FS7: Plastic Junk

A

allenfacemire

Well-known member
In the continuing saga of my FS7...I still love this camera but as good as the pictures are, it is surrounded by cheap ass plastic parts that are destined to fail.
At one time I owned 3 D600 Betacams that were beat to sh*t on a landscape show we did for HGTV. I also had 3 HDX900's that were also put through the ringer. I had two F800's (still have one) which were put through the network wringer but none of them...NOT ONE of them ever had a failure or a part just snap off. I'm guessing that's why you pay much more cake for an F5 or F55.
Yesterday the cheap ass plastic hinge that allows the flip up finder to well, flip up... broke! It broke when I had the audacity to flip the finder to achieve a low angle shot.
I determined there is no bloody way I can jury rig or fix this thing, so I contact Sony parts and after a bit of searching, they found the part and the number. Ordered it's and it's being overnighted.
The good news is the replacement part is only $81. I'm paying a bit for the over night but I am thrilled and delighted I can get this part and get it in a timely manner
Be forewarned...this is a part that will fail and when it does, you'll need to order a replacement as well, so here's the part number and the exploded block diagram. The part # is X25905351
 

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Yep, we were paying many tens of thousands of dollars for our broadcast cameras, but there were very few mechanical/structural failures. They were designed to be used in incredibly harsh environments in mission critical/zero failure scenarios.
 
Good times!

Luckily mine won't fail as it collects dust in my bag while the Gratical Eye does the work. Not that the Eye was cheap, though! :thumbsup:
 
I had the same part fail. I sent it in for repair, they said I needed to replace the whole loupe! Cost £££s...
 
Comes with the territory. Everybody wants cheap so we get CHEAP. Part of the reason I got rid of my FS7 too. If you want D600 quality today you have to go for an Alexa and probably Venice. Or a few years ago it was a F35. All cameras costing a lot.

But FS7 is not even in the same level as a UVW-100. Back in the day, the FS7 and most if not all under $10K cameras and many above that would be considered consumer quality. So are the days we live in today. Technology affords a much higher level of image quality. But the general quality, construction, ergonomics etc went down the drain. The cameras are cheap because they are consumer toys posing a pro. That because we started to accept that as long as they gave us enough Ks and gave it to us for cheap. If you don't want consumer toys you still have to pay a lot of money. Really. Pick up a 80's VHS camcorder and tell me the FS7 is better built or thought out than those consumer cameras. It's not. Because my dad still has one and I once was noticing that when I held it in my hands.

Yes plastic junk is an accurate description for most cameras today.
 
Ya sure can't sling 'em around like you used to with the broadcast cameras. My F5 has been structurally sound for 4 years. I think it's a little better built than the FS7.
 
I think its almost considered normal to change the EVF on that camera.. you could say at such a cheap initial price ,that whole set up is a free add on to get you started.. until you start actually working with it.. where the screen at least can be a directors monitor out the back..or pay more for the f5 which is alot more robust.. I had those old ENG cameras too.. but they cost alot more to buy.. equivalent to the Venice now..back in the day.. buy cheap its going to break.. chuck it and buy an EYE..
 
Two months into owning the FS7 and I bought it right as it came out- I took everything that protrudes from the body and switched it to something you can actually work with. The Handle, the EVF, the "out of the box" shoulder design down to that shitty cable-less wireless interface all total garbage. I wish sony would go the canon c200b way of offering a body only solution for a couple dollars less. In the end it really a 15k camera.
Which is still extremely cheap.
 
ugh - after a year my EVF cable connector fail. And Sony wants around $300 for a cable. WTF
so now I shot with the 7" Lilliput monitor and BNC cable. You can buy a lot of monitor with that $300
 
Liam Hall said:
I had the same part fail. I sent it in for repair, they said I needed to replace the whole loupe! Cost £££s...
Click to expand...

Yeah...no! I have Sony checking on getting just the interim part that has the hinge on it. Meantime, I am fashioning a possible temporary fix that if done right, might be permanent...or permanent enough. It won't be pretty though. I'll post some pic of the process but only if it works!
 
JCummings said:
Ya sure can't sling 'em around like you used to with the broadcast cameras. My F5 has been structurally sound for 4 years. I think it's a little better built than the FS7.
Click to expand...

I think structurally the F5 is significantly more robust. Picture for picture for picture, both produce very high end results. But the FS7 is almost like the RED in that you need to put 3rd party add ons to make the machine robust. Once you add the Extension back (a must have at $2k US), a shoulder mount/rail system ( $1k US), a top grip ($800), a robust VF and mounting bracket ($2300) and to make it a viable field camera, the MFT Super 16 B4 to E adapter ($2500) which allows our old trust B4 HD zooms to be in play...you've added an additional $8,600. More than the camera body. And not even considering the Odyssey 7Q+ for raw or back up recording/monitor ($3k tricked out) and of course cards, cards, cards. A card stock alone can come to $2k if you get Sony 128's.
By the time it's over, you are into some serious cake.
 
Hey Allen, I'll just offer a counterpoint, if you don't mind. You are free to pimp your camera out however you want, but there isn't a single thing on your list of accessories that I think is really necessary except a few memory cards.

