Why use a Ninja Inferno?

[Larry Secrest]

Hello,
Panasonic and Atomos seem to have hook up to push owners of GH5s to record externally to the Inferno. Without talking about the practicality of storage and the convenience of a bigger screen, does Prores or the Avid codec to which the footage can be recorded within the inferno confer any advantage in color grading? As far as I know, no quality is added to what's coming out of the camera?
Thanks
Larry

[Mark Rosenzweig]

Originally Posted by Larry Secrest

Hello,
Panasonic and Atomos seem to have hook up to push owners of GH5s to record externally to the Inferno. Without talking about the practicality of storage and the convenience of a bigger screen, does Prores or the Avid codec to which the footage can be recorded within the inferno confer any advantage in color grading? As far as I know, no quality is added to what's coming out of the camera?
Thanks
Larry

1. High compression is the enemy of heavily gradable, artifact-free video. Shooting in ProRes at very high bitrates gives you better video to work with.

2. Shooting 4K60P internally is 8bit 420. Externally it is 10bit 422. Again, at the low compression rates, much better video quality, especially for grading. Of course, for that you need the Shogun Inferno...

[Joachim Claus]

Mark,
afaik 4K/UHD in 4:2:2 10-bit can only be externally recorded, and the framerate is limited to 25/30 fps.
Joachim

[Larry Secrest]

That is not what I've understood!

[Gordon Hoffman]

The way I understand it both the Ninja Inferno and Shogun Inferno records 10 bit 422 60p over HDMI.

Gordon

[Mark Rosenzweig]

Originally Posted by Joachim Claus

Mark,
afaik 4K/UHD in 4:2:2 10-bit can only be externally recorded, and the framerate is limited to 25/30 fps.
Joachim

I am not sure what you are talking about.

The GH5: internal 4K 422 10bit at 25/30p, but internally 8bit 420 at 50/60P, and externally 4K 422 10bit 50/60P via HDMI recorded by the Shogun Inferno. If the GH5s is different, then that is news.

[Ron Evans]

The GH5S is the same. The only difference is it will record DCI at 50/60P with the same restrictions.

[Cary Knoop]

Originally Posted by Mark Rosenzweig

I am not sure what you are talking about.

The GH5: internal 4K 422 10bit at 25/30p, but internally 8bit 420 at 50/60P, and externally 4K 422 10bit 50/60P via HDMI recorded by the Shogun Inferno.

That's exactly right.

The advantage is that you can encode the video stream with a much higher bitrate. For instance for UHD@60 you can get a bitrates of up to 1750 Mb/s, much higher than when you use the internal codecs.

[Larry Secrest]

So if you're going to record DCI 4K 10 bit 4:2:2 you can then do it internally, correct? So what's the point of the Atomos then, other than a better screen?

[Cary Knoop]

Originally Posted by Larry Secrest

So if you're going to record DCI 4K 10 bit 4:2:2 you can then do it internally, correct? So what's the point of the Atomos then, other than a better screen?

To name a few things, a higher bitrate, a codec suitable for editing, immediate feedback on V-Log footage, timecode support, synchronized external sound.

[Ron Evans]

Originally Posted by Larry Secrest

So if you're going to record DCI 4K 10 bit 4:2:2 you can then do it internally, correct? So what's the point of the Atomos then, other than a better screen?

You can only do 30P internal recording if you want 60P then just like the GH5 that has to be from the HDMI to external recorder. The important thing here is 60P frame rate.

[Larry Secrest]

Got it!
Thanks!