The Atomos Shogun was one of the success stories of late 2014, making 4K Prores recording affordable, manageable and accessible to more filmmakers and helping to accelerate the changeover from HD to 4K all while making production simpler and more affordable.
Today at NAB 2015, Atomos announce the Shogun ‘Bare Bones’ version will soon be available at an even cheaper price point of $1,695 – which is to include the Shogun, AC power supply, soft carry case, and an SSD caddie. It’s basically the most minimal kit for the Shogun. If you have NP-F batteries and HDMI cables of your own you can save yourself around $400 by getting this more streamlined version. Same features, just less accessories.
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The current Shogun model (MSRP $1995) includes not only the main Shogun unit but also over $500 of accessories to get users started right away (HPRC hard case, AC adapter, SSD media cases, D-Tap adapter, 5200mAh battery, battery charger, XLR breakout cable and SSD docking station). Customers and dealers alike have requested a unit only with AC adaptor version, in order to utilise legacy equipment they already own from Atomos and camera products as well as making a second Shogun unit more affordable.
In an effort to meet this request and drive 4K adoption even faster, Atomos have announced a ‘Bare Bones’ version of the Shogun that removes all accessories except an SSD media case and AC power supply, we have also included a high quality soft carry case for protection, all for the low price of $1695. The complete suite of accessories will also be available for $395.
“Shogun Bare Bones is all about accelerating the move to 4K at breakneck speed in combination with the amazing Japanese 4K high quality affordable cameras, allowing customers to utilise legacy Atomos accessories they already own.” said Jeromy Young CEO of Atomos. “We still expect the full Battle Ready Shogun loaded with accessories to be popular but now users can decide what makes sense for their first and second 4K camera rig.”
“We liked the idea so much we decided to extend it to the entire Monitor/Recorder range. Ninja 2 at $395 is a steal, it is our original flagship product and our most successful, Ninja Blade and Samurai blade have the 5” SuperAtom IPS 325PPI monitor, calibration, WFM, Apple ProRes and Avid DNxHD and are bare bones for $795.
Atomos expect Atomos Shogun Bare Bones to be available from resellers in May 2015. The accessories and HPRC case will be available separately for $395 for Shogun and $195 for Ninja Blade and Samurai Blade.
Even better, Atomos have also just released details of upcoming enhancements for AtomOS6. Available via free download over the coming months, Shogun users will gain the following:
• Custom meta data tagging
• Pre-roll Recording
• Time lapse video
• Playlist generation
“OS updates shouldn’t be just about bug fixes,” said Jeromy Young CEO of Atomos. “For AtomOS updates, equal Free Features that we share with new and existing Shogun users. This is the world you buy into with Atomos.”
The new features open up 4 completely different creative angles for Shogun, described below.
i) Custom Meta Data Tagging.
Shogun, Ninja and Samurai users would already be familiar with the ability to tag content on the go i.e. marking content as Favorite/Reject on the fly or during review and saving out as an XML file that is dropped straight onto the timeline in FCPX. This latest firmware for Shogun takes things one step further. Now users can create their own custom meta data tags, storing up to “10” tags on the Shogun which are completely customisable. Imagine the ability to mark “Directors pick”, “Out takes”, “Over exposed”, “Audio Pop” and more, all the time slicing through the time taken for the main edit in post production. Available with AtomOS6.3 at the end May 2015.
ii) Pre-roll Record or Cache Recording
Sure to be a huge deal for documentary, sports and wildlife videographers, the Shogun will introduce Pre-roll Record. Even with Shogun not in recording mode, it will continually buffer content internally allowing the user to record the previous 8s of HD recording or 2s of 4K the moment you hit the record button. We go back in time to ensure missed takes are a thing of the past. On show at NAB, released with AtomOS6.3 at the end May 2015.
iii) Time Lapse Video
Time lapse lends itself to creative angles on everyday scenes and has traditionally been limited to photography. The Atomos video time lapse feature maximises video creativity by allowing both the duration of recording in number of frames or length of time and the interval be altered depending on the director’s intent and even multi stage recording is possible, altering the time and duration throughout the period of the shoot. Essentially we have made time lapse keyframeable and flexible in the video arena. Creative customers will be amazed at what they can achieve with this feature. On show at NAB, released with AtomOS6.3 at the end May 2015.
iv) Playlist Generation
One of the key features of Shogun is the ability to playback and review 4K footage on screen or out to a monitor taking advantage of the full suite of monitoring tools to check shot accuracy and tagging Favorite/Reject as a result. The new playlist function allows users to not only tag sections within a clip for play-out but also tag entire clips and have them all replayed as a playlist. Convenient when pulling together the best takes of the day or in commercial situations where 4K play-back for immediate storyline review is needed. Shogun is now the world’s first fully portable play-out server. On show at NAB, released with AtomOS6.3 at the end May 2015.
These 4 exciting new OS feature improvements are in addition to the 7 new hardware enhancements, 25% student discount, 3 year warranty and exciting new $1695 price point announced for Shogun at NAB.
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