Edius Loves Atomos & Blackmagic

From NAB to IBC and now IFA everyone has been talking about these three fantastic products, Grass Valley Edius new version 6.5, the Atomos line of external recorders, the Ninja, Ninja-2 and the Samurai. And of course, the fantastic Blackmagic Cinema Camera.

 

Grass Valley Edius new version 6.5 has just recently been released with some amazing new features and the best 3D workflow in the industry.
Here’s a quick list of the main features.

By the way, Grass Valley has just announced that you can purchase Edius direct from their site via digital download. Go here for more info.

No other NLE gives you so much versatility combined with sheer speed of editing. EDIUS® supports real-time editing of all popular standard-definition (SD) and high-definition (HD) formats. Edit anything.

 

New features in EDIUS Pro 6.5 include:

• Color correction tool supports 10-bit color depth
• Export sequence with alpha channel
• Native RED (.R3D) support*
• Improved XDCAM/ P2 data transfer
• 3D (stereoscopic) editing
• AVCHD 2.0 support
• EOS movie support (ALL-I (I-only), IPB)
• Camera RAW format support*
• Filmstrip view in Timeline
• Enhanced video layouter (drop shadow, resize quality)
• Built-in loudness meter
• Built-in shake stabilizer
• 720p Blu-ray authoring support
• Flash F4V export
• QuickTime HQ/HQX codec (Windows/Mac)

 

I have just recently discovered Atomos and I  absolutely love these fantastic external recorders. I am using them now on all my cameras to give me a choice of either DNxHD or ProRes 10-bit 4:2:2 recording coming off of the HD-SDI or HDMI of my cameras. They have 3 devices to choose from plus a new rack mount or field production recorder called the Ronin.

Ronin

• Atomos 3.0 touch screen application for recording, monitoring, playback and edit review
• Compact half-rack size – portable or rack mount
• Full HD-SDI Recorder/Player , ProRes or DNxHD (available Q4/2012)
• AC, DC or battery operation
• Balanced audio with XLR inputs and outputs
• Front panel headphone jack
• Serial control compatible
• Top handle, tilting feet and 1⁄4 inch mounting points for accessories

The Samurai

• Recording direct to Apple ProRes or Avid DNxHD* (* coming Q1, 2012) via HD/SD-SDI – Pristine HD uncompressed video from camera lens and sensor directly to selected codec
• Monitoring – Super High resolution 5″ 800×480 built in Samurai monitor
• Playback – Instant playback for review of Apple Prores files to the Samurai screen
• Touch Screen – Simple intuitive touch screen functionality – no complicated menus!
• Continuous Power – Atomos Continuous Dual Battery Technology
• Affordable Storage – Infinite affordable 2.5″ HDD/SSD storage capability

 

Ninja 2

• Atomos 3.0 – The real power of the Ninja-2 comes from Atomos, our innovative and intuitive operating system.
• Easy-to-use Touchscreen Operating System – Access all of the Ninja-2’s operations via the fast, responsive touch interface.
• One-touch Navigation – Allows for simple operation – everything is one touch away.
• Audio Input Level Meters + Headphone Line Out Volume – Touch audio meters to adjust 4 channels of audio. 8 channel HDMI audio support coming this summer
• ProRes Codec – select the variety of ProRes® you are recording to: HQ (220Mbps), 422 (150Mbps) or LT (100Mbps)
• Timecode – Choose between On board, time of day, record run or auto restart time code modes or utilize external time code from camera or any source input
• Continuous Power – Atomos Continuous Dual Battery Technology
• Affordable Storage – Infinite affordable 2.5″ HDD/SSD storage capability
• Unit Name – Name your Ninja-2 by project or camera. Media drives and recorded files are subsequently named with the unit name upon formatting.

 

Finally, the Blackmagic Cinema Camera. This amazing camera is creating quite a buzz in the industry. I just wrote another post about the Blackmagic Cinema Camera which you can refer here. Suffice to say that it is a marvel. The specs follow here.

 

What I wanted to test was how would Edius handle these new devices and varied high end formats. The video tells all. The Atomos is a pure joy. The sled for the hard drive gives you the option of connect via firewire or USB 3.0. By the way guys, is Thunderbolt connection coming soon? One of the great features is that you have your choice of using SSD drives or 2 1/2 inch hard drives. I keep a couple of 128GB Crucial SSD’s and a Western Digital 7200rpm 1TB HD on hand. I use the SSD’s for any camera action shots and the Western Digital for tripod shots. Using Edius allows me to import files into the bin or timeline with any number of methods. But, for the Atomos I like to open up a window and drag in the file structure. This maintains the “Scene”, “Shot” and “Take” file structure that it records in on the hard drive.

The Atomos also records DNx HD files so I wanted to show a short scene with those files as well.

The Blackmagic files are recorded as individual DNG files. These are pretty sizable to account for the beautiful depth and dynamic range that the black magic camera records. Edius allows me to select the first file and then click the box that says sequence files it then imports all the files and recognizes it as one sequence.

The moment of truth came when I put them all on the timeline and then click play. First the black magic cinema camera then the DNxHD files and then onto the ProRes files. I just clicked play and every single one played through without a hick up or stop and with no special graphics cards required.  Realtime playback right from the timeline with an i7 Windows PC just as promised from Grass Valley.
Watch the video yourself and you decide. Is Edius the best playback editor on the market? I dare say, you won’t find a faster, easier editor anywhere for either 2D or 3D.

 

By: Al Caudullo

 

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