Nab2016 BlackMagic Design introduces the new Video Assist 4K Video / Audio Recorder + 7" HD Display. Not only cheaper than some of the Atomos 4K recording products, but you can also record 4K video via SDI (as where Atomos is only HDMI).
1920 x 1080 Touchscreen LCD
Records UHD 4K/HD Up to 30 fps
10-Bit, 4:2:2 ProRes or DNxHD
HDMI and 6G-SDI Video Inputs
Dual SD Media Card Slots Supports UHS-II
Two Mini XLR Inputs with Phantom Power
On-Screen Histogram and Audio Levels
Focus Peaking & Zebra
Dual LP-E6 Hot-Swappable Battery Slots
AC Adapter Included
It's not often Blackmagic Design introduces a new product at an NABShow and has it available shortly afterwards, but the new Video Assist 4K Video Recorder Monitor is available right now (via B&H).
BlackMagic Design Video Assist 4K Video Monitor Recorder
Alan Halfhill
Got mine. Seems to work great but a strange problem. All my files are at the same Date: April 28 11:08 AM I have set the date and time on the BlackMagic Video Assist 4k.
J Hanna
For the price and what it CAN do. This is amazing. Now I need to decide between 5 inch and 7.
I'm pretty impressed.
I didn't know mini-xlr was a thing...
Emm, when will you have one to play around with? I'd love to see a review before I pull the trigger.
I use a panasonic g7. I am waiting for the gh5, which seems to never want to come out, to actually upgrade.
Joe
Blackmagic releases stuff first and upgrades them later. This may be good in a while.
Sam Proctor
@chris k Atomos do support 4096x2160 on at least one of there products the shogun I use it most work days. Admittedly its at 25fps i have never tried 24fps and also not a gh4.
Chris K.
No C4K (4096x2160x24p)? Agh. And Atomos still doesn't support C4K in any of their products. What's a GH4 shooter who wants to show on the big screen at film festivals to do?
Then again, given you can't buy a C4K screen for home viewing (beyond computer displays or painfully-expensive 8K TV's) I have to wonder if, at some point, cinemas will just switch to UHD and be done with it.
Or they'll stick with Betamax while everyone has VHS at home. 😀
Stephen Hildreth
I also had issues with the screen randomly blacking out on the unit I got. And it seemed sorta bulky to me. I did like the LP-E6 option though. That seemed neat.
Form factor on the PIX seems better. Plus I've used it before. It's just way more solid.
Stephen Hildreth
I sent mine back. The SD Card thing is kinda silly. I'm gonna save up my dollars and get either a pix-e5 or just upgrade to the a7s II from the original a7s.
Also, to the guy editing directly from Recording SSDs... why?
Artem Kornikov
@Tony - Is 4K recording stricted to UHS-II cards? I know that many UHS-I cards can maintain at least 4K Prores Proxy bitrate.
krys
cmon all i need is false color and ill take it !!!!!!!!!!!!
Cheesycam
Post author@Tony - Obviously, this is not the best monitor in the world, but I agree that it's a great entry level 4K recorder which I know many people want. BM has been pretty good at firmware updates for all of their products, so hopefully in time they will have some added features and unlike some companies these firmware updates are typically Free.
I think there's still a huge market of people who want to record 4K and an 8-bit screen is not so bad when those cameras can only ouput 8bit (Sony A7s, etc). And for the smaller camera shooters most likely this content is going to end up being viewed on 8bit computer displays from YouTube, Facebook, Vimeo on iPhones, iPads, etc.
It's great to have a 10bit display with all the fancy features, but at that level i'm guessing serious production guys may already have a nice large director's monitor on the side, and not a small one mounted on the camera. For the price, it's a great entry for 4K Recording.
Tony
Received mine today. Despite Marcus being a complete Mr Moaningson, I'm actually really liking it so far. I had the new Aputure Vs-2 FineHD and did not like it at all. But this, it has a premium feel, lovely touch screen, plenty bright enough for a quick test in a sunlit conservatory. For the price you can't have everything. Scopes would be nice. Maybe a lenshood. Maybe a HDMI cable too. I can't comment whether the display is 8 bit but it certainly RECORDS 10-bit which is way more important. And it's sharp.
With regards to SD cards, I tried it with some UHS I and II cards (both U3 versions with a 64GB and 128GB card) and they recorded fine without dropped frames using all varieties of Prores in 4k. Now this was a limited test using non-approved cards so longer recording may have issues but so far, so good.
Seriously what it offers is great value.
Marcus
Seriously?
A blackmagic Product with an 8bit display that can't be calibrated?
Who cares about color at Blackmagic?
No LUT support!
Not for display, not for HDMI out, not for SDI out.
No HDR. How many Nit of Brightness does that display have?
Histogram and Audio Levels, Focus Peaking & Zebra?
Oh, that's cute. Where are the Scopes gone?
How many cameras does it support for RAW recording via that SDI port?
How often have you seen a Mini XLR on a microphone or deck? Have you ever?
The only 2 certified SD-cards in the manual are 64GB...that's 7.5 minutes.
The Atomos runs fine with 2 TB SSDs. And I don't need to copy media at all.
Plug that into the laptop and start editing at Thunderbolt II speeds.