Atomos Samurai Blade

[Ryan Jones]

No thread for this yet?

Looks very interesting: Samurai Blade | Atomos

Very keen to see how this stacks up with the just announced Convergent Designs Odyssey range.

Atomos have stuck with 2.5" SSDs, so cost of media will be lower.

A 325dpi IPS screen will get a lot of attention.

AtomoOS 5 looks like it adds some great features.

All for $1295, or $300 more than the existing Samurai, and same price as the lower end Odyssey (Although not sure much that'll cost by the time you have your recording options).

Looks awesome to me!

[Jack Zhang]

This is meant to be a 5'' recorder, so you do get recording functions out of the box compared to the Odyssey where you have to buy the recording features that don't come standard.

I'd like to see where they take AtomsOS 5 and whether custom OSes could be installed if the open source community could get involved in some way.

[Zach Love]

The other news is, when did they drop the prices?

Ninja 2 is now $700 & Samurai is $1,000? News to me. Boy these things are getting cheap...

Also looks like the Connect HDMI / HD-SDI converters price has dropped. Now $300 instead of $350.

Plus there is a non-battery operated converters too:
http://www.atomos.com/connect-ac/

Same price, but you can rack mount them.

[Dave Allen]

This looks like it is going direct head on against the Convergent Design Odyssey. I noticed they opine that OLED monitors are inferior in brighter lights, and they champion the use of non-proprietary recording media, another swipe at Convergent.

I am not wild about the idea of having to pay a so called license fee which I get the feeling will be substantial just to record the 4k signal out of an FS700, and the question becomes will the Samuari Blade do so, and without a license fee?

I do like the larger monitor size of the Odyssey, but the pricepoint of the 7Q is just under double compared to the Samurai Blade.

[Cees van Kempen]

Will it support 1080p60? That would make it a companion for the FS700 super slomo option.

[Eric Darling]

Actually, there are two Convergent Design Odyssey models. The Odyssey7 and 7Q
The price points given are $1295 and $2295 respectively.

The Atomos Samurai Blade is more comprable to the 7, so the less expensive of the two models, and the one that happens to be priced right at the same point. The only additional consideration being the additional purchase of a compressed codec (only DNxHD currently announced). The 7Q, which will set you back more money, will also handle many more functions, including the recording of up to four simultaneous signals and 2K/4K resolutions - something Atomos doesn't offer currently.

Personally, I like that Convergent Design is offering alternative pricing (including rental) structures for codec use. That's a unique twist on things, which allows one to afford this more capable hardware, and only invest in the software according to their needs. Overall, this structure promises be more affordable for most people. Buy the compressed codec, and rent the RAW option when it's needed. Also, the Samurai Blade offers no RAW codec support whatsoever. You also aren't forced to choose between two models if you want BOTH HDMI and SDI support.

I don't like that you need to invest in their own SSD drives. That had better be supported strongly, as surely that will be a sensitive RMA point and potential bottleneck in support. Obviously, these will be more expensive than the lower performance off-the-shelf drives usable in the Atomos products.

And yes, both models apparently can record 1080p60 444 uncompressed. Compressed modes apparently only support up to 30p.

[Dave Allen]

The Blade will not support the FS 700's higher frame rates...I asked.

The Convergent Odyssey 7Q will support the FS700 higher frame rates, but you will need the codec purchase (if you don't rent it), which will be about an additional $3K.