As a cinematographer you need to have full confidence in the gear you have. You must also make sure you have the right tools for the job. Shooters these days have to be up to speed with the latest tech, and I’ll tell you that’s a job in itself.
So there I was, shooting a critical scene and my first time doing a corporate gig for Allied Pixel. I had been tasked previously with filming for many different colleges and have been confident with the equipment we use at AP. I have been using the Sony A7s since it was released, and have shot over 100 hours of footage with it.
Enter 4k, and welcome the Atomos Shogun. I have been pushing for this device for a while, and can you blame me? I want to shoot 4k and dive into the next generation of digital filmmaking. So the director asked me after a couple of shots if we are good (i.e., is the material recorded). I have to respond with “I have no idea, the Shogun doesn’t have playback.” In order to have a basic function such as playback in the field, we need to wait for a firmware update. Can you imagine that? We have to just trust that this device is doing the job it’s supposed to. (As you might have guessed, I was recording to internal cards as well, to be safe.)
I foresee an issue that has exposed itself over the last year or two. In their race to get products to market, companies are releasing cameras, recorders, monitors, and various other pieces of field-critical gear unfinished, with the promise they will fix it later. This creates a lot of anxiety and uncertainty for those of us who use it, and has probably driven a spike in Rolaids sales.
Here is my short take on the topic. The pro video market is booming, and the push to get gear out fast is apparent. A company has massive pressure to release a new product before its competitors do. Should Atomos have waited to release the Shogun until it was “ready”? Maybe — but then Convergent Design’s Odyssey 7Q might have gotten out of the gate first.
I’m not here to bash anyone’s product, but I think we are falling down a slippery slope with the need to produce new tech and not great usable equipment. The digital world should enable the user, and if you’re going to sell us a product, please make sure we get what is crucial out of box.