Odyssey 7q 120 fps issues

cckid

cckid

Well-known member
Hellou,

I have been using the Odyssey 7q in 120 fps with my sony fs700 and I am having a couple of issues and I need some help.
When shooting in 120fps 4k mode, I tend to loose the signal on the display...this happens especially when the odyssey is recording the buffer,
and not so much when monitoring the recording process. Hope this makes sense. When I am shooting-recording in 4k 120fps I see everything in the display, and when the buffer recording process starts the display of the 7q just looses signal. This doesn't happen always but much more often than I would like to happen. I find a temporary solutiong, by disconneting and then connecting the sdi cable - but this is very tedious. I am using sony L batteries to power the odyssey. When I switch back to 4k 24p mode everything works fine and no glitches whatsoever. Can someone help me, finding out the solution to my issue....both of my 256gb units were properly formatted before use, the sony L battery was fully charged....

- does the 120fps 4k burst mode require bigger stronger power - such as V lock batteries
- does the 120fps 4k burst mode require turning off on the camera prior to use
- has anyone also this issue
- I doubt it is due to my sdi cable, because sometimes it just work as it should

if anyone has some practical advice it would be more than welcome...

best regards

Drazen
 
From what I've read about others having similar issues I'd suspect things in this order: cable is not up to standards, batteries/plate have some sort of issues with the high speed power draw, the O7Q or the FS700 is faulty.
 
Do you have issues with the 4K 60p mode? Because as far as I can tell (and I could be wrong), the FS700's 120fps burst buffer is outputting at 60fps, so it shouldn't really be any more taxing than the standard 4K60 mode.

What kind of cables (power and SDI) are you using? I've done the 120fps burst with sony batteries using the Solid Camera battery plate as well as the d-tap cable with my Vmount battery. No issues. My SDI cable is the CineCoil 3G-SDI cable.
 
I also use the great Cinecoil 3G-SDI cable, but I also used cheap 10m/393inch cable in 60fps (120fps) mode for crane operation. Try to make sure that the SDI connectors are clean and try a different cable. Powerdraw is pretty the same so its the signal.
 
The most important question iseven if the screen goes blank when capturing, does the shot itself get recorded to the SSDs?

My first guess is the cable, as you are putting much more information through it in this modes than in others. You may be saturating the signal. Try comparing it to shooting 4K60p.
 
Mitch Gross said:
The most important question iseven if the screen goes blank when capturing, does the shot itself get recorded to the SSDs?

My first guess is the cable, as you are putting much more information through it in this modes than in others. You may be saturating the signal. Try comparing it to shooting 4K60p.
Click to expand...

Hellou everyone,

...so the main suspect is the cable...I will definitely check with another one and will let you know the results...I will also check the 4k 60p mode and see what happens...thanks for the input to everyone...
 
ya i had a similar problem and it turned out to be the right angle connector from the 7q to sdi. once i went straight in to the unit with out a 90 the problem disappeared.
 
The 7Q definitely does not like right angle connectors. I've tried several different cables and right angle connectors from various parties and all had signal failure when bumped. Without the right angle, it works perfect.

I do have a right angle on the FS700 end and I've had no problems with that yet.
 
gene_can_sing said:
The 7Q definitely does not like right angle connectors. I've tried several different cables and right angle connectors from various parties and all had signal failure when bumped. Without the right angle, it works perfect.

I do have a right angle on the FS700 end and I've had no problems with that yet.
Click to expand...

I'm running the Cinecoil 12" cable, with right angle connectors. Works like a champ so far! Done about a dozen 4K 120 tests too.

Here's knocking on wood :)
 
SeanMC,

What happens if you bump the cable near the 7Q end? Mine was fine as long as the cable was not bumped. Without the 90, I can shake the cable with force, and no lost signal.
 
Mitch Gross said:
The most important question iseven if the screen goes blank when capturing, does the shot itself get recorded to the SSDs?

My first guess is the cable, as you are putting much more information through it in this modes than in others. You may be saturating the signal. Try comparing it to shooting 4K60p.
Click to expand...


