A cut above the rest

Richard Ross never expected to end up behind a camera. For years he worked as a full‑time arborist in Denmark, climbing trees, pruning them, and carefully felling them. “I bought a GoPro Hero 10 to film, edit, and post some of my jobs on YouTube for other treeworkers,” he says. “I had no idea that a small action camera would lead me to a completely new world.”

Four years later, Richard’s audience looks very different. He still makes YouTube videos, but now they’re creative pieces where he experiments with new techniques and reaches a wider range of viewers. Richard also runs a small one‑man production company, bringing in freelancers to help produce commercials and documentaries. “I am still learning,” he says. “I have only just opened the door in this creative world of film. Every project teaches me something new, and I love that.”

His go-to equipment includes the Sony FS7 camera and his Atomos Ninja monitor-recorder. “My on-set workflow varies from job to job. But two things never change – my trusted FS7 and Ninja,” he explains. For more detailed shoots, he records external audio through a Zoom H6essential to capture clean, 32‑bit float sound. For run‑and‑gun documentaries, he sends audio straight through the camera into the Ninja. His main audio kit includes a Sennheiser MKE600 mic and a Boya BY‑WM8 Pro‑K2 microphone system.

When Richard first started looking for a monitor, he knew he needed something professional and durable. “Coming from a world where gear has to survive tough conditions, I’ve always cared about quality and practicality,” he says. “When I discovered Atomos and saw how solid their monitors are, I was convinced. Being able to record to an SSD, monitor in Log and Rec.709, and load a LUT – that blew me away. And it still does.”

The Ninja offers multiple recording formats and built-in monitoring tools that suit the way he works on the move. “Being able to choose my codec – from ProRes RAW to H.265 – and record straight to the monitor gives me real freedom,” he says. The bright 5‑inch display gives him a clear view for pulling focus with manual cine lenses, checking exposure, and keeping an eye on audio.

“Being able to choose my codec and record straight to the Ninja gives me real freedom.”