Convergent Designs 7Q+ Price bump $2195?

Ed Farnsworth

Ed Farnsworth

Active member
Just guessing, hope for the best for this product but wondering if this pre-NAB 2019 bump in price is due to a new, unknown feature that will make the Odyssey more competitive or if CD is simply jacking up the value of existing inventory before a company sale or bankruptcy filing.
 
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Ed Farnsworth said:
Just guessing, hope for the best for this product but wondering if this pre-NAB 2019 bump in price is due to a new, unknown feature that will make the Odyssey more competitive or if CD is simply jacking up the value of existing inventory before a company sale or bankruptcy filing.
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I emailed the guys at CD a few months back and they said they were testing other raw codecs including Prores raw and Blackmagic raw. Fingers crossed they implement these at NAB. Well overdue update and new options that would keep the monitor current....
 
Ed Farnsworth said:
Just guessing, hope for the best for this product but wondering if this pre-NAB 2019 bump in price is due to a new, unknown feature that will make the Odyssey more competitive or if CD is simply jacking up the value of existing inventory before a company sale or bankruptcy filing.
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They have stated their reasons for the price increase is due to increased component costs. They also state that they are working on new products. Last year they announced a portable video switcher/recorder in prototype form but they may have moved on to another kind of product to launch. Not sure if they will have a presence at NAB 2019 or not.

They are good folk and have been honest with their customer base and to the public since they have been around. Use my nanoFlashes and my Odyssey on almost all my shoots.

I hope Dan Keaton from Convergent Design will be able to come around and clarify things.
 
The 7Q has been a workhorse; we've got over 1k hours on one, and another 500 on another. I've got to hand it to Convergent Design constantly updating them.

It is still a bulky machine, but the connectivity is still second to none. The biggest thing lacking for me is a 1080p screen. Brightness isn't great either (outside), but I understand that is an OLED trade off.

Hope to hear some news for NAB. SmallHD has been releasing a lot of products at exorbitant prices, and Atomos is trying hard to compete. I'd love to pickup a new Odyssey design though.
 
thirdyearff said:
What have I been missing? I can't even remember the last update...especially a feature update.
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I found the DNXHD update in June of 2016 pretty useful. And then they gave us free Titan upgrade last year, wasn't it? What freaks me out more than Mitch Gross ditching CD for Panasonic (who knows what that meant) is no response at all on what they might have been planning since then. As Andrew Stone said, a word from Dan Keaton would be welcome.
 
thirdyearff said:
What have I been missing? I can't even remember the last update...especially a feature update.
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Last almost exactly 1 year ago? I mean...it's not THAT long ago.

I don't know about all you guys...but I bought my 7Q five loooong years ago. Since then, they've released the 7Q+ (with a decent upgrade solution for 7Q owners). Added a slew of new features such as DNxHD, new RAW codec support, Titan and Apollo (paid, yet still very useful, not to mention RENTable), 8 channel audio, support for 3rd party SSD drives, upgrading everyone with single RAW license to the full bundle, and a ton of little features and enhancements to the unit.

I have 7 firmware updates in my backup folder and 4 of them contained good upgrades...for free. My Odyssey 7Q has had more substantial updates and firmware fixes than any other piece of major gear I use, from any manufacturer. Can any of you name another one that updates with new functionality and features beyond 5 years?

Not saying I wouldn't want some new toys in my 7Q, but I'm quite content with the level of upkeep CD has provided for this tool. Your mileage may vary.
 
I've had my 7q for probably 4 years and when I first got it, it seemed there was some kind of update, bug fixes, features etc every three or four months...or so it seemed, and that went on for quite a while. It seems to me that CD put a lot of their eggs in the FS700 basket and once the Fs7 came out and the FS700 slowly started to take a back seat...it started to get quiet. Then Mitch leaves and it got quieter, then FS700 gets mothballed and from that point on its been pretty much crickets. I'm just wondering how much of their market they lost when the 700 slowly faded. A 7q paired with an fs7 (which I also have) or an fs5 isn't a game changer...but an upgraded FS700 paired w a 7q was. But having said all that...I really do like the 7q, I still use it...just a tad concerned about its future.
 
