BMPCC Ninja or SmallHD?

Hi folks,

Having recently picked up a BMPCC to go alongside my trusty hacked GH2, I have spent some time playing with it and seeing what needs adding to the package. I have come to the conclusion that for my type of work the two missing pieces are the screen and the amount of card space taken up when shooting RAW.

To solve these issues I have begun to look at monitors,viewfinders and external recorders. I'd rather not have a big 7 inch monitor hanging off my rig as a lot of my work involves moving through crowds and working in cramped areas so for now at least a cheap lilliput monitor is out of the running. I have looked at both the SmallHD DP4 and the Atomos Ninja 2. The ninja comes in at around £150 more expensive all said and done, but obviously has the huge advantage of solving the card space issue, I could shoot for a whole day and never worry about cards which is a big bonus and offsets the cost difference a little as I won't have to go buying more expensive sandisk extreme pro cards. However the Ninja is still effectively just a small monitor, to my knowledge you can't get a loupe for it which means I would lose both a point of contact and some effective screen real estate, it also doesn't have 2.35:1 scales which the DP4 has. So give me some help folks, sway me one way or the other, or even throw in a left field suggestion!

Cheers.
 
I don't understand - why not just record ProRes? That's all you'd be getting out of the Ninja anyway. If you really need a DP4, spend the $150 on a few more cards.
 
Exactly - you can't record raw to an outboard recorder, so while you do gain prores capacity and a better display, you'll still be limited by your card space when it comes to raw. Plus you'll need to get media for the ninja as well - so add another $50-$100 to the price if you go with hard drives.

The display on the ninja 2 isn't the greatest, either - not sure how much better you'll find it compared to the built-in one. I haven't used the DP4 so I'm not sure how it compares, but I have used the DP6 and it was a significantly better display than the ninja.
 
I'm also far from a fan of the smallhd offerings. If you're looking just to have a monitor that you can put in a different spot, maybe - but the colour and resolution were really average on the DP4 and DP6...
That being said, they do have features like false colour, peaking and framing guides which the BMPCC does not.
 
Cheers guys, I didn't realise the Ninja wouldn't be recording RAW, that kills the deal a bit doesn't it.

The monitor is more for critical focussing than anything else and I have read that the peaking on the SmallHD stuff is very good.What would you recommend Jax if you don't like those?
 
smallHD have awesome focus peaking, some of the best I've seen and/or used.

That's all I would use them for though. They were good assistant monitors because of the good peaking, the 1:1 magnification and a couple other little things.. but their picture left a lot to be desired in my opinion. The newer monitors are better, but the colours can still be a bit whack on them.

The biggest issue for the DP4 and DP6 were the 6-bit dithered displays. It just doesn't render what you want. I would go for an 8-bit monitor if I were using it to judge exposure/look.
 
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