Sending the fs700 to sony for upgrade

Exactly. This isn't a hobby camera, people (including me) spent hard earned money and expected what they were sold. A "firmware" update. Said nothing about a "hardware" update. They sold a camera and advertised "with a external recorder you can capture 8-bit 422" and were specific about the internal codec recording 8-bit 420. And i remember reading about Sonys 4k proprietary recorder but never hearing ANYTHING about some interface unit that was needed to enable the recorder. Thats insulting. While I appreciate what CD is doing Sony is still crippling their 4k output with that unit. In my opinion that's some slimy stuff...whoever expected Sonys solution to be priced more than the camera itself was probably a psychic. No one saw that coming. The world leader in electronics comes out with a recorder that needs an interface unit to enable the the recorder to work and is bigger than the camera and more expensive is just ridicules. Buying Sonys solution I'd feel like the guy in the 70's who bought the big clunky VCR that costs 4x's more than the tv and takes 2 people to lift. What year are we in? How can a company like black magic record 2.5k raw (for $2995) a year later come out with a 4k camera costing only a thousand more? Make no mistake about it, the fs700 is a fine 1080p camera, but image wise along with ergonomics can't hold a candle to the bmcc. I shoot with lights so trying to see in the dark is not a priority so don't give me that angle. Super slow mo, great, but you're sacrificing image quality at any speed. So yes I bought the fs700 because it was sold as "4k ready" remember the word "future proof". With sonys solution there's nothing that speaks future and for $19,000 (camera and sony recorder) again I think thats just absurd.
 
I'm not trying to defend Sony, but when you buy something as "4K Ready" you need to be prepared as a consumer. It meant it had a 4K sensor but its going to need more to get it going. I know they may have said "firmware upgrade and external recorder" but they also said they didn't have the details. I guess I just didn't buy the camera with my fingers crossed and high hopes.
 
jshbckr said:
I'm not trying to defend Sony, but when you buy something as "4K Ready" you need to be prepared as a consumer. It meant it had a 4K sensor but its going to need more to get it going. I know they may have said "firmware upgrade and external recorder" but they also said they didn't have the details. I guess I just didn't buy the camera with my fingers crossed and high hopes.
Click to expand...

I was a prepared consumer, I was happy to pay for a firmware update and buy a recorder. I feel misled as a consumer when the firmware update included a hardware update and the recorder needed a separate interface unit. Its principle, we were sold on one thing knowing we needed another. And if you can post where Sony said they didn't have the details I'll stop posting here. It was ALWAYS a firmware update and Sony proprietary recorder. 2 things, not 4 (firmware, hardware, recorder and interface unit). Please show me that info. I'll keep my fingers crossed for info too. Thanks
 
evilthought said:
Nonsense. Vast majority of people bought it as upgrade to FS100 and for high frame rates. Put your camera on ebay if you aren't happy.



Well, there we go. Sony never promised 10-bit HD. All they ever said was 4K RAW (and even there they never mentioned anything about high frame rates in 2K RAW). And they never said the "upgrade" would be free. How many thousand dollars did they charge for F3 S-log upgrade? Yeah, far more ...

As I said, put your camera on ebay if you are not happy. You don't have any legal case.




Click to expand...

It's a shame sounds like you spent an extra $4000 for ND filters and slow motion. A matte box and twixler could of saved you thousands. To me that's more ridiculas than expecting a resonable (advertised) solution for maxing out the cameras capability.
Hey It's my opinion and you have yours, appreciate the dialogue though. Maybe through all this I'll see all the rationale behind it. Till then I'm just trying to wrap my head around Sonys solution. They're expecting us to give more than they said we'll need so to me I feel a little betrayed with what they originally advertised. They really sold us what is actually needed with the F5, instead gave us a half souped up fs100. Whoever can't see that must either work for Sony or is blind. (not to sound insulting) thanks
 
Looks like we will have to wait another good month for any reliable informations as Sony's support centers are not yet briefed about the update.

On a side note, my french dealer told me that a meeting is set up with Sony France in the next weeks about the FS700 upgrade and 4K options.

Stay tuned folks...
 
Marino215 said:
Exactly. This isn't a hobby camera, people (including me) spent hard earned money and expected what they were sold. A "firmware" update. Said nothing about a "hardware" update.
Click to expand...

What if it was only "firmware" upgrade for $2000? Would that have made you happy? Did Sony ever promise that the upgrade would be free? No they didn't. Listen, put the camera on ebay if you aren't happy. You will get most of the money back anyway. Sell it and live happy ever after. Complaining on the forum isn't going to change anything.
 
Grug said:
Sounds about right for an Australian service centre.
Click to expand...

Haha! Yep. They seemed to think that their approved dealers would install the update... When I informed them that its also a hardware update... They changed their tune, and then gave me no real solution. Yay!
 
Some of these comments are mind boggling. The people I've talked to from Sony have stated more than once there is no cost for any of the upgrades (it's free) you just have to pay for the labor which is billed at $135.00 per Hr. Seeing as how, no one has actually done the upgrade I'd say its pretty damn near impossible to come up with exactly how long it will take. As much as I want SLOG, you can rest assured I will not be the first one knocking on their door to drop my camera off. I'm going to give it a little time and let them perfect their process and I'm sure after they've done a few it won't take more than 2 Hrs per camera.
 
Not wanted to add to the noise - lets face it, Sony never intended needing a hardware upgrade did they? They obviously found a problem, the camera was in the wild long before the F5 and the 4K side of things. Think of the logistical nightmare of upgrading so many cameras and if they're doing the hardware at cost and it's mainly labor then that's about as fair as they can get.

