Ninja 2 and DSLR

V

Vows

what control do I have over my camera when I use the Atomis Ninja 2. I wanted to shoot my project at 24fps, and to use the 60fps for some slower motion shots. If the recorder takes it off the sensor, all I have to do is worry about exposure through camera? The camera's setting become irrelevant, and a side question which of the codecs do you recommend? Why didn't the ninja come with a remote, so I don't have to touch the screen when its on my setup? I will build a set up to take it off my camera bracket.
Thanks as always
VOWS
 
Sort by date Sort by votes
i cant speak to anything else, seeing as I don't own a Ninja 2 yet, but I have been doing some serious amounts of research. Ninja 2 only goes up to 30p. It'll take 60i, but I dont think you want to do that for slo-mo.

From B&H:
"The Atomos Ninja 2 Video Recorder is an HDMI recorder and 800 x 480 resolution monitor that records up to 1080/30p/60i resolution directly from your..."

I'm putting my setup together, and I plan on shooting 25p for normal shots through the Ninja 2, and then the 60p shots, I'll do without it.

Hope this helps. I'll leave the other questions to people who've actually used the Ninja 2.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I used the Ninja, not the Ninja 2 on my recent shoot. We used Avid DNxHD. Some people prefer the ProRes. I don't know anything about shooting at 60P.

You still have to do the exposure settings on Camera, but the ninja allows you to check the settings. I just put up a short interview with my DP here on our use. It doesn't answer your questions, but we talk about how the focus peaking was a life-saver for us, shooting at 2.8.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qAIx78RQes

Cheers,
Aveek
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Hey trueindie. That's a very helpful link. But I think what you're using in that video is actually the ninja 2, not the ninja (technically called ninja star). The ninja doesn't double as a monitor and it records on C-Fast cards, not on an SSD or HDD drive, so I'd definitely put my money on that device being a ninja 2.

Also, I'd suggest caution. Every forum that I've read up on, the 4.3 inch monitor on the ninja 2 is heavily warned against, not just for how small it is, but it's clarity and sharpness, so it won't be a good idea to pull focus out of that iddy-biddy thing.

You can get a 7" on-camera monitor for fairly cheap, even under $100. I own a $195 Lilliput FA1011 which is 10.1", and then I and trueindie funnily enough, on another thread, recently worked out a 15.6" monitor for around the same price point. So yeah, focus issues are a bi*ch, but there are quite a few very affordable ways to avoid em.

The lilliput monitor : http://www.amazon.com/LILLIPUT-Fa10...id=1423456628&sr=8-1&keywords=lilliput+fa1011

A cheap 7" monitor: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Feelworld-7...346?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4d2958c17a
 
Last edited:
Upvote 0 Downvote
Asad J said:
Hey trueindie. That's a very helpful link. But I think what you're using in that video is actually the ninja 2, not the ninja (technically called ninja star). The ninja doesn't double as a monitor and it records on C-Fast cards, not on an SSD or HDD drive, so I'd definitely put my money on that device being a ninja 2.

Also, I'd suggest caution. Every forum that I've read up on, the 3.5 inch monitor on the ninja 2 is heavily warned against, not just for how small it is, but it's clarity and sharpness, so it won't be a good idea to pull focus out of that iddy-biddy thing.

You can get a 7" on-camera monitor for fairly cheap, even under $100. I own a $195 Lilliput FA1011 which is 10.1", and then I and trueindie funnily enough, on another thread, recently worked out a 15.6" monitor for around the same price point. So yeah, focus issues are a bi*ch, but there are quite a few very affordable ways to avoid em.

The lilliput monitor : http://www.amazon.com/LILLIPUT-Fa10...id=1423456628&sr=8-1&keywords=lilliput+fa1011

A cheap 7" monitor: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Feelworld-7...346?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4d2958c17a
Click to expand...

It's not a ninja star, but it's the first version of the Ninja. The Ninja 2 is the latest version.
What happened with us, is that the focus peaking allowed us to pull focus on our handheld shoot. They weren't visually pulling focus on the Ninja, but by monitoring the peaking. If you try to do it visually, it definitely won't work. Even the peaking didn't work for distant shots.

I considered the 7" monitors too. I own two 7" monitors (feelworld) and one 8" monitor (lilliput), but they didn't have focus peaking capability. Also we were shooting on D800s, so we couldn't rely on magic lantern. So for us the Ninja saved our butts by allowing us focus peaking, in a handheld situation with no separate focus puller.
 
Last edited:
Upvote 0 Downvote
Gotcha! I'm sure I was reiterating things you knew very well. I mostly just wanted to put them out there for Vows's benefit just in case =)

And omg, I didn't know there was a ninja between ninja star and ninja 2.... Do you have any links? I could probs just get by with one of those rather than buying the ninja 2 which I totally don't need, if the first ninja could do as much as it was doing in your vid!
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Asad J said:
Gotcha! I'm sure I was reiterating things you knew very well. I mostly just wanted to put them out there for Vows's benefit just in case =)

And omg, I didn't know there was a ninja between ninja star and ninja 2.... Do you have any links? I could probs just get by with one of those rather than buying the ninja 2 which I totally don't need, if the first ninja could do as much as it was doing in your vid!
Click to expand...

found one on eBay
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Atomos-Ninj...604?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4d2cd3c03c

It's the first version of the Ninja 2. So you'll probably only find it used.
If you go to ebay and type 'atomos ninja' and then click on "used" you'll find some options. It's way cheaper than the ninja 2. It's probably a good purchase if in good condition.

Edit: Actually, I'm wrong about this. We used the Ninja2, because if I remember correctly, the Ninja1, did not have an HDMI output, or have a smartscreen. Ours did. So I think we went with the Ninja 2, and I just muddled everything up in my head. So don't buy the Ninja. Buy the Ninja 2, or you won't be able to use the touch screen, or have an HDMI output to secondary monitor.
Sorry about the bad advice.
I just watched my video again. My DP says we used the Ninja 2
 
Last edited:
Upvote 0 Downvote
no worries at all... now the original plan is a go I guess.

Though I was thinking, maybe a ninja star isn't too bad an idea either. I don't need the monitor part, so if I can get the ninja star for 300 bucks and throw on 256 gigs of atomos C-Fast cards (around 450), I still get the setup for a 750ish value.

I might just find a better deal on a used Ninja 2 too, I suppose, so I guess I'll just wait around till its time to go e-shopping and see what's up. Thanks for the advice though. =)
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top