I'm looking for a fairly portable recorder that has the capability of recording standard definition when needed. I'll be coming out of a Panasonic HS50 switcher with SD/SDI.

I found the Ninja 2 for $295 US but I'd need a SDI to HDMI converter.

Blackmagic Design Video Assist HDMI/6G-SDI looks perfect in that it can record to inexpensive SDHC cards. BlackMagic lists 525/59.94i NTSC as one of the recording formats but a sales guy told me he thinks that is wrong.

Does anyone know if the BM video assist really can record in a standard definition format?

Anyone have better suggestions for a recorder?