Odyssey7Q February 2014 Firmware Update

Just to confirm:

Waveform monitor and FS700 2K raw Cinema DNG is present as we speak? Its in the current firmware?


I am really torn between investing in this unproven technology or selling off the FS700 and getting a better camera...
 
Just to confirm:

Waveform monitor and FS700 2K raw Cinema DNG is present as we speak? Its in the current firmware?


I am really torn between investing in this unproven technology or selling off the FS700 and getting a better camera...

yes. 2K RAW DNG is present and WFM too.

What's your definition of a better camera? What camera would you buy now over the FS700 and what reason for?
 
10 bit 422

The FS700 is like the retarded lovechild of a cinema camera and an ENG system. And thats exactly why i love it. The best compromise between two worlds for a budget filmmaker.

But the 8bit is killing my interest. And then the 2K workflow is again too time consuming and space demanding for some of the more documentary works.
 
10 bit 422

The FS700 is like the retarded lovechild of a cinema camera and an ENG system. And thats exactly why i love it. The best compromise between two worlds for a budget filmmaker.

But the 8bit is killing my interest. And then the 2K workflow is again too time consuming and space demanding for some of the more documentary works.

Bascically why I got an F3, the 700 only works once the 07q is fully working. (and avaialble)

S
 
10 bit 422

The FS700 is like the retarded lovechild of a cinema camera and an ENG system. And thats exactly why i love it. The best compromise between two worlds for a budget filmmaker.

But the 8bit is killing my interest. And then the 2K workflow is again too time consuming and space demanding for some of the more documentary works.

+1 to that.
I must say after getting my 7q ive only used it as a monitor. For me there are no projects that really justify the huge space demands of 2k RAW. For smaller stuff the fs700 has been great for me - but a bump up to 10bit would be welcome - BUT for the bigger stuff the production usually opt for an Alexa or a Red. Sony 2k RAW on the fs700 for me sort of sits between two chairs: I wont use it on smaller corporate and/or tv, cause of the workflow issues - and for bigger stuff they usually go for Alexa or Red anyways.
Of course people have different needs, but I think this is true for a lot of fs700 owners, and also the reason why the compressed codecs are so important. Personally I'm really looking forward to Prores 12bit 444 derived from the 4k - that would make a good selling point to midsized productions. Untill then I'll be using it as a (fantastic) monitor - but really look forward to hitting record.!
 
Thats the thing about other cameras. Either the price tag is outrageous, and/or it lacks critical features like built-in ND filters and ability to fit Speedbooster between L optics and that sweet E mount.

The FS700 could, with 10 bit 422 pretty much shake down the camera world. I think that with true 10 bit 422 from either 2K or 4K either way will make the FS700 an insanely attractive camera and boost sales of both it and the O7Q. It has so many features that RED, Arri or even F5/f55 doesnt have. Like said Speedbooster. And ND filters. And the best part? It doesnt cost much either, yet produces such nice images.
 
I was asking because except BlackMagic Cameras I don't know any camera with 10bit 4:2:2 recording
below 10.000€. Maybe you consider a PMW F3L, which has no 4K option and is 5,000€ higher in price.
A C300 has no 10Bit SDI out, a C500 has 3x price of a FS700.
Speedbooster is not important for me. And selling the FS700 neither as I don't see an alternative
with comparable features (S35 sensor, ND filter, good low light performace, versatile stages) at
a comparable pricing.
 
Yet i find myself looking to rent other cameras because i really need 10bit or 12bit in a studio enviroment.

The NDs, lowlight and speedbooster is mainly needed outdoors. The light FS700 really shines when in backpack along with the tent and sleeping bag!
 
get a BMDCC 2,5 / 4K for studio environment if you don't need high frame rates.
Buy the 7Q. You can use it for the FS700 and a (rented) C500 for special jobs as well.
 
Thats the thing about other cameras. Either the price tag is outrageous, and/or it lacks critical features like built-in ND filters and ability to fit Speedbooster between L optics and that sweet E mount.

The FS700 could, with 10 bit 422 pretty much shake down the camera world. I think that with true 10 bit 422 from either 2K or 4K either way will make the FS700 an insanely attractive camera and boost sales of both it and the O7Q. It has so many features that RED, Arri or even F5/f55 doesnt have. Like said Speedbooster. And ND filters. And the best part? It doesnt cost much either, yet produces such nice images.

There's no reason why Metabones couldn't make a speed booster for the F5/F55 the flange depth of the FZ mount is 18mm, same as the E-mount. It may even be on their to-do list.
 
+1 to that.
I must say after getting my 7q ive only used it as a monitor. For me there are no projects that really justify the huge space demands of 2k RAW. For smaller stuff the fs700 has been great for me - but a bump up to 10bit would be welcome - BUT for the bigger stuff the production usually opt for an Alexa or a Red. Sony 2k RAW on the fs700 for me sort of sits between two chairs: I wont use it on smaller corporate and/or tv, cause of the workflow issues - and for bigger stuff they usually go for Alexa or Red anyways.
Of course people have different needs, but I think this is true for a lot of fs700 owners, and also the reason why the compressed codecs are so important. Personally I'm really looking forward to Prores 12bit 444 derived from the 4k - that would make a good selling point to midsized productions. Untill then I'll be using it as a (fantastic) monitor - but really look forward to hitting record.!

I'm seeing an immediate demand for the HFR 2K Raw. To be honest, I find it hard to believe there will be much demand for the compressed codecs. Not because I don't think they'll be good - they will, and I'll use them, but because most of my clients view the FS700 as a one trick pony: they only book it when they need budget high speed stuff - and those situations are already covered. The rest of the time they use a C300, Red, Alexa or even a 5D! Simply out, nobody thinks of the FS700 as being a camera that produces 'beautiful images'.

