Atomos samurai?

[Drazen Stader]

Atomos samurai....has anyone had any hands on experience with it? does it come also with an hdmi input?

[Phil Hanna]

Mine comes this week. The Ninja is the one with HDMI inputs. The Samurai is totally SDI.
Phil

[Alister Chapman]

I have a Samurai andI'm liking it a lot. Like all ProRes devices it adds compression noise to the image which is not present in the originals but in terms of functionality it works very well. The only thing I don't like is the mini BNC's which stick out a long way from the side and look a bit fragile or prone to accidental damage. Replacing the supplied straight mini BNC fly leads with right angled cables would certainly be a big help.

I've been testing it with S-Log and it works well producing recordings that grade very well. Not as clean as the Gemini but then the workflow is much easier due to the smaller file sizes.

[Peter Corbett]

Originally Posted by Alister Chapman

I have a Samurai andI'm liking it a lot. Like all ProRes devices it adds compression noise to the image which is not present in the originals but in terms of functionality it works very well. The only thing I don't like is the mini BNC's which stick out a long way from the side and look a bit fragile or prone to accidental damage. Replacing the supplied straight mini BNC fly leads with right angled cables would certainly be a big help.

I've been testing it with S-Log and it works well producing recordings that grade very well. Not as clean as the Gemini but then the workflow is much easier due to the smaller file sizes.

Hi Alistair,

Are you not getting mute audio after powering the F3 down and powering up again mid-shoot? At least three of us have this issue. Can you please confirm?

Peter

[Alister Chapman]

I'll test for it tomorrow. Have not noticed it yet.

[Jerry Porter]

Alister, can you please tell me if the Samuri will record at 29.97? Thanks

[Drazen Stader]

The Samurai seems to me the first really affordable sdi recorder for the f3...it is small...robust..and can occasionally serve also as a monitor...so any updates on that front is more than welcome...together with the f3 they make such a nice pair...let's wait and see if they can solve the sound issue people is having...that sounds nasty...

[Peter Corbett]

Originally Posted by Alister Chapman

I'll test for it tomorrow. Have not noticed it yet.

Please try;

Test 1: Power on F3, then Samurai
Test 2: Power on Samurai, then F3

Can you post whether you have sound recorded on both methods of start-up?

Thanks,
Peter

[Peter Corbett]

Originally Posted by Jerry Porter

Alister, can you please tell me if the Samuri will record at 29.97? Thanks

I just set the F3 to "NTSC Countries" and it read on the samurai screen as 1080P 29.97fps.

[Jerry Porter]

Thank you! I might have t buy one now!

[Pieter de Vries]

I have one for a tryout this weekend and so far so good. Very nice little unit however, the screw thread in the top and bottom of the unit seem to be of non-standard size. I have no arm or gadget that will fit that thread. This makes things very tricky.

Based on my use this weekend, I'll get it for sure. Love the PIX240 but it is too big and heavy for my needs.

[Peter Corbett]

Pieter,

You have one of the early units that was mistakenly manufactured with an M6 metric spigot mount. If you are just trialling the Samurai, you will have to rig an alternative mount. If you are keeping it, PM me and I'll get you the service guy's details who does the fix in Melbourne.

[Pieter de Vries]

Thanks Peter. I'll PM you.

piet

[Alister Chapman]

I've had a Samurai for a couple of weeks. I really like the Samurai as a device. It's compact, low power and the functionality is just what you need. The whole package that Atamos supply is very good considering the price and includes everything you need, spare drive caddies, docking station, batteries and charger all in a nice peli style case. Again considering the price the build quality is good and the touch screen and menus are logical and easy to use, it even has nice little touches like a simple on screen button for switching between interlace and PsF. The only thing I don't like about the device is the use of mini BNC sockets that stick out a long way from the body. Then you have to plug quite long plugs onto these that make the slender connectors stick out a good inch from the side. This looks like a weak point to me as such a long slender connector will easily get broken in my opinion. If you could replace the straight mini BNC plugs with right angle ones, this would resolve that small but annoying issue.

My biggest concern with the Samurai though is the ProRes codec. I'm really disappointed with ProRes and the F3. The F3 is a very clean camera and as a result you can really see the extra noise that ProRes adds, just comparing something like a grey card or sky between ProRes recordings and the internal F3 recordings shows more noise (not just with the Samurai, but every ProRes recording I've seen). Now..... early next year the Samurai will get a paid for option for Avid DNxHD recording, which if you ask me is much better and at that point perhaps then the Samurai will really come of age.

While I love my Gemini and will wherever possible use the Gemini, I am looking for alternatives for shoots where I need to record many hours of material for a quick turnaround. Of course one option is to simply buy a lot more media for the Gemini. The Samurai is (despite my ProRes reservations) top of my list of recorders for this specific application, but I'll have to wait I think for DNxHD and continue using my NanoFlash until then. For me the PiX240 is just too big and bulky as is the Cinedeck.

[Pieter de Vries]

My recently purchased Samurai came with the wrong size thread on the top and the bottom. I returned the unit and came away with a new one with the correct thread. Now I can attach it somewhere.

A new issue arises with this one. It will not go into record mode using camera record button as a trigger. I have upgraded the firmware to v2.6. I've tried different cables and used several of my cameras with HD SDI outputs. It will record and create files using the touch screen controls so the drives and all other functions work ok.

It's possible that I may have missed something here?