By associate editor Elliot Smith:
The Atomos Shogun has proven a big hit with shooters wanting to record 4K output from cameras over HDMI or SDI (without having to fork out for pricey proprietary recording units).
Good news then for anyone who owns a Shogun as Atomos have announced several new additional features they’ll be showing off at this year’s Cinegear show.
The biggest addition is pre-roll recording: a buffer will capture the feed from the camera for eight seconds in HD or two seconds in 4K, and capture it when the record button is pressed. This is potentially very handy for anyone shooting action that isn’t repeatable: if you’re able to make a Shogun rig work as a doc shooter this feature alone could make the unit a worthwhile investment.
Other new additions include automatic desqueezing of anamorphic footage (a feature compatible with the upgraded GH4), expanded options for recording in ProRes from a RAW signal and a tweakable timelapse mode.
The new firmware will be available to users as a free update, and there’s a roadmap on the Atomos site to see when other upgrades are planned.
From Atomos:
Atomos Spotlight all-in-one 4K & HD Monitor/Recorders for the World’s Leading Cameras at Cine Gear 2015
Melbourne, Australia – 1st June 2015: At Cine Gear 2015 Atomos will demonstrate a host of feature updates for the award winning Shogun, including Pre-roll Record and Time Lapse along with Anamorphic de-squeeze and RAW to ProRes/DNxHR/CDNG for Arri, AJA, Sony, Canon eg the new Canon CX10 and expanded Custom Meta Data Tagging, all designed to help users speed up their work flow.
In recording features Pre-roll Record is sure to be a huge deal for documentary, sports and wildlife cinematographers. Even with Shogun not in recording mode, Pre-roll Record continually buffers content internally allowing the user to record the previous 8s of HD recording or 2s of 4K the moment you hit the record button.
Also in the upcoming features list is Time Lapse, which lends itself to creative angles on everyday scenes and has traditionally been limited to photography. The Atomos video time lapse feature maximizes video creativity by allowing both the duration of recording in number of frames or length of time and the interval be altered depending on the director’s intent and even multi stage recording is possible, altering the time and duration throughout the period of the shoot. Essentially Atomos have made time lapse keyframeable and flexible in the video arena.
Shogun Feature Updates at a Glance:
• Pre-roll Record, Atomos goes back in time to ensure missed takes are a thing of the past.
• Anamorphic de-squeeze including compatibility for older lenses and the new GH4 upgrade.
• RAW to ProRes/DNxHR/CDNG for Arri, AJA, Sony and Canon including the new Canon XC-10 and C300MKII.
• Expanded Custom Meta Data Tagging to help users speed up their workflow.
As well as recording, monitoring and playback solutions visitors to Cine Gear 2015 will be able to get hands on with the new Power Station which aims to reduce the need for multiple batteries. At its core, Power Station consists of 2 batteries mounted side by side that operate together using a continuous circular power system. When one battery gets low it can be removed and charged while the system switches across to the second battery uninterrupted. Power Station also doubles as a super-fast charger for your batteries at up to 3 times the rate of conventional chargers. There will be two versions available Power Station Photo and Power Station Video both available.
Atomos have teamed up with leading camera manufactures to show integration with a variety of different workflows and with new ‘Bare Bones’ versions of all Atomos recorders, adding high end recording, monitoring and playback capabilities to your gear bag is now a real cost effective option.
The current Shogun model (MSRP $1995) includes not only the main Shogun unit but also over $500 of accessories to get users started right away (HPRC hard case, AC adapter, SSD media cases, D-Tap adapter, 5200mAh battery, battery charger, XLR breakout cable and SSD docking station). Customers and channel alike have requested a unit only with AC adaptor in order to utilize accessories they already own from older products. Our goal is to make an additional Shogun unit more affordable. In an effort to meet this request and drive 4K adoption even faster, Atomos have announced a ‘Bare Bones’ version of the Shogun that removes all accessories except the bare essentials (SSD media case and AC power supply), shipping within a high quality soft carry case for protection for an MSRP of $1695.
In the same spirit we have decided to extend the Bare Bones range to the entire Monitor/Recorder range. Our HD 4.3″ Ninja 2 Bare Bones will be $395 and the higher resolution 5″ Ninja Blade and Samurai Blade models will be $795.
