There were a few new information about the 4K upgrade for the Sony NEX-FS700 on this year’s NAB. There are still some unknown facts but I collected here what I gathered from the various interviews and twitter conversations.
First thing that got out was that Convergent Design presented the new line of monitors Odyssey 7 and 7Q with ability to buy additional drives and recording codecs which transforms the monitor in a recording device. They also partnered with Sony to enable the option to record 4K from FS700 and 240fps in 2K continuously (after the firmware upgrade) directly to the Odyssey 7Q (high end one priced $2,295) with two 960GB drives. There is no info at the moment if you can record on smaller drives (Convergent Design are unsure at this time and will publish full compatibility after testing) and the price for the recording codec and the drives but it looks like a cheaper path than Sony’s option with HXR-IFR5 interface unit (around $2,000) and AXS-R5 Recorder ($5,350). You wont be needing HXR-IFR5 interface unit to record 4K (as confirmed by Scott Webster, Key Account Manager for Sony Professional Solutions New Zealand). The cable will go directly from the camera to the Odyssey 7Q.
So the next thing we wanted to know is about the firmware upgrade. In this interview with Juan Martinez, Senior Product Manager at Sony, it is revealed that the camera will need to have a hardware level upgrade (around 1:30 in the video below) at their service facilities and a firmware upgrade to be able to record in 4K. We don’t know about the price of this service at the moment but it will be available in July.
The best information that got out was that there will be other things that will be included in the firmware update (around 7:00 in the video below). One of them is the ability to shoot in S-Log and therefore achieve greater dynamic range and better image. I can hardly wait for it cause I am sometimes not quite satisfied with the image quality that comes out the camera.
So all that is left is to wait and see for the official announcements to come out.
Update (with the Convergent Design prices):
Odyssey 7Q $2295 (US Price)
High Performance Convergent Design SSD’s (US Price)
240 GB $595
480 GB $1195
960 GB $2195
FS700 Support: $1495, $75/day rental rate (US Prices)
HD/2K Raw up to 240fps (.dng format – Cinema DNG),
Quad HD/4K YCbCr Uncompressed up to 30 fps (.dpx format) This option scheduled to be release in August, 2013
So the cheapest option with the Convergent Design hardware would be $3790 without the SSD’s. SSD’s range from $1190 for two 240GB and $4390 for two 960GB drives. It all depends if the smallest disks will be able to record higher Raw bit rates.
2nd update:
According to tweet from Convergent Design any two disks can record continuous 240fps, so the cheapest recording option for FS700 is $4980.