Atomos Shogun and Ninja Assassin

- So Rich, between the Shogun and the Assasin there's a lot of similarities and I would suggest that people go to the Atomos website as well. They actually have really good comparison charts between these different models and then even within a model, one of the things that they've done really nicely is they sell different bundles, right. So you can kind of get a bare bones bundle. You know, that includes a case and some other accessories. - Yeah. - Or you can kinda just get a configuration that's gonna work for you. - Yeah, if you get the deluxe kit, I like it, it comes with a hard case, which makes it very easy to carry this on an airplane. It's a nice solid case, it latches here, and what's really well done is that it actually has foam compartments cut out for everything.

So the entire device is in there, the media drop's in, the battery. This lifts up, and underneath we've got all of the cables, the battery charger, the sled. They come with their own USB3 sled to make it easy so you don't have to take it out of the case in order to transfer. And that's pretty cool, but there's also a variety of accessories available, too. Like, Rob, what do we have here? - Yeah, that's a colorimeter, so you can actually do display calibration of both of these guys as well, which makes it, you know, kind of gives you a confidence check that the color and the brightness that you're looking at on the monitor is correct.

Now, Rich, even with these similarities, there are some differences between these two devices, and kind of trying to decide which one you should get can be hard. But perhaps the biggest difference of these two different units is not, you know, something like weight. The Assassin is a little... - They're almost identical. - It's almost identical, it's a little lighter on that side. But the big difference is that the Shogun is going to have HD SDI capabilities as well as a genlock in. - Yeah, and that's great because this gives us the ability to record from an external device as well as feed in sync if necessary to get a stable signal.

Now both of them have HDMI input and output so you can loop through to something. If you're operating, and you're using something like a Gratical or a viewfinder, or you need to feed it into a monitor on set like a 4K monitor with HDMI input, that's great. But maybe you're using a higher quality monitor that's color-calibrated, and these days those usually take SDI, not HDMI. - Yeah, or if you're working with a higher-level camera, you know, an Alexa or Sony F55, or something like that. That's probably gonna be HD SDI, so that's a big distinguishing feature between these two units and that's where most of the price difference comes.

- Now Rich, there's another difference, too. - Yeah, you also have audio input on that one, that allows for analog audio from more traditional things like XLR. Well, this is more of a phono plug. - Right, so I have a little pigtail here where I can connect audio as well. And that's a pretty nice feature to have, especially in a more, you know, higher-end professional production environment. - And that's removable, too, so if you don't want it, it just disconnects off the side which is really easy to put it away and keep it safe. So I think it really comes down to your input and output is what's different. Do you need analog or HD SDI inputs, or do you just need all digital? If it's all digital, that's gonna push the cost way down.

- Yeah, that's true. And you know, again, on the Atomos website you can see these differences and I look at some additional accessories like the sun-hood, which we didn't even talk about, which is nice, comes part of that bundle. But these are really compelling devices and for my own work as a Sony A7 shooter, I have an A7-2 and a soon to be A7-S2. One of the great things about this is not only does it provide a recording capability which depending on your camera is huge, the thing I love most about this is the monitoring capability. A beautiful, high-def image, touchscreen that's about as intuitive as you can get, and when you add on top all the assist features, the metadata, it's a really compelling product for when you think about the cost of it is not that much for what you get.

- No, and even if you are gonna be using internal recording, just having things like focus-peaking is essential. This is light enough that I've found that I can hand-hold, so if I've got it attached to a cage or you firmly attach to the camera with something like an arm, you could reposition this and easily operate the camera even hand-held. This is awesome, it gives you as a camera operator the ability to see what's going on and the ability to loop out to share with others on set. For video gear weekly, my name's Rich Huntington. And I'm Robbie Carman.