The Affordable Alternative to High HD Bit-Rate Recording

I was on the brink of dropping $3K on a NanoFlash, yet the nagging cheapskate in me was convinced the market was due for a cheaper alternative. I'm glad I listened because today, my favorite salesperson at Vistek tipped me off about the Atomos Ninja.

For 1/3 of the price of the NanoFlash the Ninja can record up to 7.5 hours of ProResHQ using the uncompressed HDMI output from your camera. Storage?  Hot swappable HDDs or SSDs that you supply. Brilliant (and cheap). Battery power? Hot swappables that last up to 18 hours. Epic. With an eye-appealing design that feeds off the SmallHD, the Ninja plans on pulling a Sho Kosugi on Convergent Designs. Oh, did I mention that it also acts as a monitor?

I've got both an EX1R and a 7D that will utilize the HDMI output and even though I want HD-SDI as an I/O option, I'll take what I can get.  In fact, I'm putting in my order tomorrow.