Okay, I do have the the XDCA extension for the timecode in/out feature on multi-cam shoots and the ability to use V-lock batteries which I already own. But most people wouldn't need the XDCA and it adds nothing to the actual performance of the camera.. And I have a Zacuto baseplate that allows me to add rods so that I can support some pretty big and heavy PL and Canon telephoto lenses. But most people don't use those kinds of lenses and so a baseplate isn't neeed. I think the viewfinder is perfectly adequate so there's no need wasting money and hassle with a 3rd party unit. I love mine. I already own an Odyssey 7Q+ but I'd never use it with the FS7 because it adds absolutely no advantages, and plenty of disadvantages with another layer of complexity, added weight, and power requirements.

I could easily take a first generation FS7 out of the box (doesn't even have to be a Mark2) and go right to work and shoot EXACTLY the same footage that someone could shoot with all the doodads and extra junk they wanted to add to their camera. Perhaps I could even move faster by being meaner and leaner and end up getting shots the other person would miss because they had to fool with a bunch of awkward accessories.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, the FS7 is the most bang for the buck of any camera ever manufactured. Period. And it is ready to shoot as soon as you insert a memory card and charge the battery. For $7500 and a couple of memory cards you're up and running at full speed.
 
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To me the FS7 works just fine as is out of the box so no need to add a bunch of stuff. Sure some parts are cheaply made but mine has held up for three years now and looks like brand new.
 
+1

Only investment cheap chinese 15mm baseplate with 15mm rods (per meter from DIY-store) to support Sigma 150-600 mm and other investment sony 2-channel wireless set.

But different people, different work, different tools I suppose.
 
+3 here - but a plug for the wonderful and quite inexpensive Small HD adjustable baseplate shoulder pad and rods holder.
 
For me it was the mic holder, first bit to go.... I still use it and it still works, but it's definitely a bit broken. I'd be interested in a similar setup to mount a shotgun mic to 15mm rod without being bulky if anyone's got a go to!


the original sony handle slips a bit when under load too - but I've since adjusted my shooting style to use different hand grips (kino grip wooden hand grip with left hand ball).

I am shooting a show right now with an fs7 and 19-90 rig, XDCA, converter plate and DIONIC 90 batteries. there's a timecode box and wireless hop, and teradek bolt as well. We have shape baseplates, large 4x5.65 chrosziel matte box with soft fx filters, VERY front heavy rig... I mostly use the left shape handle to balance against my chest, and end up holding onto the rods with my right hand because I can't understand how anyone shoots ENG content with their hands on a handle perpendicular to the lens or out to the right of it.

Anyway - that said, I've never had more appreciation for a stripped down fs7 rig. (i personally own the 18-55 fuji, and I feel a lens of that size/weight is just WORLDS better on the fs7. I mean it's just incredible how much easier to use, wow. I love taking off all the gak and just shooting with a small prime dslr lens sometimes - it's such a change of pace from a big ol' TEEVEE rig
 
I only had my Gratical Eye on the FS7 for a couple of days and it worked great, making the whole setup much more ergonomic and sturdy. Regretfully, I had to revert to the original, flimsy EVF as I need the Gratical more with my GH5/A7Rii rig, and cannot afford another one at the moment :(

One thing I must say in defence of the OEM EVF on the FS7, though: plasticky, flimsy and cheap-looking (as opposed to the camera itself), it does have one important advantage over the Gratical Eye: especially with the +4 diopter I had put into it, the picture looks much bigger in the loupe than the smallish Gratical picture! Yeah, the latter is actually higher resolution plus being OLED, can be more contrasty etc. - but to my old eyes, the size matters and I'd even give up OLED image quality for its greater size..

Piotr
 
Why is it that, to my knowledge, no one has come out with an aftermarket VF that connects to the same connector as does the stock VF? It is that much of a technical hurdle?
 
JPNola said:
Why is it that, to my knowledge, no one has come out with an aftermarket VF that connects to the same connector as does the stock VF? It is that much of a technical hurdle?
Click to expand...

Good point I never thought of that.. except the plug has some sort of patent thingy going on... Ive yet to see the new OLED from the Venice that can work with the f5/55.. it will have to be alot better than the LCD and EYE I have now to shell out the $5K + but if it is I would be very tempted ..
 
A big selling feature for me on the FS7 is the ability to get very good on-camera sound with a microphone, but I don't like the microphone holder. It seems too big for many of my microphones, even the ME66 which is 23 mm. For now, I have the fat end of the Rode SM5 in there and that seems to work okay. But even with the fat end in there, it still sags forward in the front, depending on the microphone I'm using.

I noticed Philip Bloom modified his FS7 microphone
http://philipbloom.net/blog/zacutofs5/
with the CAC 12 and he says that's a much better option.

I can't really tell from the picture he took of his set-up, but it looks like you'd only need two pieces
to make this work.

http://dji.server808.net/microphone.html

Has any one tried this option?

If it is only the two parts, then I'd like to do Bloom's suggestion rather than wait for the OEM plastic holder to wear out or break.

For some reason he has zicro mini from Zacuto crossed out, so I'm not sure that's the right part.

Thanks!
 
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