Atomos Samurai Blade

Key Features

• 325DPI, 5" IPS 1280 x 720 capacitive touchscreen monitor/recorder
• Waveform RGB & Luma Parade, Vectorscope with zoom, and test pattern generator
• Adjustable gamma, contrast and brightness
• HD-SDI input and output
• Real-time monitoring, playback, playout to a PC or Mac with QuickTime, and edit logging
• Focus Peaking, 0-100% Zebra, and two modes of False Color monitoring
• Record direct from the sensor to 10-bit, 4:2:2 ProRes or DNxHD
• S-Log / C-Log recording
• Trigger REC/STOP from camera (Canon, Sony, ARRI, Panasonic, RED, JVC)
• Timecode from camera
• 2.5" HDD/SSD media storage

Records from the Sensor

Samurai Blade records directly from the sensor to 10-bit, 4:2:2 Apple ProRes or Avid DNxHD, bypassing a major round of compression and data loss.

AtomOS 5.0 Capacitive Touchscreen OS

Blade's operating system, AtomOS, manages recording, playback, monitoring, and simple cut and tag editing via a capacitive touchscreen. New to AtomOS 5.0 is Alpha Channel, Transparency support, full Waveform RGB and Luma Parade, and Vectorscope with zoom.

Cut and Tag

AtomOS 5.0 lets you rough cut your footage, tag it as Favorite or Reject, and then save it as a project to be finished and polished in the studio. You can cut and tag short and long clips with transport controls and finite frame-by-frame accurate stepping.

Synced REC Trigger and Timecode

Blade provides frame accurate timecode and start stop triggers over both SDI and HDMI (via HDMI converter) from almost all cameras, including Canon, Sony, Panasonic, Nikon, JVC, RED and ARRI. Blade also features LANC and rolling timecode trigger for those older cameras that don't have start stop flag protocols on board. Blade additionally has tally lights to indicate start time.

10-Bit 4:2:2 Quality

Blade bypasses 8-bit and records 10-bit color registries for better compatibility with 12-bit or higher graphics inserted on your NLE timeline.

ProRes and DNxHD Encoding & Playback

Blade encodes in your choice of Apple's ProRes and Avid's DNxHD codec and can also play back any ProRes or DNxHD file from any system, recorder or edit suite. You can take advantage of this playback capacity to take rushes on the road.

HDD or SSD Storage

Blade stores to 2.5" HDDs or SSDs. A 1TB HDD can record 48 hours of Avid 36, and a 500GB HDD can affordably store 5 hours of Apple's ProRes or Avid's DNxHD. And SSDs are resistant to and ideal for rough, vibration-sensitive shoots, such as on a race-track. Also -- the AtomOS operating system is designed such that you can eject and hot-swap these drives at anytime without having to go through many steps.

File Recovery

In case you accidently pull the power or remove the storage drive while recording, the operating system will detect the disruption and will reconstruct your file to within 2 frames.

Audio Monitoring

All audio, even analog, is locked frame accurately to every video frame, never drifting or losing sync. If digital audio is out of sync from the camera, you can even adjust sync on the fly by advancing or delaying incoming audio. You get 12 digital and 2 analog channels to monitor via a headphone jack or line out.

Construction

Blade is built with aircraft grade aluminum and features locking mechanisms for each removable part.

Low Power Consumption

Blade consumes only 6W of power and can be powered by the included NP series batteries in a dual continuous battery system or by AC adapter. The batteries lock into place so they aren't accidentally removed.