Atomos Ninja with your Canon 7D?

[Ben Tolosa]

Hi guys,

I just came across the Atomos Ninja device on the net and my imagination thought this 'could be' a solution for the AGC problem (yes, I know about the JuiceLink device and the H4N). Besides of the many other benefits the Ninja offer (for example the 12 minutes clips limitation of the 7D will not be an issues anymore if you record with the Ninja).

I know about nanoFlash and other devices alike, but my question is specific about the Atomos Ninja since the price is much better than the nanoFlash, etc.

I just wanted to know if anybody had any experience with the combination or your Canon 7D and the Atomos Ninja. Specially about the sound piece.

Let me see if I can summarize my question bellow:

Does anybody have any experience using a XLR microphone into the Atomos Ninja and using your Canon 7D as the video source (through the HDMI out using Live View)?

I know the Ninja does not have XLR inputs.


Found this video on Vimeo:

Atomos Ninja - compression, workflow and benefits on Vimeo

Very cool and knowledgeable guy. I like how he exlains the ProRes compression and decompression with a piece of paper. I showed it to my wife and she really liked it as well.

Something I don't like about the Ninja is the it does not record on 1080p30 or 1080p29.98 . I do not get why???

Please share your experience :)

Thanks very much guys!!

[Ben Denham]

From the Atomos website

"Supported Input Formats- HD 1080i59.94, 1080i50, 1080p25, 1080p24, 1080p23.98, 720p59.94, 720p50, SD 480i, 576i"

I think it just recognises the format of the HDMI stream and records in that format.

More discussion in this device here

http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/canon-eo...re-out-7d.html

[Chris Medico]

While it may work - you won't like the results. The output from the 7d's HDMI port during record is hardly HD. Its a seriously cropped image in the middle of the screen that MIGHT be SD when you trim off the black bars all around.

You can't use any external recorder to get better results than what you get off the CF card.

[Jon Fairhurst]

I believe that if you hit "Info", the output overlays and such cycle. You can't get rid of the red REC dot, but you can key that spot in from the recording on the CF card.

There is some line/pixel skipping, so the aliasing is as bad as ever, but you won't have coding artifacts.

[Nigel Barker]

Originally Posted by Chris Medico

While it may work - you won't like the results. The output from the 7d's HDMI port during record is hardly HD. Its a seriously cropped image in the middle of the screen that MIGHT be SD when you trim off the black bars all around.

You can't use any external recorder to get better results than what you get off the CF card.

Not so. The point made in the video is that for cameras like the 7D with compromised HDMI output the thing to do is not to hit record button but just record directly to the Ninja off the Live View.

The problem that I have with the Ninja is that despite receiving an email from the UK distributer a couple of weeks ago claiming that it is now available I still cannot find anywhere that actually has or had stock.

[Chris Medico]

The video output may be full HD resolution before you hit record but the image from the sensor doesn't fill the screen. It is much smaller and centered in the frame. There are black bars around the image on all sides. Once you trim the black bars from around the image and resize it to fill the screen you will have an image with about half the pixels of full HD in it. Call it gross underscan if you like.

You can see the same thing being said in this thread as well - http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/canon-eo...ml#post1568330

[John Richard]

During the Atmos Ninja video, the presenter states several times that the key to making the Ninja itself record full 1080 off the Canon HDLSR's is to NOT hit record on the Canon cams. He makes it sound that the Ninja can record full 1080 off the Canon Live View via the HDMI out of the cam into the Ninja when the camera is NOT in record mode whilst it is sitting ilde in Live View.

So that is the question at this point - are the Canon's putting out a full 1080 "clean" (no camera data, white focus box, etc) while in Live Mode prior to hitting the record button. The presenter claims that the reason the Canon's drop the resolution out of the HDMI when you hit record is that the camera's need to use the processers for a part of the recording function.

It would seem like a risky legal issue for Atomos to make this claim if it was not true.

As the owner of a nanoFlash I do have doubts that the idle Live View HDMI output is a pure clean 1080 signal ... but maybe the Ninja folks have figured out how to process what is coming out of this HDMI?

It would be really cool if so.

[Chris Medico]

Originally Posted by John Richard

So that is the question at this point - are the Canon's putting out a full 1080 "clean" (no camera data, white focus box, etc) while in Live Mode prior to hitting the record button. The presenter claims that the reason the Canon's drop the resolution out of the HDMI when you hit record is that the camera's need to use the processers for a part of the recording function.

Answer: No, they do not. I own a 7d and can report they do not output a FULL SIZED image over HDMI. It is a centered and underscanned image while in live mode and before you hit record. You can turn off the info on the screen but you can not get a full sized image.

When I get home tonight I'll try to record a short video clip showing everyone the problem.

In the mean time you can go here - SmallHD|Videos - and click on the video "Canon DSLR Output". They are discussing the issue as it relates to using external monitors but you will see why recording the HDMI output of one of these cameras isn't a good idea.