FS7: Internal ProRes Banding using XDCA

Liam Hall

Liam Hall

Veteran
Not impressed with the internal ProRes recording using the XDCA. Clear banding is visible in skies. All it does is suck power and add weight. If it wasn't for needing the RAW output to my Odyssey 7Q+, I'd bin this piece of junk. Anyone else having issues with it?
 
Haven't used it for ProRes yet. But as for the XDCA cost/features... Honestly, I'm in the same boat. V-mount is nice but there are cheaper, smaller options out there. It's nice that it adds timecode in/out + RAW... but really it's just super bulky and expensive for that purpose. I'm actually prepping for a travel gig in Jamaica with another FS7 shooter and we want to shoot ProRes and up to 240fps on the Odyssey7Q, but we keep falling back on how much bigger and clunkier the whole rig gets just to get RAW out... I would have happily paid $10k for the FS7 just to get RAW out on the SDI 1. It's not so much the cost that bothers me as it is the added bulk. This thing is huge.
 
Long story...

Short synopsis; The experience only lasted a day and half as the Hawk Woods D-tap cable failed due to the heat/humidity, so I switched to internal recording and transcoding back at the hotel for the rest of the week. Ironically, this happened 10 minutes after I said to the producer we need back-up cables on the next part of the shoot!

I tried the internal ProRes, but this was unusable and shouldn't be offered in the menu. Lucky XAVC works...

What I did notice was the 4K from the Odyssey looks stella, but is out of sync; the UHD looks stella and is in sync, the 4K to HD looks stella too. Biggest issue for me is the HFR which is unusable. Another issue is how slow switching between modes is on the Odyssey. It takes four minutes to go from 4K to HD. That's almost a deal breaker for me.

Also, the XDCA has a noisy fan and sucks a lot of power. Apart from passing the RAW signal, it's only use was powering my Parallinx Arrow. Not great, but I knew that all along.

I only got back from Saudi last night, but have been testing this morning and I'm still not sure if the ugly purple noise I'm seeing in HFR is pilot error or not - I thought this had been fixed and was just about to post about the issue. It was a shame as I was feeling quite pleased with myself for getting it all up and running with a minimum of fuss! I've another seven weeks of that job to sort it out though so hopefully I'll get there...
 
I should add I'm ordering two Odyssey D-tap cables and a battery plate for the second part of the shoot. Just need to get to the bottom of this purple noise...
 
Liam are you able to post a screengrab of the purple? Would be very interested to see. I assume you've done all the APR and Black balance stuff with the camera up to temperature because I imagineyou're working with very different operating temps to normal at the moment?

Also, the XDCA fan isn't normally noisy but again I imagine you are using it under quite testing circumstances.
 
Yes, I've been shooting in extreme conditions, but the XDCA is noisy if it's out in the desert, in my hotel room, or in my office like in the shot below:

Noise 1.jpg
 
Interesting. I can't hear that still but I imagine it's possible there is some variance between batches of fans. I might have gotten lucky as it hasn't interfered with any shooting I have done with mine yet.
 
What about the purple noise in picture. Are you still getting that? I get it at 200fps in 25p and 240fps in 24p. At 100/120fps the image is clean.
 
Liam Hall said:
What about the purple noise in picture. Are you still getting that? I get it at 200fps in 25p and 240fps in 24p. At 100/120fps the image is clean.
Click to expand...


I haven't done any 240fps since all the firmware updates on the 7Q so not sure I'm afraid. My first thought is it's a black balance and APR calibration issue when shooting in extreme temps. When I used to do that on my Red it would send it crazy if I didn't calibrate it properly.
 
Ben Scott said:
I haven't done any 240fps since all the firmware updates on the 7Q so not sure I'm afraid. My first thought is it's a black balance and APR calibration issue when shooting in extreme temps. When I used to do that on my Red it would send it crazy if I didn't calibrate it properly.
Click to expand...
I'll try that. I'll also give Mitch a shout!
 
Update.

I think I've sussed it out.

Having mended my broken cable I've shot a whole bunch of tests today, but the most revealing thing was examining the RAW files straight out of the XDCA. It seems I'm losing dynamic range going between 100 and 200 fps, so the same shot, exposed at the same levels on the waveform is looking very noisy at 200fps and perfect at 100. The noise is most evident in dim lit underexposed areas, shooting outside at normal levels produces a clean 200fps image.

Now, I just need to sort that noisy XDCA out and I'm golden...
 
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