https://www.bsvp.com BSVP On-Site at NAB 2014 with Atomos Ninja Star. Sue Lawson (BSVP On-Site host & Sr. Editor at ChicagoEdit) talks with Atomos CEO, Jeromy Young.
The idea behind the Atomos Ninja Star came from the drone market and the action-cam market requests, as well as smaller DSLRs users that already have a monitor but want ProRes recording as well as an easy to mount, light and portable solution.
The Atomos Ninja Star weighs just 3.5 ounces. It records to Cfast 1.0 rather than needing the super fast Cfast 2.0 which can be expensive. A Cfast 1.0 128GB card runs an affordable $300. The unit has an automatic start/stop trigger over HDMI from the small cameras. The Ninja Star is both a recorder and a playback deck. Atomos said it was a bit of a challenge putting all the display functions and control functions on a small device with LEDs, but they feel that they did a pretty good job.
The unit displays audio levels, battery indicator and the time left on the disk. The unit allows the user to swap between ProRes HQ, 422 and LT by pushing and holding the “PREV” button for 2 seconds. The “NEXT” button can also switch the unit between 2:2 & 3:2 pulldown for 60i and 24p recording. The Ninja Star retails for $295 which also includes a battery.
Atomos has a number of mounting option for the Ninja Star including their “cheese grater” plate that sits on top the camera that lets you mounted it traditionally. They also offer a mounting option that uses rubber straps that can be used to strap the unit to the side of a tripod or almost anywhere.
At their heart, Atomos is a tool maker that makes tools for creative people to improve their quality, reduce their time and make sure that they can deliver a better product to their customers.
Atomos expects the Ninja Star to be available by mid-May 2014.
for more information: http://www.atomos.com
Produced by Bruce Himmelblau – Blue Sky Video Productions