Atomos unveils a brand new Ninja series

Atomos’ latest generation of its hugely successful Ninja line of camera-mounted monitor-recorders, the Ninja and Ninja Ultra, ship in September.

Disconcerting to realise, but the original Ninja was introduced in 2010, back when combining an HD disk recorder with a touchscreen monitor you could hold in your hand was considered something of a revolution. 

Things have changed a bit since then. The latest Ninja base model handles video sources up to nine times that resolution, has a 5-inch HDR screen, records ProRes RAW, and connects to almost every camera in the world. That is progress.

13 years translates to 9x the resolution

The new Ninja is targeted primarily at owners of DSLR and mirrorless cameras, while the Ninja Ultra is built to get the most out of camera to cloud technology and leans into cinematic workflows with Atomos Connect. It can record full-quality files to ProRes RAW up to 4K 60p while at the same time recording HD 60p to H.265, and supports automatic matching filenames, timecode and record from ARRI, Canon and RED cameras. More cameras will be supported soon.

The unit’s new 4K camera to cloud mode lets you record and upload much higher quality bitrate H.265 video with higher framerates. And models now include more codecs as standard: 6K ProRes RAW, ProRes, DNxHD as well as H.265, which was previously available as a paid option.

Adding an Atomos Connect expansion module to either a Ninja or a Ninja Ultra enables Atomos RemoteView - a useful new technology that lets you share live views from your Atomos screen with other Atomos monitors, as well as with iPads, Macs and Apple TVs wirelessly. You can monitor what’s happening on-set and look through any connected camera taking the shot, from anywhere in the world. 

The Ninja Ultra is $200 more but adds a lot

For Ninja Ultra only, the Atomos Connect module provides a lower latency, higher throughput and more stable connection with Wi-Fi 6E. Both Ninjas are backwards-compatible with their predecessors, Ninja V and Ninja V+, so all Atomos and third-party accessories can be used with the new products.

They also run the latest AtomOS 11operating system. Atomos reckons this is cleaner, fresher and faster, thanks to optimized hardware performance. It delivers a host of new features too, including EL Zone exposure referenced colorized image, ARRI False Color, and new scheduled playback & recording tools.

The new AtomOS 11 UI

Both of the new models also sport a distinctive ‘camo’ color polycarbonate body and will be shipping from early September 2023, priced at $599/€599 and $799/€799 respectively, excluding local sales taxes.