thirdyearff said:
I've had my 7q for probably 4 years and when I first got it, it seemed there was some kind of update, bug fixes, features etc every three or four months...or so it seemed, and that went on for quite a while. It seems to me that CD put a lot of their eggs in the FS700 basket and once the Fs7 came out and the FS700 slowly started to take a back seat...it started to get quiet. Then Mitch leaves and it got quieter, then FS700 gets mothballed and from that point on its been pretty much crickets. I'm just wondering how much of their market they lost when the 700 slowly faded. A 7q paired with an fs7 (which I also have) or an fs5 isn't a game changer...but an upgraded FS700 paired w a 7q was. But having said all that...I really do like the 7q, I still use it...just a tad concerned about its future.
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An unfortunately concise analysis, Thirdyearff. On every point. Thanks, I guess.
 
thirdyearff said:
I've had my 7q for probably 4 years and when I first got it, it seemed there was some kind of update, bug fixes, features etc every three or four months...or so it seemed, and that went on for quite a while. It seems to me that CD put a lot of their eggs in the FS700 basket and once the Fs7 came out and the FS700 slowly started to take a back seat...it started to get quiet. Then Mitch leaves and it got quieter, then FS700 gets mothballed and from that point on its been pretty much crickets. I'm just wondering how much of their market they lost when the 700 slowly faded. A 7q paired with an fs7 (which I also have) or an fs5 isn't a game changer...but an upgraded FS700 paired w a 7q was. But having said all that...I really do like the 7q, I still use it...just a tad concerned about its future.
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Yes, it is an entirely different world now. Atomos is too far ahead with interesting recorders like Ninja V etc

Basically Convergent Design is starting to look like a one trick pony now for most people: the FS700

Which is now a camera fading from memory!

(yes there are a few others too it is great with like the C500 and F35, but they're only even rarer!)
 
...just fyi for those interested, and you probably should be if you own a 7q/7q+. I'm leaning towards purchasing the new Sony FX9 so i reached out to CD to see if there are any plans for the 7q to support the RAW output of the Fx9 as well as asking the status of the company. I got two replies...

Thank you for contacting Convergent Design, Robert.

Convergent Design is still in business; we have slowed down on developing the Odyssey/Apollo recorders as we are moving to different technologies.


I apologize, Robert, I did not answer your other question -

Support for the 16 Bit RAW from Sony FX9 - You are correct in thinking we will not be supporting this camera at this time.

So much like the camera it leaned on...sounds to me like the 7q is EOL at least as far as any meaningful future development...bummer.
 
thirdyearff said:
... we have slowed down on developing the Odyssey/Apollo recorders
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For "slowed down" read, "stopped." Much as we suspected. Thanks for the final confirmation Thirdyearff. Guess I'll just continue to use my 7Q+ as a monitor for the F65. A sad end for a good product/company.
 
For what it's worth CD products are more reliable and robust than many other recorders. Odyssey 7Q+ has dual SSD slots, yet another great feature that many others don't have.
And also aside from Codex recorders probably the only option to record RAW from an Arri Alexa. I guess different people have different requirements.

That being said I'm selling mine, shameless plug. I'm not using my F23 anymore and need to make space for other gear ;)

IronFilm said:
Yes, it is an entirely different world now. Atomos is too far ahead with interesting recorders like Ninja V etc

Basically Convergent Design is starting to look like a one trick pony now for most people: the FS700

Which is now a camera fading from memory!

(yes there are a few others too it is great with like the C500 and F35, but they're only even rarer!)
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Wow, sad to hear it confirmed! I emailed them early this year and they said their engineers were "looking into" Prores RAW... But it's now clear that isn't happening.
 
kaidumo said:
Wow, sad to hear it confirmed! I emailed them early this year and they said their engineers were "looking into" Prores RAW... But it's now clear that isn't happening.
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I continue to use mine heavily w/ the 700, for very important projects too. Another use I have for it is I upgraded the software to include titan and I use that too for tv-style on location shoots with gh4's -- ive considered doing that for arri's on my doc shoot, but just didn't have enough time to test it with those rentals before recording.

I'm one who tinks the 700 + 7q is superior to the fs7.

I haven't seen the fs7's successor yet though. The combo is just a straight up workhorse!
 
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