I had the Hyperdeck Shuttle 2 before but found it to be bulky because there is no easy way to mount it to the camera. Aside from that, the Z5U wasn't able to trigger it and I had to manually switch the recording on and off. I eventually returned it to B&H. Another point was the limited battery time, I got at best 40min recording time out of it. If you record in ProRes then you end up with huge files and very short recording times per SSD. Keep in mind that it realy requires SSDs. The quality is certainly better specifically if you do chroma keying and if you have acces to an AC outlet and good file storage system then it is a good choice. SDI does have both, audio and video and the NX5 should be able to trigger record the Shuttle. While you can edit the ProRes files in Vegas you cant render to it and would have to go with DNxHD or another format. The alternative is the Atomos Ninja which is more expensive but has some other advandages such as the build in monitor and it can run on spinning disks too.

I suspect the Shuttle will not record RAW. I think I have heard this before, and I could not find any reference to RAW recording on the B&H or Blackmagic sites. Uncompressed and RAW are two very different things.

Also, I did not see any statement in the specs for the NX5 that it outputs RAW over SDI.

Thanks, John Cline, Old Smoke & GeeBax.

Old Smoke, indeed the mounting was one of the things that went through my mind. I came across this HyperDeck Shuttle Mounting Plate. I could mount the recorder using that on a camera rig/support. 40 minutes battery life is indeed quite limited. Especially when there is no power outlet nearby and considering that it doesn't have a replaceable battery.

Do you have any experience with the Atomos Ninja?
The build in monitor seem to be very handy (I can use it instead of my current field monitor) but the resolution seem to be 800 x 480, how does that translate to the final image? Is this a good reference monitor to monitor the focus/sharpness?

I am now seriously considering the Atomos Ninja instead.
Also I am considering the 2.5-inch Samsung SSD 840 EVO 500GB SATA for the recorder.


GeeBax, indeed on the official site it is not mentioned that HXR NX5 has RAW SDI output.

But I did read it somewere, also there is some discussion about it outputting 10 bit RAW.

As long as there is a noticeable quality difference with the internal H264 recording, then I do not mind what format is used. Prores seems fine.
Also that probably will give more recording time on the SSD compared to the large RAW files.

The NX5 has the same output via SDI as the Z5U had via the HDMI and that is a lightly compressed 1920x1080 in 422, no RAW.
I had the mounting plate too but it made the whole Shuttle very very heavy and I still couldn't mount it onto the camera. The Ninja monitor is certainly bigger&better then the small LCD on the NX5 even tough the resolution isn't as good. I don't have experience with Ninja but I am also considering getting one. I am certain that the 422 output on the NX5 will give you better Chroma keying and if you record in DNxHD you can get a lot of footage on a 500GB SSD. I think for field work SSD is the way to go as you need to handle the drive quite a bit and you may drop it which certainly isn't good for a spinning disk.

Thanks OldSmoke,

Does Vegas (12) handle DNxHD well?

Also the ninja only has Hdmi input, so I will have to use a converter from SDI to Hdmi would that result in any quality loss?
Which converter do you suggest?

Forget converters, a decent HDMI<>HD-SDI one will cost as much as the Ninja.

Atomos also make the Samurai which has HD-SDI in/out on very annoying mini BNC connectors :(

We've had three Samurai since they first came out. They're pretty cheap until you factor in the cost of the SSDs (forget using spinning disks in them), they're pretty power hungry, we've had several issues with them. Corsair Solution who were the Australian Distributors have given up on them and now sell the Sound Devices recorders. They're much more robust and expensive.

The main attraction of all these devices is they're recording edit ready ProRes, given that Apple dominate the industry that created quite a demand for such recorders, one could easily get your money back in the time saved on ingest.

How much better image quality you'll wrangle out of a camera using these is a different matter. For sure you avoid the compression hit so the images will look better. Problem is you're very likely to have to do just as much compression for delivery if not more. All you're possibly doing is moving the problem down the production chain. That's a sensible thing if you're doing chromakey but doesn't do much for anything else. The real answer to the problem is a better camera with bigger chips so there's less noise in the first place.

Bob.

Atomos make their own SDI-HDI converter and Blackmagic also makes a very small converter. I do however believe that the HDMI output on the NX5U also has 422 like the one on the Z5U but I cant confirm it. Bob is however right too, the Z5U and NX5 share the same imaging sensor which is not a native 1920x1080 but rather a HDV format sensor and that is something the best recorder cant overcome.

Edit: I just found this under the Highlights section of the NX5 description on the Sony Pro website "10-bit 4:2:2HD SD-SDI & HDMI outputs"

Thanks for your feedback.

Bob, indeed but one of the two heavy compressions is eliminated in the chain.

Default:
NX5 H.264 compression -> Vegas timeline -> output compression = 2x compression.

With external recorder:

NX5 RAW -> Vegas timeline -> output compression = 1x compression.
Surley pro-res is not raw but still.

Of course a camera upgrade would be great but that is out of reach at this moment and this is an affordable alternative for my gear.

Old Smoke, That's great! Hah I can't imagine I overlooked that!
Indeed 10-bit 4:2:2HD SD-SDI & HDMI outputs.

So the ninja would do fine with the Hdmi connected.

I'd really avoid using HDMI as a way to connect a camera to a recorder. If the option is available use HD-SDI, our experience aligns with the obvious. HDMI was designed for domestic fixed cabling, SDI was designed for the rough and tumble of the field.

Also HDMI doesn't normally carry timecode whereas SDI does. This means an external recorder can be quite reliably set to start/stop recording using the timecode on the SDI signal.

Bob.

Thanks Bob.