FS7: Any XDCA / RAW improvement with 7Q FW 2016.04 and FS7 4.0?

Im very curious about this.

Just placed an order for O7Q+ for my a7S gimbal needs. So theres very little cost remaining for me to get the FS7 raw now. But is it worth the hassle?

My needs are more than 14 stops DR really. Fewer is not solving my need.
 
Your best option might be just to spend the $100 and rent the RAW for a shoot -- real or test. You could then make a more objective determination of whether it is worth it for you. My opinion would be to buy the RAW unlock because it makes the Odyssey more versatile. But it's your money I'm spending.

Ned Soltz
 
renting is be a good idea but unfortunately I am in a kind of diaspora and the next rental station is about >one hour away. I will try to find who ships it. I still own the 7Q with full RAW license.
 
Please note that one can test any of the RAW recording functions on an Odyssey7Q+ without owning or renting the RAW Bundle. The RAW Bundle, and for that matter the Apollo Option, are available on the Odyssey7Q+ in demo mode. You can do everything in demo mode, but the recordings will have a big bar across the lower part of the frame.
 
got the XDCA this evening and found out that it does not record 4K external and 4K internal simultaneously. Internal it's just HD :-( I cannot set up a studio tomorrow that means I wont have an exact comparison of the same recording.
 
short summary of today's test: it works in RAW, it works in RAW2ProRes. I did not see any issues or any hick-ups.
My concern why I ran the test was: did I loose quality when I went from FS700/7Q RAW to internal 10bit. Short answer: no.
At least the XDCA RAW is no improvement to the internal recording. In my unscientific test I did not see any benefit of RAW
to XAVC-I. I had the impression DR could even be better at XAVC-I CineEI.

What I found out also: I love the combination of high quality data and small footprint of the set-up. I love it and I got used to it in one year working with the FS7. I don't want to go back to the 7Q on top of my camera.
The FS7 +XCDA +V95 + 7Q +SWIT NP +Contax 28-85 +Chosziel shoulder mount +mic +standard VF weigh almost 9kgs /19.8lbs With a mattebox and follow focus it will be 10kgs/22lbs
 
You can also say that there is no quality different between internal codec (XAVC) vs PRORES to the naked eyes.
 
Thanks Clermond. I will take the XDCA off my mind then.

Im looking forward to testing the O7Q+ with a7S on Ronin-M. On such a small camera, the image improvements from a 4K recorder is worth it i think. And i needed a monitor anyway, so 7Q+ was the best choice.
 
I think the biggest benefit to ProRes is it's much easier to work with those files over XAVC-I. ie less taxing on resources while editing, so it enables you to add more color correction, resizing, etc to your clips. Even on my 8-core Mac Pro, the XAVC-I can be taxing in Premiere once you start adding effects.
 
David Kudell said:
I think the biggest benefit to ProRes is it's much easier to work with those files over XAVC-I. ie less taxing on resources while editing, so it enables you to add more color correction, resizing, etc to your clips. Even on my 8-core Mac Pro, the XAVC-I can be taxing in Premiere once you start adding effects.
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I hear people say that all the time but it doesn't match my experience at all. I have no trouble working with 4K or HD XAVC-I clips in Premiere on a MacBook Pro. I wonder if the trouble is really the drives people are using and not the computer itself. I have the XDCA back and an Odyssey but I only shoot XAVC-I internally.
 
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David Kudell said:
I think the biggest benefit to ProRes is it's much easier to work with those files over XAVC-I. ie less taxing on resources while editing, so it enables you to add more color correction, resizing, etc to your clips. Even on my 8-core Mac Pro, the XAVC-I can be taxing in Premiere once you start adding effects.
Click to expand...


In FCPX on my maxed-out iMac 27" there is no difference at all. No experience with Premiere.

Having an even image quality I would rather work with proxies than adding so much stuff on my rig.
I always go from sticks to Ronin and back and it has to go fast. Your mileage may vary though.
 
I'm using SSD drives for everything and XAVC still gives me hesitation, droped frames, etc. And my system maxes out at two camera streams with this CODEC.

On the other hand, my Prores HQ footage seems like I can edit endless numbers of streams, even 5 streams with PiP and drop shadows and color correction on every clip, and I'm at 40% CPU on a dual Xeon.

I have noticed significant differences in Prores vs XAVC. XAVC tends to show macroblocks on texture rich surfaces, while Prores suffers from false colors/banding. Shots of the moon through a 600mm lens showed distinct splotches of colors in Prores. Almost no false colors in XAVC, but bad loss of lunar surface detail due to macroblock artifacts.

So it's a toss up as to which is better.. they both have serious shortcomings.
 
It's not a toss up to me. They both run equally well on a simple MacBook Pro, so XAVC-I wins because of the smaller file sizes.
My advice: Get a Mac. Seriously, I'd get out of the business entirely if I had to work on Windows.
 
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ProRes can be an issue as while it may be easier on your CPU the larger files sizes can give your media a good working over so it may not be a silver bullet. Apple have done an amazing job with optimising the AV Foundation codec performance so you get balls to the wall performance even on a 3 year old Macbook Pro so there's no downside to using XAVC especially in FCPX. Premiere is in another league of performance and not in a good way.

I sometimes do consultancy work for companies setting up their own video departments and will always recommend either MBPs or iMacs and FCPX/Motion because otherwise I'll just end up providing PC or Adobe tech support for years. After a period of training the companies who adopt iMacs/FCPX just get on and you rarely hear a problem from them. It's a different matter for those companies who had their IT department but in and make them go PC/Adobe, over to you IT dept...
 
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