I am telling this experience because I could not find another thread anywhere with the same issue I was experiencing, but also to talk about what it was like communication and help wise from all 3 companies. I am not going to write every detail of every single issue I had and test I conducted as that would take up even more space and I don't have time to write that much! But, here is a good description of what happened to me for that person that gets their 7Q for their FS700 and it doesn't work.....sometimes, and sometimes all the time, and somtimes works perfect!
Got my 7Q over a month ago and began testing. I had plenty of editing I still needed done on a couple of projects before the next upcoming shoot I had scheduled which was set to use the FS700 7Q combo for the first time in a real production. I got everything set up and got the FS700 talking to the 7Q. I read the whole manual on the 7Q and had been following threads here on dvxuser actively for months on end while waiting to get the 7Q so I was familiar with what limitations of recording modes to expect and had not been released yet along with known bug issues scheduled to be fixed. At this time, April firmware 1.11 was the most current to be using on the 7Q. I filmed a few different things outside in my yard for testing, brought the footage back in and was stoked at the quality. I filmed some in 2k RAW to experience the DNG workflow and some in 4K2HD ProRes to see what it could handle in grading. All in all, was getting very excited.
The first day I took it out for a day of shooting in the woods I was 5min into using the unit when it started blinking in and out while recording. The whole unit was turning on and off and upon turning back on was trying to immediately record again. I was using camera trigger at the time and and had stopped recording from the FS700 but the 7Q would not stop trying to record. I removed the battery as I could not get the unit to stay stable long enough for me to shut it down properly. Put the battery back on and had a black screen. However some form of communication was still happening as I saw the 7Q saying NO INPUT and then all of a sudden saying a frame rate it was never set too and then saying NO INPUT AGAIN. After 20min of removing batteries and shutting down and turning back on both the FS700 and 7Q along with trying to switch to different record modes on both units to try and get them talking properly to each other again I was left with a black screen and a no input signal. Yes, I also tried disconnecting and reconnecting the HD-SDI cable which was the Odyssey name brand cable 75ohm rated. I retired the system for the day and tried my best not to let it ruin my day! LOL, pretty hard to not though.
For the next 2 days I tested the unit in my office on a tripod next to me while I was editing. I took battery power out of the equation by hooking both the FS and the 7Q to their wall mounted power supplies. Through tons of testing, I could not get very much consistency of this error occurring but the bottom line is that inevitably...it kept happening. Sometimes after 10min of use, sometimes after 2 hours of filming a corner in my office, it would kill recording and loose signal at which point every time I would reboot and try to record again it would loose signal after a few seconds. Also, often times when switching to different frame rates or resolutions, the 7Q would start blinking in and out. This most consistently happened though on higher frame rates in 2K. When I went to 240fps I would often see a blank screen (no visual monitor feed) on the 7Q and it listed 100fps for a while and then would say no input. In putting it to 2K 60fps it would do similar bouncing in and out of 50p and no signal. I am in FLORIDA so NTSC is what I am set for, the PAL frame rates really confused me. The reason all of this was so confusing is how randomly it would happen and with no camera movement happening at all? Why would it work for an hour and then start exhibiting this behavior? Why could I sometimes film 240fps and other times couldn't get more than a black screen?
EXPERIENCE WITH CONVERGENT DESIGN HELP
Submitted a support ticket to CD after the first day of error testing explaining situation. Got an email response 2 days later saying they had not seen or heard of this issue before. That was it, no tips to try or anything. I put a call into CD and talked directly with Dan Keaton. He was extremely nice and immediately diagnosed the problem as a faulty cable. They overnighted me a new one for FREE. That was very nice and helpful however, it did not fix the issue. At this point I am supposed to be filming the next night for a music video that took a lot of organizing to get together. After explaining the issue to the band we decided to push the shoot back 2 weeks when everyone would be available again in order to use the 7Q which they had paid extra for to use on production.
