Sony A7s

Last April, Vocalno Calbuco in Southern Chile erupted and timelapse photographer Martin Heck from Timestorm Films was lucky enough to be within the vicinity with his gear and capture some breathtaking 8K timelapse and 4K video footage on a Pentax 645Z and Sony A7s with the Atomos Shogun.

The Gratical HD EVF is a complete electronic viewfinder that incorporates the very latest in OLED and processing technology. Unlike with an optical viewfinder or standard electronic viewfinder, with Zacuto and the Gratical HD EVF, you can trust you’re seeing a realistic visualization of your final image without having to look away from the eyepiece.

XAVC is a recording format introduced by Sony which can support 4K resolution at 60 frames per second. Colour sampling can be 4:2:0, 4:2:2 or 4:4:4 at 8-bits, 10-bits, or 12-bits. XAVC uses an MXF wrapper whereas the consumer version XAVC-S is an MPEG4 wrapper. XAVC allows for both intra frame and inter frame (long group of pictures) recording. If you are the sort of person who is turned on by phrases like MPEG4 wrapping, Sequence Parameter Set and flexible data payload you can download the technical white paper here.

The Atomos Shogun is the perfect companion to the Panasonic GH4, which already shoots 4K internally on SDXC cards, however for those wanting to upgrade their footage to a 10bit 422 chroma sampling – the Atomos Shogun will provide such recording capabilities via HDMI. The Sony A7s with its full frame super-sensitive sensor can currently record 1080p internally, however the Shogun can unlock the true potential of this phenomenal camera giving it the 4K (UHD) treatment.

The Atomos Shogun was one of the hottest announcements at this year's NAB Show in Las Vegas back in April. Carrying the DNA of their highly successful monitor recorders – the NINJA and SAMURAI Blade, the Shogun is the world's first 4K HDMI Monitor Recorder.