Atomos Shogun Inferno: Is this the best value recorder/monitor ever?
By Jim Bask
RedShark Review: For $1995 Atomos has packed a lot of features into its latest high bright monitor and produced an impressive package that has the potential to go even further as the HDR future unfolds.
Atomos recorders have risen very quickly to a position of prominence and ubiquity, principally via the fairly simple approach of offering widely-needed features a reasonable price. Since the company began using high-quality, seven-inch displays with full HD resolution, its products have also been capable of fulfilling the dual role of recorder and monitor.
There is, of course, now very significant competition in this market, but Atomos get several things right: there is no requirement for expensive rebadged flash storage, they’re lightweight, there’s a well-laid-out user interface and they take conventional Sony-style camera batteries, but also tolerate battery power around 12 volts via a battery plate adaptor. They also offer the ability to record less-demanding formats on to spinning disks, which is an unusual innovation.
The company’s latest device, which debuted at NAB as a significant part of the splash of publicity over high dynamic range, represents the company pushing the boat out quite energetically, and not only because of the excitement over HDR. The hardware configuration of the Shogun Inferno enjoys considerable upgrades over previous models, to the point that the current firmware doesn’t very fully explore the theoretical possibilities, and expansion beckons…[continue reading]