EXPERIENCE WITH BandH
I called BH and talked with their tech department on about the issues and with still qualifying for the 30 day return policy, they recommended I exchange the unit out for another one. They supplied free shipping label and within 2 days, I had a brand new 7Q. Super fast, super nice, BH was really on the ball here. I got the new 7Q set up and it was working great!!!! I was so excited! After 4 hours of recording the corner of my office in different frame rates, there were no issues!!!
BACK TO CONVERGENT DESIGN
I was however locked into demo mode all JULY 4th weekend and could not get a hold of the ONE person at CD who had the ability to transfer my FS700 RAW option over to the new 7Q. That was a bit frustrating! I wanted to go catch some fireworks and after tasting these robust files, I really didn't want to film in AVCHD. Over the course of the weekend, I went ahead and tested more....still in demo mode and just of the corner of my office. The error started to occur again!!! WHY, WHY???!!! LOL. But the issue only seemed to be occuring now on the HFR modes whereas before, it would happen more often on HFR modes, but still happened inevitably on any mode. I called and talked to Dan Keaton some more, he had me shoot some pics of the the SDI connections on both the FS and the 7Q. He diagnosed from the pics that the BNC connections look good so it shouldn't be the issue. So....I put the call into SONY that Monday.
MY EXPERIENCE WITH SONY SERVICES
I called the Sony Service Center in Teaneck NJ where I had sent my FS several months ago for the 4K upgrade in gearing up toward the 7Q purchase. I hit a hiccup budget wise and had to hold off on the 7Q until recently so I never got to test anything other than SLOG2 in AVCHD, which worked fine. I talked with Lou Flefleha in their repair department. He could not have been any nicer or a better listener to the full situation. The plan was to send the cam in along with the 7Q for testing. If they discovered it was problem on their end pertaining to the 4K upgrade, they would cover everything at no cost, if it was on the 7Q, we would go from there on the billing for their time spent. A little nervous I was....HA, but he said they would work with me the best the could if worse came to worse. What else can I do? Surely at this point it made since it was the camera and NOT the 2 7Q's I tried. They supplied an overnight shipping label to me for free and I had 7 days before our REschelued shoot to take place. I was nervous thinking I might still have to rent a camera, pay for that, and possibly pay some huge sony service fee and end up with a 7Q and FS700 that still don't like each other. This all hitting after I dropped $5k on getting a 7Q, SSD's Batteries, rigging it out, etc. Lou at Sony called me 3 different times the following day once my package was received and we walked through getting the misbehavior to happen and exploring a few possibilities. I was really surprised how personalized this all was for such a large company. Then I didn't hear anything for 5 days through the weekend until the day before it was listed I needed to have the camera back by. Sony emailed me saying they ordered a part that was supposed to come in today and their goal was to install, test, and get the camera to me tomorrow. They didn't say what they were replacing. The next day my FS700 and 7Q showed up by 12:30pm. EVERYTHING HAS WORKED FLAWLESSLY SINCE!!!! They had to replace the VC BOARD, did a full alignment, and reinstalled the 4K option. There was no charge for anything. I was so incredibly relieved!!!
All in all it was an extremely stressful and time consuming few weeks trying to trouble shoot while having deadlines on multiple edits happening along with gearing up and rescheduling a big 3 day shoot. I will say that BH is worth buying from just because of the comfort and assistance they provide in getting something replaced very fast and with no hassle. Convergent Design feels a bit understaffed. Dan Keaton was very nice and helpful as much as 1 guy could do, but there was a lot of misfired calls I had to make along with multiple emails trying to get responses and help for transferring over my FS700 RAW option. If that had been the weekend I was supposed to film, I would have been completely screwed! Thank god we rescheduled the shoot for 2 weeks later and not 1 as there was a lot of money tied up in renting the location, lights rigs and towers, man lift, etc. SONY really came through and my end conclusion of them is that for someone having had Panasonic Cams, Canon Cams, and now Sony, I hope SONY keeps up the great line of large sensor interchangeable lens system cameras they have been for this last few years because I really feel secure if I need help from them, they can do it! So major props to Sony, major props to BH, major props to Dan Keaton..but Convergent Design as a whole left me feeling a bit nervous if I get in a tight spot for needed support.