That might change once people start seeing the extra DR of the FS700, since it really blows the C300 out the water, and the little bit of 2K Raw I've shot looks beautiful much nicer to my eye than the C300 (although I may be biased by the fact that it was mostly of my 3yr old son!). But I doubt perceptions really will change - producers are all hipsters after all: slavish followers of the current trend.
 
Soon we will see what the potential of the 700 really is. For this we need the 4K output. When we take that, scale it to 2K or 1080p and get a feel for the dynamic range and noise after that then we'll know for sure. I think it will be pretty damned good, good enough for most people and most uses. I think the shadows won't be ideal but the highlight roll off will be. This is of course assuming that CD manage to get a 10 bit log from that 4K RAW. IMHO recoding the source 4K image will stop any aliasing and perhaps even stop some of the highlight issues we currently see.

Next step would be to see if the 4K record is good enough to record the buffered 4K HFR, otherwise the 2K RAW is a good counterpart to that.

Then perhaps people will see the 700 for what it can do for real, rather than the one trick pony route...

Chomping at that bit as we all know...

cheers
Paul
 
Soon we will see what the potential of the 700 really is. For this we need the 4K output. When we take that, scale it to 2K or 1080p and get a feel for the dynamic range and noise after that then we'll know for sure. I think it will be pretty damned good, good enough for most people and most uses. I think the shadows won't be ideal but the highlight roll off will be. This is of course assuming that CD manage to get a 10 bit log from that 4K RAW. IMHO recoding the source 4K image will stop any aliasing and perhaps even stop some of the highlight issues we currently see.

Next step would be to see if the 4K record is good enough to record the buffered 4K HFR, otherwise the 2K RAW is a good counterpart to that.

Then perhaps people will see the 700 for what it can do for real, rather than the one trick pony route...

Chomping at that bit as we all know...

cheers
Paul

I'm afraid most clients won't like having to go through a new post process. The C300 is popular as they don't have to do much to it. But the more critical factor is that the've already have preconceived ideas of what the FS700 is for. I'm sure, once we start shooting with it, everyone will be very impressed by how nice everything looks, but they'll probably just assume that we're all really good cameramen (no bad thing!) The point is: clients are cautious, habitual beings. They work change their opinions of it very fast...
 
I guess I would be shooting some bizare codec (eg raw) and looking to trancode to ProRes422 and deliver that?

90% of the value of raw is you can shift +/- 20% in exposure and then export a look could be applied to the 422 without too much damage.

S
 
Depends if your producers are expecting to walk away with the files at the end of the day

Kris

exactamente, mon ami!
hard to provide dailies from RAW formatted material. so, there's more needed than just a file copy to sneakernet. one has to add a LUT and compress to some playable format, whether it's prores, dnxhd, cineform, or whatever.
 
I like the idea of providing dailies/proxys by handing off the internal SD cards. This is not ideal at this point as they don't match the RAW footage (way over exposed).

But with the new firmware this should work very well, both with RAW and compressed as every system pretty much supports the 700 native files, and these are cheap cards and small files. Except for HFR as RAW is only recorded to the O7Q.
 
Important update!

Important update!

As stated earlier, moving forward Convergent-Design will only announce upcoming firmware update details we have high confidence we can fulfill. This goes both for dates and for features. Our engineers are always working hard and we are now able to announce another feature which will be made available with our upcoming February Firmware Update.

FS700 Recording Option: 4K RAW to High Quality HD, recorded in a high quality 10-bit 4:2:2 compressed codec

For Odyssey7Q owners who have purchased the FS700 Recording Option, the Odyssey7Q will be able to accept the 4K RAW signal, deBayer it and super-sample it to 1920x1080 with our new advanced high quality algorithm. This algorithm improves both the deBayer as well as the super-sampling processes. The Odyssey7Q will then be able to record the HD signal in a popular compressed codec in 10-bit 4:2:2 at a high quality. At this time we can state that the Odyssey7Q will be able to do this at frame rates up to 30p, and it is expected to attain the camera's full 60p frame rate with further development. Additinal further development will allow HD capture in 12-bit 4:4:4.

As we move closer to release, if other features can be enabled in this firmware release it will be announced here. I will change the first post on this thread to reflect the current release information.
 
As stated earlier, moving forward Convergent-Design will only announce upcoming firmware update details we have high confidence we can fulfill. This goes both for dates and for features. Our engineers are always working hard and we are now able to announce another feature which will be made available with our upcoming February Firmware Update.

FS700 Recording Option: 4K RAW to High Quality HD, recorded in a high quality 10-bit 4:2:2 compressed codec

For Odyssey7Q owners who have purchased the FS700 Recording Option, the Odyssey7Q will be able to accept the 4K RAW signal, deBayer it and super-sample it to 1920x1080 with our new advanced high quality algorithm. This algorithm improves both the deBayer as well as the super-sampling processes. The Odyssey7Q will then be able to record the HD signal in a popular compressed codec in 10-bit 4:2:2 at a high quality. At this time we can state that the Odyssey7Q will be able to do this at frame rates up to 30p, and it is expected to attain the camera's full 60p frame rate with further development. Additinal further development will allow HD capture in 12-bit 4:4:4.

As we move closer to release, if other features can be enabled in this firmware release it will be announced here. I will change the first post on this thread to reflect the current release information.

WOOHOO!!! :thumbsup: :beer:
 
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