Problem recording with Atomos Ninja 2 and 5D Mk2

[jrt]

Hi folks

Having problems using the Atomos Ninja 2 on a Canon 5D Mk2 (with Magic Lantern of course).
I couldn't find a lot of info online, so hope my experience and any feedback will help others.
I rented the Atomos, so no longer have it, but tried various things. Bit of a newbie to video sorry - photographer adding video to skillset. Not completely clueless, but far from an expert...

I wanted to be able to record continuously for about an hour on the MkII. So hoped to use ML and Atomos to work around the 12 min and 30 min limits respectively.

Problem: basically the Atomos recorded successive clips of only 8-12 seconds, i.e. it stops and immediately starts recording again.
I thought this was some system whereby it records a series of clips/files, with each clip smoothly following on from the previous.

BUT IT DOESN'T. So playing all the clips continuously, there is a missed frame or two... which of course makes the video pretty much unusable.

I watched/read what few online videos and forum/FAQs that I could find about setting up the Mk2 with ML and Atomos Ninja and wonder if there was some fault with the Ninja?
Or some problem with the interface based on me setting up the camera in ML incorrectly?
The camera stayed on Live View the whole time and wasn't recording, so I'm guessing it's either a mismatch of frame rate or similar, or a fault with the Ninja..

I looked at these two videos, I'm not so interested in RAW video just yet.
http://youtu.be/PSM5m7hYtNQ
http://youtu.be/vNMQ__WKsiI (he had a Ninja 1st generation, I had a Ninja2)

My ML menu was not quite the same as on the first tutorial video, but I think I set the important things:
I turned off the grid, focus box set to 'autohide in ML, so this did not show when recording/playing back
Turned off 'force HDMI-VGA'
I turned off auto-power off settings in the normal Canon menu
In the ML menu I turned on 'sticky half-shutter' so the 5D wouldn't drop out of LiveView, this was successful.
I turned off the 'Global Draw' and other ML overlays.

The video said to set shutter speed in ML to 1/31.2, BUT my menu didn't say '1/31.2 344deg', just 1/31. So I set it to 1/48, I figured as I always shoot 1/50 shutter speed for video with 1920x1080 25fps.
Could this have caused the problem?!

ALSO, I couldn't quite understand what settings I should have had the Ninja Codec/frame rate:
According to the Atomos user manual, in the 'Pulldown' section (pg.23 of manual), if using 1080p25, you don't use 3:2 pulldown, just set it in the Atomos to match.
However, there was no '25' option on my rented Atomos, only, from memory, 1080p23.98, 1080p29.97 and 1080p59.94.
So I figured since I was on PAL and 25fps, I chose the 59.94, as nothing matched anyway.

I tried the other settings, including with my camera on 1920x1080 24fps, with 23.98 on Atomos, but same problem with only recording short clips one after the other.

I wondered if there was a fault with the HDMI cables that came with the Atomos (possibly substituted by the camera rental company, not sure if the original cables). There were two, tried both. They were about 1 metre long, I left them coiled and tied since the Atomos was mounted on my camera hotshoe.

The camera was locked off on a tripod, didn't touch it while recording.

Looking at any one of the clips in iMovie or Adobe Prelude, the clip looks fine (no obvious mismatch of frame rates, generally good quality), its just this stop/start and missing a couple of frames in between each clip...

Any ideas??!! Thanks for reading this far!

[reddeercity]

Hi, well that second video is mine with the Original Ninja. It should auto detect the signal, but I just did a quick check.
I set my camera to pal 25fps then connected to the ninja and the signal stayed at 60i , I thought it would put out a 50i
Signal but I guess not, so there is some miss match setting I would say. So if you want you use that setup it look like you need to be in
24p ntsc in camera. 

This is a quote from the Ninja2 Manuel pdf
"IMPORTANT: You need to match the format you are recording internally on the camera with the format recorded on the Ninja-2.
If you are recording 24p internally on the camera you need to record 24p on the Ninja-2 so the recordings match. To adjust the recording
format simply touch the format icon repeatedly and the Ninja-2 will cycle through the options available. The basic rule is match the format
of the internal recording on the camera (not the external output of the camera). For more explanation on choosing the correct format on
the Ninja-2 and the relationship to camera internal format and output format refer to Section 10 – Pulldown."
Online PDF manual 
http://www.atomos.com/downloads/ninja2/manual/Ninja2-User-Manual-V3-May-2013.pdf

Edit :  (Ninja 2) http://atomos.helponclick.com/kb/article/input-sources/g5
If you follow this you should have the recorder do the 3-2 pulldown automatically
and end up with 23.976p or 24p footage not 60i footage that needs to be reverse telecine .

[jrt]

Thanks man, and for putting out the original video, which was a help even though the Ninja didn't do what it said it would...

I read that part of the manual about the pulldown, next time I'll try the 24p NTSC again (I did, but perhaps need to do more thoroughly).
The Atomos manual also said it would give an option for the 25p when cycling through, but the machine didn't... :-/

Do you think that explains why it stops every few seconds and records another clip, repeatedly?

Thanks for your help!

[reddeercity]

Thanks man, and for putting out the original video, which was a help even though the Ninja didn't do what it said it would...
I read that part of the manual about the pulldown, next time I'll try the 24p NTSC again (I did, but perhaps need to do more thoroughly).
The Atomos manual also said it would give an option for the 25p when cycling through, but the machine didn't... :-/
Do you think that explains why it stops every few seconds and records another clip, repeatedly?
Thanks for your help!

Glad to help,
Not sure , but once in a while I get that also but mainly I get 4GB file at a time as the original ninja is on fat 32 so it limited to 4GB file max.
The ninja 2 is exfat  so it's not suppose to have that problem, try re-formatting in device.
Are you using a SSD or Spindle hard drive?(I use Kingston SSD 256GB & Seagate Momentus XT 750GB hybrid) make sure your hard drive is compatible as you will drop frames not all hard drives are compatible . http://www.atomos.com/discovery-what-drives/
the last firmware is "AtomOS 4.21" as of January 6, 2014 make sure it's up to date.
http://www.atomos.com/ninja-2-firmware/
  Ninja-2 4.21 release notes
  FID:041104210421
* Improved occasional split clips on long recordings using the C100 and N2 combination
* Improved lower cost SSD performance by partitioning sectors to 1MB boundary expanding the number of affordable SSD's supported

[jrt]

Glad to help,
Not sure , but once in a while I get that also but mainly I get 4GB file at a time as the original ninja is on fat 32 so it limited to 4GB file max.
The ninja 2 is exfat  so it's not suppose to have that problem, try re-formatting in device.
Are you using a SSD or Spindle hard drive?(I use Kingston SSD 256GB & Seagate Momentus XT 750GB hybrid) make sure your hard drive is compatible as you will drop frames not all hard drives are compatible . http://www.atomos.com/discovery-what-drives/
the last firmware is "AtomOS 4.21" as of January 6, 2014 make sure it's up to date.
http://www.atomos.com/ninja-2-firmware/
  Ninja-2 4.21 release notes
  FID:041104210421
* Improved occasional split clips on long recordings using the C100 and N2 combination
* Improved lower cost SSD performance by partitioning sectors to 1MB boundary expanding the number of affordable SSD's supported

Thanks, I'll have to try/check all that next time I rent the Atomos.
Cheers!