Convergent Design officially discontinues Odyssey / Apollo recorders

K

kaidumo

Active member
Some of you may have received the official email, and judging by their Facebook posts it looks like they've pivoted to audio recorders?:

Dear Valued Dealers and Customer,

After careful consideration, Convergent Design has decided to discontinue the manufacture of its Odyssey 7Q+ and Apollo video recorders (Part numbers include: (CD-Odyssey7Q+, 100-10003-100 and CD-Apollo, 100-100025-100). The standard warranty terms will be honored for all units shipped to date and any units still in the dealer channels waiting to be sold.

All popular software options and software rentals will continue to be sold. Such options as Odyssey Raw Bundle, and the Apollo Option.

SSD sales of 512GB Samsung 860 Pro and 1TB Samsung Pro will continue to be sold.

The discontinuance of the product line is in keeping with our practice of rationalizing low demand products and replacing them with new products with improved design and functionality.

We appreciate and value your partnership. While we regret any inconvenience, this announcement may cause we believe it is in the best interest for everyone.

Please contact your Convergent Design sales representative for a complete list of supported and discontinued accessories or for any other questions.

Sincerely,

Convergent Design
 
Not really a happy customer to be honest. They promised an update that will remove the requirement of needing two SSD's to record 60FPS raw but never delivered. My odyssey 7q still has the interlacing glitch when shooting progressive that is very annoying. Opened a ticket and they didn't know how to fix it.
 
JSFILMZ said:
Not really a happy customer to be honest. They promised an update that will remove the requirement of needing two SSD's to record 60FPS raw but never delivered. My odyssey 7q still has the interlacing glitch when shooting progressive that is very annoying. Opened a ticket and they didn't know how to fix it.
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I thought you swapped the A and B cables with the Alexa and it fixed it?
 
Did they ever even fix the latest firmware issue of audio not playing on playback of 4K files in the Odyssey?
 
No - I asked them awhile ago - said they could not figure out the problem. I must say I was a big supporter of them - but to me they have failed in the support of their equipment I wish I had gone with Atomos offering for FS700.
.
 
Same. At work we have the Shogun Inferno, and once it got the Prores RAW function I started questioning my personal Odyssey 7Q+'s future-proofing.
 
Well...shouldn't come as a surprise, the writing has been on the wall for a number of years now. Hope mine keeps chugging along!
 
thirdyearff said:
Well...shouldn't come as a surprise, the writing has been on the wall for a number of years now. Hope mine keeps chugging along!
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This I where I find issue. They pretty much stopped updating a couple of years ago I believe, and have been very vague about future updates and adding features. It did feel like they discontinued the product a while ago without saying. If I knew at the time I would have spent my money on Atomos. Don't think I would be purchasing anything from them in the future.
 
They continued to manufacture and sell the product until recently. There was never any promise to add updates. If you wanted to buy what they had for sale you could do so. This announcement is to inform that they no longer make and sell the product, but they will continue to provide service.

The Convergent Design Odyssey recorders may have received more free updates than just about any other product on the market. At a certain point it had to come to an end.
 
I don't think there was anything misleading going on and yes they were still manufacturing and selling the 7q as is...however, i think from a business stand point the product had been EOL'd for a couple years as there seemed to be very little if any R&D (or updates for that matter) to move it forward. But it also didn't take a lot of research to figure that out so if you did buy one new in the past couple years...well.

Having said that...the F700/Odyssey combo image wise was a thing of beauty. I'm fortunate to also have an Fs7 and the new Fx9 and call me crazy but i would still put the 700/odyssey image up against those. I shot an interview last week with the Fx9 as the A and gambled and used the 700/odyssey as the B. Matching was easy, they cut together great and when its all said and done if i said i'd used two Fx9's i doubt many would know the difference.

I just hope they both continue to chug along as i can still see value in that combo.
 
Mitch Gross said:
They continued to manufacture and sell the product until recently. There was never any promise to add updates. If you wanted to buy what they had for sale you could do so. This announcement is to inform that they no longer make and sell the product, but they will continue to provide service.

The Convergent Design Odyssey recorders may have received more free updates than just about any other product on the market. At a certain point it had to come to an end.
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Yes - that makes sense. what does not make sense is providing an update on 7Q+ where in filming in 4K - you cannot hear the audio on playback. According to their tech support they were aware of it - is was not fixed which is awkward on the set while using FS700 without double system. Still Fs700 with Raw/7Q+ still looks great and put a very high quality lens on it and the image is beautiful. I was thinking of selling the FS700 when I get FX9 - but not so fast because of image quality FS700.

Just yesterday I was working with A7III - shot in 4K using the ATOMOS NINJA V and it was a pleasure playing back audio and pix for the client. Yes - it is not recording raw
but I would rather use the DNxHD(SQ)

However would I ever buy CD product again - not so fast. Great customer support on the phone and sales support - great product - but not following through on buggy update is not a good representation of a manufacturing company.
 
Agreed. I think Convergent Design in good faith should open up the SDK to allow enterprising users to fix the latest firmware themselves, and maybe even develop new functions ourselves.
 
Does anyone know where to get the CD-3D Lut Converter software as I can't find it anywhere and CD don't reply to their emails!! I can't load any LUTs onto my 7Q without it!
 
If you do not find it online anywhere and CD never gets back to you (give it a few days, a week if you haven't), inquire about their new microphone for sale and maybe someone will respond.
 
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