FS7: Anyone else experience camera freeze?

mainstreetprod

mainstreetprod

Veteran
A few weeks ago my FS7 froze in record mode (red light flashing) and would not turn off. Only removing and replacing the battery would get it working again (after a "restore media" message). Same thing happened a couple of weeks later. Has anyone experienced this before and if so, did you find it to be a software or hardware based issue?

I updated to firmware 4.0 today and will see if anything changes.
 
With FW2 I used to crash the camera while booting by spinning the ND filter selector.

No issues to report from FW3 onwards.
 
I think it has happened to me twice since I've owned the camera... the first time only about a month or two after I got the camera in Nov of 14...but not recently... so would guess both times on v1 or v2 firmware but agree with Nirv - likely not since FW3. Since it happened so rarely - was never sure what exactly caused it.
 
I shot an entire feature in 4K and this never happened. Lately I've been shooting MPEG HD422 (50mbs), so that could be a factor.
 
mainstreetprod said:
A few weeks ago my FS7 froze in record mode (red light flashing) and would not turn off. Only removing and replacing the battery would get it working again (after a "restore media" message)
Click to expand...

Did you lose footage?

On a side note: Last week a DIT in NYC asked if I ever got a 'Restore Medai" notice, which I think I did once awhile ago. Seems he was on a F55 shoot, & the DP decided to skip this step, & simply pulled the card, so it's been a nightmare trying to fix the footage. He's been on a DIT forum looking for solutions, but so far no luck.
 
I get this issue on occasion. it's hard to pinpoint the exact cause but I don't believe its ever frozen during a shot. Maybe right after a card fills up or trying to power down right after I stop recording.

If it freezes, just take the battery out and then start it up again. The card will ask you to execute a restore which you should do. Even if you take the card out, record to another card, and put the card back in at a later point, the camera should still ask you to restore media. This has been my experience at least.
 
I've had a crash maybe 2 or 3 times in almost 2 years with the camera, so it's rare. I had to pull the battery to reboot.

ive also had the Restore Media several times. I cannot remember what triggered it since its been a while, but I seem to remember I did something different than I usually do. Fortunately, it was at the start of the day so I just formatted the card and it was fine.
 
I had a problem with restore media once when a card was pulled too soon. Catalyst browse wouldn't recognize it. However we did a drag and drop and Premiere saw it fine.

I also found that if I put that card back in the camera and shot another 2 second shot with it , the previous shot showed up again in Catalyst.

Other times I've had restore media messages and whatever the problem was was fixed immediately.
 
I had freezes prior to v.3 firmware. The camera would freeze if I changed the output format without first changing the recording format. Now it doesn't freeze when I do that.
 
My problem doesn't seem to be related to changing formats, etc. Most of my work is business profiles and the camera settings never change. I was surprised when the footage was gone after the "restore media"- generally it has still been there after restoring. Only lost a clip or two and knew it, so reshot while I was still on the job. This isn't b big deal on a Yelp shoot, but if I get in the middle of a feature and this happens I'm in trouble. I've posted this question to Sony on the FS7 forum there and the response is crickets. All I want to know is whether this has proven to be software or hardware, and I'm sure they know by now.
 
For me, a freeze during recording would spell disaster. I record concerts, and the loss of a camera angle would damage the presentation.

Luckily, now on version 4.x firmware, and haven't had a lick of trouble with either of my FS7s.
 
Bern Caughey said:
Did you lose footage?

On a side note: Last week a DIT in NYC asked if I ever got a 'Restore Medai" notice, which I think I did once awhile ago. Seems he was on a F55 shoot, & the DP decided to skip this step, & simply pulled the card, so it's been a nightmare trying to fix the footage. He's been on a DIT forum looking for solutions, but so far no luck.
Click to expand...

Yes I think Sony need to put the word out about restore media function a bit more.. Im sure this DP just pulled the card because he/she thought it would reformat the whole card.. rather than just "end" the last clip properly.. and then unless you can put that card back into the same camera,and do the restore. your screwed in post.. unless you send the card into Sony..
 
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