Long read, again this is for someone who has similar issues with your 7Q and FS700....it might be your FS700 VC BOARD!
Got my 7Q over a month ago and began testing. I had plenty of editing I still needed done on a couple of projects before the next upcoming shoot I had scheduled which was set to use the FS700 7Q combo for the first time in a real production. I got everything set up and got the FS700 talking to the 7Q. I read the whole manual on the 7Q and had been following threads here on dvxuser actively for months on end while waiting to get the 7Q so I was familiar with what limitations of recording modes to expect and had not been released yet along with known bug issues scheduled to be fixed. At this time, April firmware 1.11 was the most current to be using on the 7Q. I filmed a few different things outside in my yard for testing, brought the footage back in and was stoked at the quality. I filmed some in 2k RAW to experience the DNG workflow and some in 4K2HD ProRes to see what it could handle in grading. All in all, was getting very excited.
The first day I took it out for a day of shooting in the woods I was 5min into using the unit when it started blinking in and out while recording. The whole unit was turning on and off and upon turning back on was trying to immediately record again. I was using camera trigger at the time and and had stopped recording from the FS700 but the 7Q would not stop trying to record. I removed the battery as I could not get the unit to stay stable long enough for me to shut it down properly. Put the battery back on and had a black screen. However some form of communication was still happening as I saw the 7Q saying NO INPUT and then all of a sudden saying a frame rate it was never set too and then saying NO INPUT AGAIN. After 20min of removing batteries and shutting down and turning back on both the FS700 and 7Q along with trying to switch to different record modes on both units to try and get them talking properly to each other again I was left with a black screen and a no input signal. Yes, I also tried disconnecting and reconnecting the HD-SDI cable which was the Odyssey name brand cable 75ohm rated. I retired the system for the day and tried my best not to let it ruin my day! LOL, pretty hard to not though.
For the next 2 days I tested the unit in my office on a tripod next to me while I was editing. I took battery power out of the equation by hooking both the FS and the 7Q to their wall mounted power supplies. Through tons of testing, I could not get very much consistency of this error occurring but the bottom line is that inevitably...it kept happening. Sometimes after 10min of use, sometimes after 2 hours of filming a corner in my office, it would kill recording and loose signal at which point every time I would reboot and try to record again it would loose signal after a few seconds. Also, often times when switching to different frame rates or resolutions, the 7Q would start blinking in and out. This most consistently happened though on higher frame rates in 2K. When I went to 240fps I would often see a blank screen (no visual monitor feed) on the 7Q and it listed 100fps for a while and then would say no input. In putting it to 2K 60fps it would do similar bouncing in and out of 50p and no signal. I am in FLORIDA so NTSC is what I am set for, the PAL frame rates really confused me. The reason all of this was so confusing is how randomly it would happen and with no camera movement happening at all? Why would it work for an hour and then start exhibiting this behavior? Why could I sometimes film 240fps and other times couldn't get more than a black screen?
EXPERIENCE WITH CONVERGENT DESIGN HELP
Submitted a support ticket to CD after the first day of error testing explaining situation. Got an email response 2 days later saying they had not seen or heard of this issue before. That was it, no tips to try or anything. I put a call into CD and talked directly with Dan Keaton. He was extremely nice and immediately diagnosed the problem as a faulty cable. They overnighted me a new one for FREE. That was very nice and helpful however, it did not fix the issue. At this point I am supposed to be filming the next night for a music video that took a lot of organizing to get together. After explaining the issue to the band we decided to push the shoot back 2 weeks when everyone would be available again in order to use the 7Q which they had paid extra for to use on production.
EXPERIENCE WITH BandH
I called BH and talked with their tech department on about the issues and with still qualifying for the 30 day return policy, they recommended I exchange the unit out for another one. They supplied free shipping label and within 2 days, I had a brand new 7Q. Super fast, super nice, BH was really on the ball here. I got the new 7Q set up and it was working great!!!! I was so excited! After 4 hours of recording the corner of my office in different frame rates, there were no issues!!!
