AJA Ki Pro Mini review by Nigel Cooper

DVuser by Nigal Cooper

The Ki Pro Mini is made by AJA and is a compact professional digital recorder designed to be attached to any camcorder that has either a professional HD/SD-SDI out or a HDMI output. With the Ki Pro Mini it is possible to improve the image quality by recording to a superior codec (Apple ProRes) with higher bitrates over the default codec and bitrate of the camcorder. The Ki Pro Mini gives you a file-based solid-state workflow via the two CF card slots. The Ki Pro Mini is basically a miniature version of the larger Ki Pro, with some key differences including a 10-bit broadcast quality hardware up/down/cross converter, and the larger size allows larger drives and RS-22 enables deck-like features with FCP and more. Of course the Ki Pro Mini is considerably cheaper too.

For the record, I used a Panasonic AF101 camcorder for this review and for the tests involved.

WHAT IS THE KI PRO MINI?
The AJA Ki Pro Mini is a compact digital recorder that has been designed to mount easily onto your camcorder, either via a cold shoe, the rear end of the matte box rails, or onto your tripod. The Ki Pro Mini can of course be mounted to a wide range of items beyond the three I’ve mentioned here via the Mini Mounting Plate – you can download a detailed guide from www.aja.com. The Ki Pro Mini allows you to improve the image quality of your camcorder. As long as your camcorder has a HD/SDI output or a HDMI output to allow it to be connected to the Ki Pro Mini then you can take advantage of what it has to offer. Most modern camcorders (especially those costing between £4,000 and £20,000) use 4:2:0 colour space with bitrates of either 24Mbps or 35Mbps. The more expensive end of the scale sometimes use 4:2:2 colour space (which is superior to 4:2:0) and possibly 50Mbps; this varies between manufacturers.

he Ki Pro Mini is ideally suited to HD camcorders such as Sony’s EX1, EX3, PMW-350, F3, Canon’s XL and XF series and Panasonic’s AF101, JVC’s GY-HM750 and other similar size/price camcorders that have a HD/SDI output or HDMI output. read more...