FS7: XDCA+Odyssey7Q sadly almost useless

P

paolo.negro

Member
Hi all,
I did some tests with my FS7+XDCA+Odyssey 7Q and the results are pretty disappointing.
My set up is: FS7 and XDCA with 2.0 firmware and Odyssey 7Q with 2015.8(1098) firmware, the Convergent Design SDI cable and SSD, lens used are Sony 28-135 kit lens, canon 70/200 f2.8 and samyang 35mm T1.5.
These are my considerations:

1) 200/240 fps prores is completely useless: unbelievable noise in dark areas, awful compression artifacts (never seen something like that), aliasing, banding, and chromatic aberration (with all lens)
2) 200/240 fps DNG has the all well known 4K full-scan-downsampling problems but still acceptable (we all hope in 3.0 FW with sensor crop function). DNG is definitely not a pleasure in the post workflow
3) 4KtoHD prores produce nice and crispy images but more contrasted and darker compared to XAVC (why???). Some noise (also awful "colored" noise) in dark areas and details.

In the end, I can't see any true advantage compared with XAVC, the image is always better in the internal recording without all the troubles of a bulky camera set up and harder post production. The only advantage is 240fps vs 180fps, not really a big deal…
I hope in a serious debayer improvement in the next firmware, till that moment I will use my Odyssey just as a monitor (love LUTs function) and just sometimes in 4K when I need more headroom in post.
XDCA unit to me doesn't worth the money, sadly because I've bought it...
Cheers
p.
 
Have you tested the internal ProRes recording? I've actually sent my unit back to Sony as I thought the internal ProRes was unusable due to banding in clear skies. The 240fps sucks for sure, my tests show internal recording outperforms anything the XDCA pumps out above 100fps. I thought the RAW to ProRes on the Odyssey looked good though, plus the monitor tools are very useful.
 
Convergent Design really has nailed the raw to prores.

But the bulkiness of external recorder made me sell the FS700+O7Q and get with the FS7 instead. Lost features be damned. However, i am now looking at buying the Odyssey 7, for the monitor value. Its an amazing product.

I barely updated the 240p firmware and only tried the feature when showing the buyer of the camera. So i cannot comment on the image quality. But 4K2HD was and is amazing.
 
I had a 7Q rented for a job a few weeks ago and I found it to be a bit buggy with slow handling of media and bulky. I wouldn't want to weight my FS7 down with something like that. I also find internal XAVC-I to be excellent and Prores or raw these days are less desireable formats when there's Slog3 to 10-bit 4:2:2.
 
I guess there are many like Martin G. and myself who wanted a smaller set up sold the FS700 and still own the 7Q.
Actually I don't have no need for RAW and I am still not sure if I should keep the 7Q as a monitor or sell it and go
for a 502 instead.

Would anybody who owns XDCA and 7Q be so kind and share short files of a comparison of internal XAVC-I and ProRes?
Thanks in advance
 
Liam Hall said:
Have you tested the internal ProRes recording? I've actually sent my unit back to Sony as I thought the internal ProRes was unusable due to banding in clear skies. The 240fps sucks for sure, my tests show internal recording outperforms anything the XDCA pumps out above 100fps. I thought the RAW to ProRes on the Odyssey looked good though, plus the monitor tools are very useful.
Click to expand...

I will test specifically for clear skies banding with internal prores, but I've reported this issue many time shooting XAVC (no banding in the footage) and transcoding in prores. Awful in AVID, Premiere, better with Davinci. I have achieved the best result transcoding with Catalyst, but the banding is still there, unbelievable for a 14stops dynamic range camera with a 10bit 422 codec. Luckily for us it's present just in some circumstances that I try to minimize with mattebox and good filters. I'm afraid I will see banding even in internal prores, BTW I will let you know
 
I did the same: I've sold my FS700, kept my odyssey 7Q and bought a FS7. While with the FS700 the difference between 4KtoHD with internal recording was HUGE (but we were talking about avchd), with the FS7 the 4KtoHD file seem to have a little sharper filter but the image has more artifacts (noise in dark areas and fringing in details) compared with XAVC-I. Maybe more flexibility in post but you start with a worst image. I will post some samples soon
 
When I bought the FS7 I ordered the XDCA right along with it but it ended up being delayed....got a chance to test it with the Sony raw recorder and cancelled my order and the whole idea of external raw recording......I do understand the numbers and especially the 12 bit thing....but in reality Cine-I keeps on surprising me.....I love it..... I don't need fast prores turnaround and I can cut 4K on my mbp in fcpx like butter...plus I can have all my actual files on my internal drive (which is backed up of course) because the files are so small.....
when shot carefully I honestly don't see a reason to go with raw or prores externally....12 bit probably gives more headroom to save a shot or do some tweaking but so far I have had no issues at all.....files are sharp (usually a little too much so), detailed with no signs of artifact, banding, moire, anything.....and the camera is so much lighter and smaller....
i am not saying that maybe in certain situations the external raw can provide a slight improvement but to me it has not been worth it or necessary.....
i have not used the odyssey but am assuming the Sony solution can't be that much worse.....maybe someone can post a 4K internal Cine-I vs raw dng or prores comparison?
 
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