By technical editor Matt Allard:
The biggest complaints from early adopters of the Atomos Shogun has been regarding battery life. Users report they are only getting 30-40 minutes out of the NP-F type battery included in the kit. In a direct response Atomos CEO Jeromy Young has announced that all new Shoguns that are shipping from the end of January will include a larger battery. The battery is double the capacity of the existing version and is rated at 5600mAh.
If your an existing Shogun owner Atomos will upgrade your old battery for the larger version free of charge. You will have to register your Shogun online and then you will be placed on a list and notified when your new battery can be shipped out. It is good to see Atomos address this issue directly and the fact they are now rectifying it is something we don’t often see from companies.
Update- This is what Atomos CEO Jeromy Young told us: “We want our product to be the best it can be and that means evolving over time. It became clear after real world use in extreme environments that our users would be better served with larger battery. Because customer service is at the core of our business we decided to give our users larger batteries immediately.”
Just how the bigger battery effects the weight distribution when using the Shogun on top of a smaller camera such as a Sony a7S or Panasonic GH4 will be interesting to see.
The Atomos Power bar is another solution that would give users even longer battery life, but unfortunately it is not available until March. You can of course also power the Shogun from larger V-lock or Anton Bauer batteries via D-tap.
