Mitch Gross
Veteran
There are two reasons the Odyssey7Q does not record compressed RAW.
One is horsepower. Sony FS RAW actually requires a great deal of processor power to handle. To be able to ingest FS RAW, decode it and then recompress it would take so much number crunching that we would need to nearly double the power of the Odyssey, or we would need to remove much of the monitoring and image analysis functionality. Because all computing work in the Odyssey7Q must be done in real time we need to utilize advanced processors running intensive firmware compared to what is done in the average home computer.
The second is signal purity. FS RAW is already a compressed format. We need to decompress it to utilize it. To then recompress the files would likely be detrimental to the data.
Simplified example:
Data points 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Let's say compression gives you 1, -, 3, -, 5. It's pretty easy for the computer to figure out what to do to decompress this data and turn it back into 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and the results will be lossless. But now let's imagine the data as 1.1, 2.1, 3.2, 4.1, 5.2 and it is compressed to 1.1, -, 3.2, -, 5.2. Decompression might give you 1.1, 2.2, 3.2, 4.2, 5.2. That's close, but not perfect. You likely will never know the difference, so okay, this is acceptable compression. But now you decide to recompress the data (which is what you're asking if we could do). So we compress this new data again UNDER A DIFFERENT COMPRESSION FORMAT, and we get -, 2.2, -, 4.2, 5.2. When that's decompressed it might be 1.2, 2.2, 3.1, 4.2, 5.2. In this incredibly simplified example, what we have done by compressing/decompressing then recompressing/decompressing is to have altered 4 out of five data points. This can lead to artifacting in the image. This interaction of the repeated compression stages and the resulting degradation of the data is known as CONCATENATION.
Concatenation can be highly destructive and we don't want to risk your images. Sony's solution is to build a dedicated device that does nothing but turns FS RAW into the same Sony RAW format the F5/F55 uses while introducing as little alteration to the signal as possible. That is why it is so big, heavy, power-hungry and expensive. That's also why it does nothing but that one transformation, and does not offer ProRes recording or even allows anything but the most basic HD downconverter monitor output, which is really just for reference only.
So that is the rather long answer to the question of will the Odyssey7Q ever record compressed RAW from the FS7 or FS700. The short answer is "no."
