4KRAW
on a Budget
Photos: Tim Dashwood
Convergent Design’s Odyssey 7Q RAW and Sony’s FS700
n March I was very excited to hear that Convergent Design had finally released the highly-anticipated firmware update for the Odyssey7Q SSD recorder that enabled ProRes422 and FS700 4K RAW recording. I’ve been a proud owner of the FS700 for over a year and have loved shooting with the camera. It shares the exact same sensor as the F5, but unfortunately only processes internally, and outputs, 8-bit. The Sony-branded 4K RAW recording solution is very large, but the Odysssey7Q offers similar functionality in a more versatile, compact and affordable package. With the purchase of a license key, the Odyssey7Q is capable of recording a RAW stream from an ARRI ALEXA, Canon C500, or Sony FS700, as well as 4:2:2 1080p to ProRes422(HQ) and 4:4:4 signals to DPX. Some licenses can also be rented on a daily basis. The screen also looks great and with lots of mounting options can serve as a reliable on-camera monitor. My good friend John Tran helped me conduct my initial technical test. We had both updated our FS700s to v3.0 firmware last summer (required for 4K RAW output) and had been waiting for almost a year to actually record 4K RAW to the Odyssey7Q. Camera assistant Chris Goll kept us organized during the test. Our test of different recording formats (including the internal AVCHD) focused on these aspects: latitude/dynamic range of available gamma curves and recording formats, bit-depth, chroma-subsampling, and resolution/scaling.
DIY backlit Dynamic Range chart
The Odyssey7Q’s recording menu currently looks like this: w 4:2:2 -> PRORES HD (.MOV) w FS700 RAW -> RAW (.DNG) w Canon RAW -> RAW (.RMF) w ARRIRAW -> RAW (.ARI) w 4:2:2/4:4:4 -> 4:4:4 (.DPX) w MULTI-STREAM 4:2:2 w FS700 4K RAW -> PRORES HD (.MOV)
By Tim Dashwood
Canadian Cinematographer - June 2014 •
17
