Sending the fs700 to sony for upgrade

Michael Erlewine

Michael Erlewine

Well-known member
FOR THOSE INTERESTED:

You may all know this, but I am new to the hardware upgrade process.

After about five numbers and five operators, I found one who emailed me a MS-Word document titleD "Revised6252009.doc" The main phone number was
1-866-766-9272

The document was a typical repair form, which I had to fill out with address, model #, serial # and so on. It had a phone number for the repair center in Teaneck, NJ of 201 833 5300, where I spoke with a technician who told me to double-box it, pad the boxes, and send it to:

Sony Electronics, Inc.
123 west Tryon Avenue
Teaneck, N& 07666

I wrote on it "4K HARDWARE UPGRADE."

I just sent the box by UPS ground. Hope I get it back. I was told they will contact me about what it will cost.


I have heard the number $400 floating around, and this is a reasonable price. I may just see what I can do with the upgrade short of spending thousands more.
 
The one problem I'm going to have is that I won't have a break to send my cam in till August right now :/ busy with a lot of shoots till then. I hope we can get the F.W. update then upgrade hardware as needed later.
 
I just called and they gave me the LAX address, since I'm closer to the West Coast. And the cost was quoted as $135. So much for the doom and gloom naysayers in here.
 
Man, i don't like the idea of sending mine off in the mail. I wonder if you can drop it off at a location in L.A. ?
 
Is the upgrade available now? Any specs of what made it in beyond raw support? XAVC for example?
 
If you live in LA, I'm pretty sure you can drop it off. That worked fine when people were updating their EX1's with the first factory firmware.
 
cuervo said:
I just called and they gave me the LAX address, since I'm closer to the West Coast. And the cost was quoted as $135. So much for the doom and gloom naysayers in here.
Click to expand...

being a bit of a naysayer myself i have to say i'm pretty pleased with that bit of info. lets be honest, any extra charge and surprise time out of the film makers hands definitely justifies naysaying from those who were promised otherwise. people are entitled to their opinions but $135 and possible la drop off makes me feel a little bit better about things. i hope your findings turn out to be true. any word on how long the hardware update will take?

also, i am wondering what, if anything, this update will do for the resolution of the the higher frame rates of 480 & 960fps. hoping this might help out some of the moire and noise that were present at those settings and maybe give us a slight rez boost. but maybe that's a job for dan and cd7q?
 
I went to Cine Gear Expo and was told by Sony that the Glendale Sony location will be doing the upgrades ($400 was the # they were throwing around but its not for the actual upgrade, which is free, only the labor. So I guess its up to whoever does it to set the price). Also was told the "Other popular codec" for the 7Q is Pro Res and that the F5 will be getting an upgrade to 240fps in the future.
 
$135? $400? Sony UK are saying it will cost me £500 which is $750! I hate all this regional pricing bullshit. These international companies are screwing us every chance they get...
 
hi folks, i just talked to Sony here in Austria - they said that the HW/FW upgrade will be €500,- and that the camera must be sent to Sony UK (for us European customers i guess). BUT they also said that the upgrade is not available yet and will be available in July.

cheers
 
I don't know where you guys are sending your cameras in to but i've literally just got off the phone from a sony engineer in the UK and they think June or maybe July. He didn't know the cost, but that's fair enough as he's engineering. But as it's a hardware upgrade then there's a physical item that needs to arrive before anything happens.

Maybe there is conflicting information, it's a bit early yet i think.

I'd be very interested in hearing as soon as someone has the upgrade. Of course is there anything actually available to record onto yet! I'm not sure there is?

cheers
Paul
 
paulcurtis said:
I don't know where you guys are sending your cameras in to but i've literally just got off the phone from a sony engineer in the UK and they think June or maybe July. He didn't know the cost, but that's fair enough as he's engineering. But as it's a hardware upgrade then there's a physical item that needs to arrive before anything happens.

Maybe there is conflicting information, it's a bit early yet i think.

I'd be very interested in hearing as soon as someone has the upgrade. Of course is there anything actually available to record onto yet! I'm not sure there is?

cheers
Paul
Click to expand...
+1 i will also wait and see... recorders? NO! but simply Slog2 to an ER would be nice in the meantime - from what i've seen in freiheit's tests :)
 
I talked to someone at Sony yesterday and she told me $135 for the upgrade and to send my camera in. I sent it last night so I will keep everyone posted with the timeframes.
 
stefanhuberfilms said:
+1 i will also wait and see... recorders? NO! but simply Slog2 to an ER would be nice in the meantime - from what i've seen in freiheit's tests :)
Click to expand...

AFAIK the slog is in there to monitor for RAW, reading art and adams article about the 4K fs700 seems to indicate it's a way of seeing highlight information. Your basic issue with 4K 12 bit RAW is without it you're not really monitoring - the fs700 by itself doesn't really give you the exposure info you'd need. This is an area that the Odyssey will be better than the sony solution. For sony you'd have to use the LCD (or a monitor off the recorder) whereas the Odyssey could monitor the signal it's getting properly as it records.

DanKov said:
I talked to someone at Sony yesterday and she told me $135 for the upgrade and to send my camera in. I sent it last night so I will keep everyone posted with the timeframes.
Click to expand...

If i were you, in the face of overwhelming contrary evidence, i'd double check that price and timescale. You may have found someone who wasn't 100% sure what you were asking for. Perhaps you're going to get an older software firmware update (not the 4K hardware/software one)? Do let us know...

cheers
Paul
 
paulcurtis said:
If i were you, in the face of overwhelming contrary evidence, i'd double check that price and timescale. You may have found someone who wasn't 100% sure what you were asking for. Perhaps you're going to get an older software firmware update (not the 4K hardware/software one)? Do let us know...

cheers
Paul
Click to expand...

Hi Paul,

On the service form you state what the camera is there for, so they will clearly know that it is in for the 4K upgrade. If it should require a higher cost or is not available then I would expect a phone call.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top