Hands-On with the Atomos Shogun Inferno – 4K RAW Recorder

by Olaf von VossApril 22^nd, 2016

At this year’s NAB show, Atomos released their new Flagship recorder, the Shogun Inferno. This device is capable of 4K RAW and almost everything else you could ask for when it comes to recording a high-quality video stream.

The Atomos Shogun Inferno

In our NAB video above, Nino chats with Atomos CEO & founder Jeromy Young, who takes us through Atomos’ new 4K RAW recorder in a little more detail. We already covered the Shogun Inferno extensively in our previous post, so be sure to check it out! Otherwise, as a quick reminder, here’s the list of features:

• AtomHDR; AtomHDR lets you shoot with the high brightness range of your camera’s Log profile and preview the final, vibrant post-production HDR result.
• 4K 60p; Record and play out pristine ProRes/ DNxHR in 4K resolution and 24/25/30/50/60p frame rates.
• HD 240p; Apart from 4K recording, high frame rate HD from 50p to 240p can be recorded from cameras that output these high frame rates.
• Quad SDI; The Quad SDI inputs let you connect from cameras with 1.5/3/6/12G SDI outputs without the need for converters.
• Raw recording; Capture the 4K RAW output from Sony FS7/ FS700 and Canon C300MKII/C500 over SDI, recording to either ProRes, DNxHR or CDNG.
• 10-bit monitor; 10-bit monitor processing increases the number of colors from 16.7 million for standard 8-bit panels to 1.07 billion, minimizing color banding on screen.
• 7” 1500nit brightness; For Standard Dynamic Range (SDR) shooting ramp the brightness slider up to 1500 nit for hood-free outdoor monitoring.
• Apple ProRes & AVID DNxHR recording; Record to visually-lossless Apple ProRes or AVID DNxHD in Rec709 or Log formats as an edit friendly, visually lossless industry benchmark independent of the camera brand used.
• PQ in/out; Take PQ out into larger HDR compatible screens or feed HDR from your NLE into the PQ input for HDR grading using the Inferno.
• Custom looks; Apply a custom look to footage by uploading and applying “.cube” 3D LUT’s. View in full/half mode on screen, output it to a monitor or record into the footage.
• Continuous power; Our patent pending Continuous power system automatically swaps to the second battery when power is low for uninterrupted recording in the field.
• Playlist generation; Create playlists easily, either entire clips or tagged parts of clips, for playback on the unit or out to a larger screen.

HDR upgrades on other Atomos recorders

Atomos has announced another cool update to their line of recorders: HDR support for the better part of their lineup of recorders. This means that even if you own an older model, such as a Ninja Blade, this (software) update will enable your device to display HDR content.

The whole range of compatible recorders for the HDR update

This is a really nice move from Atomos since many companies would leave their previous products lacking, in an attempt to increase sales on their new line. Instead, Atomos maintains compatibility with older models (within the range of given hardware limits, at least). So if you don’t need all the features of a Shogun Inferno recorder, maybe you could grab an older model and still get all the latest (compatible) updates.

Get all the details about the new Shogun Inferno on the Atomos website.