Mitch hi,

I have done some additional testing today...I used still with the same cable that I used in the previous sessions, since currently I don't have any other options...In the first 30 minutes of shooting was loosing signal of the display when recording the buffering from 4k 120fps, however the clip got recorded till the very end on the odyssey...basically it means I have only lost the display monitoring on the display....when beeing in 4k 24p I had no issues and everyting worked fine....

what I did then, was connecting and disconneting the sdi cable...this gave me back the signal on my display and continued the shooting...in the middle of the shooting I stopped loosing signal even when in 4k 120fps and everything suddenly worked fine without any problems....

is there any meaningful conclusion that we can take from this addiional testing...is this a proof that it must the cable? or it migh be something else...

since I am on the field and I have no option of ordering a new cinecoil 3g-sdi cable in the next 10 days...this is something I have to work with when on the field for assignement for the next week or so...

what do you think?

and btw...I absolutely love the new upgrade...and the picture I get now from my sony fs700 is absolutely astonishing!

thanks a bunch for the input....

best regards
 
Is the SDI cable seating properly? is there any foreign material inside the connector?
 
This is cold comfort advice, but I state it here as everyone should live by it. Never go into the field without backup cables. I learned this from Day One of production. A cable is the easiest thing to snag, step on, get caught in a case, etc. I remember the first time a BNC connector got jammed into the track of a motorized adjustable car seat on a shoot. I thought to myself, "That's rather unique. Bet I never see that happen again." And then it happened three more times.

If you are capturing your takes then you are capturing your takes. If you are out in the middle of nowhere and cannot get another cable then I guess you have to risk it, but then again how do you have internet? A cable is cheap, we're talking $20. Even if it has to be FexExed to you it's still under $50. I still say it is the most likely culprit. This is not a way of deflecting blame from our product; it's because 9 out of 10 calls we get in these matters are because of bad cables. For us to really analyze this properly, you should be directly in touch with us through our Support Desk on our website. You can also call directly; the information is on the website. I'm not trying to hide anything -- I'm the Director of Communications, not our Tech Support. I know a bunch of stuff but not everything, and these guys do their part for a living. They will be of better assistance than what you are going to find here. All that said, I still think it is the cable.

It's not so much that the Odyssey7Q is sensitive to cables. It is the hugely fat signal that you are blasting through there. A 3Ghz bandwidth is saturated by the FS700 RAW 4K/60p or 4K/120p (burst over 60p). There is some compression to the signal and this is essentially to allow it to fit over a signal 3G-SDI feed. For comparison Canon C500 does not compress and requires two 3G-SDI cables to clock above 4K/30p. We are talking about a huge amount of data.

Please try to get another cable. Convergent Design makes our own lightweight UltraThin SDI cables that I think are terrific. I promote them because they are so light, thin and pliable while remaining fully capable of handling a full 3G-SDI signal. But if you can't get ours from one of our dealers then try to get something/anything that will help you. Because right now you are one door handle snag from being out of business.

BTW, a right angle connector or any other BNC adapter is always at least a 3db signal loss and sometimes a lot more. A cable with a hardwired right angle connector (not an adapter) is vastly better, although I have seen many that are not up to the task. We have yet to find a right angle connector that works as well as a high quality straight one.
 
Mitch hi,

I followed your advice and I just placed an order for convergent design ultra thin sdi cable...will let you know how it is working as soon as I get it...thanks for the input...
 
Mitch Gross said:
BTW, a right angle connector or any other BNC adapter is always at least a 3db signal loss and sometimes a lot more. A cable with a hardwired right angle connector (not an adapter) is vastly better, although I have seen many that are not up to the task. We have yet to find a right angle connector that works as well as a high quality straight one.
Click to expand...

Have you found issues with the Cinecoil cable then? It's been working flawless for me, and I do have backup cables, but if you've found issues with it I'll relegate it to backup duty instead of primary. Really don't want it to "fail" in the middle of a take...
 
The CineCoil cable appears to work fine for many people, bu in our testing it does not have the full 3Ghz throughput possible. Our UltraThin SDI cable does. I have absolutely nothing against the CineCoil cable and in fact was happy to help make my previous employer the first dealer for the product. But it does not have quite the same performance as other products. Most of the time you won't need that performance, and in fact I own several CineCoil cables that have never let me down. But I would never want to go out without my CD SDI cables handy.
 
case solved....got myself a brand new convergent design sdi cable (in fact 2 of them - one as a backup) and the slow mo 120 fps in 4k works perfect...mitch thanks for the input...
 
by the way the 120 fps in 4k makes my fs700 a better camera than the new fs7...I love my odyssey...can't wait for the prores 4k feature!
 
That always happens to me when the battery is getting low. It almost seems like fail safe mode or something. The screen goes black halfway through a record to give the 7q maximum power so it can complete the recording process? Or at least that's what I thought was happening because I tested it and got the same results with two different sdi cables, one of them being a cinecoil. That would be great if the cd sdi cable solves it.
 
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