BACK TO CONVERGENT DESIGN
I was however locked into demo mode all JULY 4th weekend and could not get a hold of the ONE person at CD who had the ability to transfer my FS700 RAW option over to the new 7Q. That was a bit frustrating! I wanted to go catch some fireworks and after tasting these robust files, I really didn't want to film in AVCHD. Over the course of the weekend, I went ahead and tested more....still in demo mode and just of the corner of my office. The error started to occur again!!! WHY, WHY???!!! LOL. But the issue only seemed to be occuring now on the HFR modes whereas before, it would happen more often on HFR modes, but still happened inevitably on any mode. I called and talked to Dan Keaton some more, he had me shoot some pics of the the SDI connections on both the FS and the 7Q. He diagnosed from the pics that the BNC connections look good so it shouldn't be the issue. So....I put the call into SONY that Monday.
MY EXPERIENCE WITH SONY SERVICES
I called the Sony Service Center in Teaneck NJ where I had sent my FS several months ago for the 4K upgrade in gearing up toward the 7Q purchase. I hit a hiccup budget wise and had to hold off on the 7Q until recently so I never got to test anything other than SLOG2 in AVCHD, which worked fine. I talked with Lou Flefleha in their repair department. He could not have been any nicer or a better listener to the full situation. The plan was to send the cam in along with the 7Q for testing. If they discovered it was problem on their end pertaining to the 4K upgrade, they would cover everything at no cost, if it was on the 7Q, we would go from there on the billing for their time spent. A little nervous I was....HA, but he said they would work with me the best the could if worse came to worse. What else can I do? Surely at this point it made since it was the camera and NOT the 2 7Q's I tried. They supplied an overnight shipping label to me for free and I had 7 days before our REschelued shoot to take place. I was nervous thinking I might still have to rent a camera, pay for that, and possibly pay some huge sony service fee and end up with a 7Q and FS700 that still don't like each other. This all hitting after I dropped $5k on getting a 7Q, SSD's Batteries, rigging it out, etc. Lou at Sony called me 3 different times the following day once my package was received and we walked through getting the misbehavior to happen and exploring a few possibilities. I was really surprised how personalized this all was for such a large company. Then I didn't hear anything for 5 days through the weekend until the day before it was listed I needed to have the camera back by. Sony emailed me saying they ordered a part that was supposed to come in today and their goal was to install, test, and get the camera to me tomorrow. They didn't say what they were replacing. The next day my FS700 and 7Q showed up by 12:30pm. EVERYTHING HAS WORKED FLAWLESSLY SINCE!!!! They had to replace the VC BOARD, did a full alignment, and reinstalled the 4K option. There was no charge for anything. I was so incredibly relieved!!!
All in all it was an extremely stressful and time consuming few weeks trying to trouble shoot while having deadlines on multiple edits happening along with gearing up and rescheduling a big 3 day shoot. I will say that BH is worth buying from just because of the comfort and assistance they provide in getting something replaced very fast and with no hassle. Convergent Design feels a bit understaffed. Dan Keaton was very nice and helpful as much as 1 guy could do, but there was a lot of misfired calls I had to make along with multiple emails trying to get responses and help for transferring over my FS700 RAW option. If that had been the weekend I was supposed to film, I would have been completely screwed! Thank god we rescheduled the shoot for 2 weeks later and not 1 as there was a lot of money tied up in renting the location, lights rigs and towers, man lift, etc. SONY really came through and my end conclusion of them is that for someone having had Panasonic Cams, Canon Cams, and now Sony, I hope SONY keeps up the great line of large sensor interchangeable lens system cameras they have been for this last few years because I really feel secure if I need help from them, they can do it! So major props to Sony, major props to BH, major props to Dan Keaton..but Convergent Design as a whole left me feeling a bit nervous if I get in a tight spot for needed support.
Long read, again this is for someone who has similar issues with your 7Q and FS700....it might be your FS700 VC BOARD!
Early adapter blues I guess. 
While my client still crying for Fs700 raw and 4k for a TVC early next week, I do not have other choice but to wait CD to check the Unit. Do not know whether you guys have the same problem like me or any tips/trick to safely use 7Q because it seems quite fragile ... (At least for me)