On August 20 Atomos released AtomOS 12.7.4, the last piece of an update cycle that has just reworked the firmware on Ninja RAW, Ninja TX GO, Ninja TX, Shogun AV-19 and Sumo PRO-19. It is a free download from the Atomos support pages, and on Ninja TX and Ninja RAW it also arrives over the air, straight on the recorder.

This is not another round of bug fixes. Two entries in the 12.7.x changelog genuinely change how you work on set.

Sony FX5 RAW and camera control from the recorder

The first one: Sony FX5 support, including RAW handling and Camera Control. In practice the recorder captures the RAW stream coming out of the FX5 and lets you drive the camera from the monitor without touching the body. Anyone who followed the FX5 launch in July knows it already writes X-OCN internally; having the external route on the Ninja as well means you can pick the codec to suit the edit rather than to suit whatever the camera has on board.

The second one is about Fujifilm. Release 12.7.3 introduced the FLog2-C Eterna gamma with an EL Zone false colour table calibrated specifically for the GFX ETERNA 55, plus FLog2-C and F-Gamut C as loop-out options for Fujifilm RAW. Version 12.7.4 follows immediately and fixes a regression in the handling of SDI RAW from that same ETERNA 55: if you have a Ninja TX or a 19-inch recorder hanging off that camera over SDI, this update is not optional.

The rest: improved log handling for HLG, F-Log, F-Log2 and F-Log2-C, S-Log3 Full Range profile support, H.265 8-bit 4:2:0 interlaced recording and a few Camera-to-Cloud fixes with interlaced material.

The sour note: the Ninja V stays put

Here comes the part that hits closest to home. The Ninja V is still on AtomOS 11.18.00: no Eterna EL Zone, no FX5, none of this cycle’s refinements. Atomos has moved development onto the TX generation and the old five-inch units are in maintenance mode.

In our view that is not a disaster, but it needs saying out loud before the van gets loaded. The Ninja V still does exactly the job you rent it for: a 1000-nit 5″ monitor you can read in full sun, ProRes and DNx onto SSD, monitoring LUTs, waveform and the classic false colour tools. On a Sony FX6 or a Canon EOS C70, where external RAW and ProRes-to-disk are the whole reason you put it on top of the camera, the Ninja V is still the right answer. If your workflow revolves around ETERNA 55 or FX5 RAW, it is not the right tool, and we would rather tell you now than let you find out on set.

What we do in the warehouse

From a rental house point of view this is the boring but decisive part. A recorder that shows up on the wrong firmware can cost you half a shooting day, and on a mountain location there is no convenient Wi-Fi to pull down a 400 MB update.

  • Firmware checked before delivery: every recorder leaves the warehouse on the latest compatible version, with the camera you are pairing it with noted on the form.
  • Tell us which camera you will use: RAW compatibility varies body by body. Knowing in advance whether it is a Fujifilm, a Sony or a Canon stops us handing you the wrong combination.
  • SSDs formatted and tested: RAW fills drives fast, and an uncertified disk is the dumbest way to lose a take.

If you are shooting RAW on recent bodies and monitoring matters more than recording, it is worth considering the recorder plus wireless combination with a Teradek Bolt 6 750: the director sees the same image you are exposing, and arguments on set end sooner. Everything else is in our kit catalogue.

Official source: Atomos Product Support. Independent verification: CineD.