You're not being forced to upgrade. I'm a little doubtful of Slog in an 8 bit container, so for me the upgrade is part of the much larger cost of taking RAW out of it.

Ironically i think the firmware would work without the hardware, freitag on here had a camera with slog but no 4K. So if anything the firmware should be allowed out into the wild free (if possible)

cheers
Paul
 
evilthought said:
What if it was only "firmware" upgrade for $2000? Would that have made you happy? Did Sony ever promise that the upgrade would be free? No they didn't.

What if? Whats that? And why would anyone think the firmware update would've been 2g's when the F3 was reduced to $500 and now ships free with the camera. You're missing the point, it seems over your head here. Pay attention, get an interpreter or just stop reading this post. Your comments are annoying, they make no sense. "sell it on ebay"...ha comical

Again when you buy something and think you're getting what you paid for and you don't is a little annoying. Especially when you spend thousands of dollars on it.

So for the sake of the argument, let's say Sony made a mistake and built/released a camera that had the wrong components, or take it one step further and say they built a camera with older technology that can now benefit with the new hardware update. Fine, I'll accept that but we've heard nothing like that what so ever from Sony. For me it seems like Sony is hiding something. The "firmware" update was expected, so was the "Sony proprietary recorder" they said NOTHING about an interface unit that was needed with their proprietary recorder. Your $5000 recorder (which I find bizarre to begin with) now needs a $2000 interface unit to make work. $5000 dollars now just became a $7000 dollars now. The recorder and interface unit are two SEPARATE things, are you following me so far? Maybe Sony realizes this may be too steep (not to mention doesn't fit with the fs700) on a $8000 camera so they allow a third party recorder to enter the equation. Ok great, the CD Odyssey comes along and seems like an excellent alternative to the Sony solution. Now you hear Sony is crippling 4k output on that device to force us to buy their solution for the RAW option work. So now we need this big clunky, expensive bazooka tube hanging off the back of the camera to shoot RAW. I am 100% sure that if Sony released the recorder info (with photos) sales would've been greatly reduced. Won't mention any names here but my dealer said sales have dropped close to 45% on the fs700, people are waiting to see what the CD unit will offer. He also thinks other recorders will work as well down the road. Buying the camera has served it's purpose, and it's great for what I needed. My argument is why wasn't Sony more forthcoming? Hence me feeling betrayed by their loose marking practices to boost early sales and create hype in the market place. They have succeeded on that but failed loyal customers once again expecting one thing and giving us another.
Click to expand...
 
4K, this camera was marketed as 4K. 4K ready was one of the selling point of this camera. Evilthought there really isn't much more to say I think. 4K was an integral part of the FS700 marketing strategy.
I doesn't matter what they said or didn't say explicitly they promised A LOT implicitly. If 4K wasn't promised than they really should have left it out of the marketing equation and made it a surprise (maybe lol) in a 1 years time. But no, they marketed it as 4K ready. Period, end of discussion.
 
KINOKS said:
4K, this camera was marketed as 4K. 4K ready was one of the selling point of this camera. Evilthought there really isn't much more to say I think. 4K was an integral part of the FS700 marketing strategy.
I doesn't matter what they said or didn't say explicitly they promised A LOT implicitly. If 4K wasn't promised than they really should have left it out of the marketing equation and made it a surprise (maybe lol) in a 1 years time. But no, they marketed it as 4K ready. Period, end of discussion.
Click to expand...

No, the marketing was "4K ready sometimes in the future as an upgrade." There was no promise that that upgrade would be free. In fact, vast majority of commentator were speculating that Sony would charge large chunk of money for the firmware upgrade.
 
Last edited:
Marino215 said:
So for the sake of the argument, let's say Sony made a mistake and built/released a camera that had the wrong components, or take it one step further and say they built a camera with older technology that can now benefit with the new hardware update. Fine, I'll accept that but we've heard nothing like that what so ever from Sony. For me it seems like Sony is hiding something. The "firmware" update was expected, so was the "Sony proprietary recorder" they said NOTHING about an interface unit that was needed with their proprietary recorder. Your $5000 recorder (which I find bizarre to begin with) now needs a $2000 interface unit to make work. $5000 dollars now just became a $7000 dollars now. The recorder and interface unit are two SEPARATE things, are you following me so far?
Click to expand...

Maybe that's why Sony worked with convergent design to offer an alternative solution. So what exactly are you whining about? You don't have to use the Sony recorder. The licensed their RAW to CD.
 
evilthought said:
No, the marketing was "4K ready sometimes in the future as an upgrade." There was no promise that that upgrade would be free. In fact, vast majority of commentator were speculating that Sony would charge large chunk of money for the firmware upgrade.
Click to expand...

Sorry I wasn't actually talking about free upgrading. Was talking about cheap upgrading. The upgrade by it self maybe relatively cheap but all the other stuff that you need for 4k and raw is a disaster.
 
Sorry, but why is everybody complaining about that 4K solutions and its price? If your clients require it you will have the budget to buy it. i mean there's no reason to get a superexpensive 4K solution when there's no need for it. Some clients have no problem to pay the day rate of 500 bucks (random number) for a camera and the others are fine with 1080p 422 or avchd. If your clients need 4K but they don't want to pay for it, explain it to your clients and either shoot 1080 or raise the day rate of your camera and buy or rent a recorder.
 
Well it's because some part of the buying decision for some people was the 4k factor. And now that they see what it means to shoot 4k with the fs700 they feel let down. I assume...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top