Up until now, several manufacturers have offered portable 10-bit audio/video recorders for HD and 4K, of which I have covered and reviewed many. However, even the ones that have had a calibratable video screen have not yet had a 10-bit (30-bit) panel. So far, the 10-bit (30-bit) models I have covered have been DreamColor monitors from HP, which are much larger and do not have any inboard recording. Now that is changing, thanks to Átomos. According to the company, its new Flame accurately displays 10 stops of the luminance detail of Log with 10 bit HDR Post Production color accuracy, for the first time in a field monitor. The AtomHDR engine not only resolves HDR brightness detail (dynamic range), with 10-bit color accuracy: It also resolves 64 times more color information than traditional 8-bit panels. For Rec709 standard dynamic range scenes, the 1500nits brightness aids with outdoor shooting as does the upgraded continuous power management system for longer use with a single battery charge. As prior models have, it continues to offer 4K/HD Apple ProRes/DNxHR Recording, playback and editing. Ahead are more details and a video.

“HDR is simply amazing, it’s the next revolution for filmmaking, once again Atomos are first with the technical solution to make it quicker, easier and more affordable for filmmakers” said Atomos CEO and co-founder Jeromy Young, “Anyone that sees HDR, from content creators to consumers are immediately sold, more life like shots and real world detail. Our job is to open up HDR to all filmmakers by removing the technical and affordability hurdles that might slow its progress.”

All major camera makers log formats are supported — Arri, Canon, JVC, Panasonic, RED and Sony.

The monitor itself is a calibrated 7” 1920×1200 325 ppi IPS with upgraded 10-bit color accuracy, resolving 1.07 billion* colors compared to the 16.7 million colors of traditional 8-bit panels. This all but eliminates the color banding seen on traditional panels and in tandem with AtomHDR lets you see images as you would with your own eyes.

Beware the term “billion” in international circles!

*That number you just read is expressed with the USA billion nomenclature. In European English, that number would be written and spoken as 1,07 thousand million (except for those Europeans who have adopted the USA billion)! Castilian readers should interpret it as 1,07 mil millones… or 1,07 millardos if they use very modern terminology 🙂
Both in European English and in Castilian, the term billion (or billón) is a much bigger number, with 12 zeros instead of 9.

For existing SDR, Rec709 delivery or scenes that do not have the wide brightness variation required for HDR shooting, we can switch to traditional video mode (Rec709) and activate a Brightness slider that lets you take advantage of the impressive “Daylight Viewable” 1500nits of brightness emanating from the Flame units. This adds huge versatility for the Flame series – if we have scenes that call for HDR, we can activate the AtomHDR mode. If we don’t, we can switch to High Bright mode for outdoor monitoring hood free.

Átomos says that Shogun and Ninja Flame have a rugged built in armor ensuring it is battle-ready for the field and also now inherits the company’s patented continuous power system pioneered on its HD range. The hot-swappable dual battery system automatically swaps to the second battery when power is low, allowing hot swapping to new fresh batteries. Átomos’ new improved battery charger is 3 times faster.

Átomos believes that the addition of AtomHDR, the 1500nit brightness, 10-bit color accuracy and continuous power position the Flame Series as the best 7” field monitors in the world, but they also feature advanced recording, playback and editing capability as well. Both units record 4K/HD to 10-bit 4:2:2 Apple ProRes or Avid DNxHR/DNxHD onto off-the-shelf SSDs. They also feature on the fly 3:2 and 2:2 pulldown removal for those nasty cameras that don’t offer a pure progressive output (see my 2012 article which covers this issue in detail) and advanced recording features such as timelapse & pre-record. Playback with controls is possible on screen or out to larger monitors and you can even use the built-in focus, framing and exposure tools to judge the shot and then start tagging to make decision making in post faster and easier.

The Ninja Flame is a HDMI only model with all of the above features and ships with accessories including a hard case, a snap-on HDR sunhood, fast battery charger, control cable, 2 x NP-F750 4 cell batteries, USB 3 docking station, D-Tap Cable, 5 x Master Caddy cases and a 12 V 3A AC-DC power wdapter. This model costs US$1295.

The Shogun Flame is a HDMI & SDI model with bi-directional SDI/HDMI conversion, Raw to Apple ProRes/DNxHR recording for select Canon and Sony cameras, balanced XLR audio input/output via breakout cable and timecode/genlock connectivity. It features the same above accessories as well as the XLR breakout cable for US$1695.

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