Recommendations wanted for D800 and Atomis Ninja 2 rigging

D200freak

Senior Member
My early Christmas present to myself is an Atomos Ninja 2 video recorder, which I will be using along with my D800.

I'm looking for recommendations on equipment to use to rig this gear together.

I'm considering various configurations of cheese plates or multiple hot shoe brackets.

I already have, and will be using, a Manfrotto tripod with quick release head plates.

I intend to connect up the camera, the Ninja 2, an external microphone (and I'm asking for recommendations for that, too) and optionally an LED light source.

I'd like to be able to quickly remove the camera from the rest of the rig. And quickly remove the whole rig from the tripod as well.

I suspect I'll be stacking two Manfrotto QD plate units. One for the camera in the rig, the other, for the rig on the tripod.

Beyond that I am completely open to suggestions. I'd like to keep it cheap but with good quality hardware.

The first planned event this setup will be used at will be for my nephew's wedding and reception. Reception to be held in a medium sized room that I have not yet seen even in diagrams.
 

mikew_RIP

Senior Member
I have no idea what you are talking about,will have to do some googleing later :D hope some one does and you get some helpful posts.
 

D200freak

Senior Member
I've decided to go this route, pretty much. It avoids the usage of "cheese plate" type hardware in types that are difficult to find.

I was thinking of a hinged mount system that allows the Ninja to flip down below the camera.

Atomos+Ninja-2+and+Nikon+D4+Rig.jpg
 

D200freak

Senior Member
I don't want it to be too complex. I need to be able to quickly return the D800 to normal hand-held DSLR usage. A stabilized, caged, sliding focus rig suitable for making a medium budget movie is way beyond what I want to do. But I fully expect the reception to run longer than the 20 minute internal run limit for videos in the D800.

I'm thinking that my AF-S 14-24mm G ED will be a great lens for covering the event.
 

D200freak

Senior Member
I got my Atomos Ninja 2 today and started playing with it almost immediately . It is a nice gadget but not one you absolutely HAVE to have unless you will be making individual movie clips that are longer than 20 or 30 minutes depending on your camera's internal recording limit. Still, I intend to use it for all movie making for the simple reason that my drives for it are way larger than the cards in my D800 and using the dock, transferring movies to PC (or mac) is dead simple and plenty fast enough.
 

D200freak

Senior Member
I ended up getting almost exactly the rig shown above. Not different in any significant way. It works well.

I have found out for myself that while any given random 2.5" SATA hard drive MIGHT work with the Ninja 2. you really need to make at least a 20 minute test video to be sure. If there are no clip terminations or skipped frames or glitches in a 20 minute video, then that drive is likely to be trustworthy. Atomos has drive recommendations on their site and they're a good place to start.

You will really WANT USB 3.0 on your computer for reasonable transfer times from the dock. If you don't have USB 3.0 in your computer, and it's a desktop, you should get a USB 3.0 adapter card. One that plugs right into the motherboard via an available PCI-E slot.

I wish I'd gotten the Ninja Blade with its higher resolution and calibratable display, but the Ninja 2 is still pretty nice. But dark details get lost on its display, going black too fast, and its lower resolution makes it difficult to judge focus. You just have to learn that black levels look better on the recording than they do on the unit's own display.
 

RocketCowboy

Senior Member

D200freak

Senior Member
I have completed my first "assignment" with the Atomos Ninja 2 recorder. It went well, no glitches worth mentioning.

Except for one.

I recorded "full range" rather than limited, which means that the image is TOO contrasty. There are issues with both crushed blacks and crushed whites. (Sounds like a race war!) Use the limited mode to bring the video into SMPTE white and black level standards.

I was pretty sure I'd set it right but somehow what I found in the settings is not what I thought I'd set them to.

The videos are still good, but they could have been better.

I'm not sure if I'll be able to improve them in post processing. I'll have to experiment...and if worse comes to worst, I may actually have to start reading the Final Cut manual! Oh no, not that! Anything but reading the instructions!
 

RocketCowboy

Senior Member
I have completed my first "assignment" with the Atomos Ninja 2 recorder. It went well, no glitches worth mentioning.

Except for one.

I recorded "full range" rather than limited, which means that the image is TOO contrasty. There are issues with both crushed blacks and crushed whites. (Sounds like a race war!) Use the limited mode to bring the video into SMPTE white and black level standards.

I was pretty sure I'd set it right but somehow what I found in the settings is not what I thought I'd set them to.

The videos are still good, but they could have been better.

I'm not sure if I'll be able to improve them in post processing. I'll have to experiment...and if worse comes to worst, I may actually have to start reading the Final Cut manual! Oh no, not that! Anything but reading the instructions!

Did you use the Ninja with your D200, or another body? I've been tempted after seeing the Ninja included in some of the D810 and D750 filmmakers kits, but was concerned whether the D5300/D7100 had the correct HDMI output for that recorder.

Great info on the settings through. Now, go RTFM! ;)
 

D200freak

Senior Member
The D200 doesn't have an HDMI video output and can't be used with the Atomos recorders. I used my D800.

I brought along a D5000 as a backup, which also has an HDMI output and could be used as a spare in the event of a problem with the D800.
 
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