, 1 F800 cable, 1 USB3 cable, the Ninja2 unit, all in a hard case. 2 batteries and charger as well.

Let's continue with more good news the chromakey looks amazing and I've had fellow film & video pros comment on how clean it looks.

Let's talk about the oddity that occurred. We wanted to shoot in 1080p23.98. That option kept being blacked out when we attached the HDMI cable. Why oh Lord WHY!?! We asked ourselves this and said that the interwebs should answer this problem and it did but the solution seems ridiculous. Apparently when attached to a Canon C100 (and our case the Sony HXR-NX70, which is what we had on hand at the time) you need to shake the camera. Yes, you heard me. So, what we did was set the camera to record in 1080p24 and aimed it into a room. We then proceeded to whip pan it back and forth until the Ninja 2 magically activated the 1080p23.98 option. We left the Ninja 2 on the blacked out option while we did that to see if it would light up and it did indeed light up. We went ahead and filmed and uber success. If you ever want to see this sample, my name is Josh Pies and you're welcome to google me and I can send you to the YouTube or Vimeo copy of this particular work.

I do recommend this product. We're happy we have it. Such an odd little quirk with the whip pan but hey, it DOES work.

Buy Atomos Ninja 2 Video Recorder, HDMI Input and Output, 800x480 Touchscreen Operating System (No Hard Now