nofilmschool » convergentdesign

Fast & RAW: Sony FS700 Achieves 4K Via External Recorders, 120FPS Burst & 240FPS 2K

Dave Kendricken — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 01:09:12 +0000

Since its release last year, we’ve know that Sony’s FS700 — the high-speed ‘little brother to-be’ of the F5 and F55 — had 4K capabilities awaiting in its future. This option, with 4K RAW speeds up to 120fps burst shooting and 2K RAW up to 240fps (continuous) is made possible by a ‘middle-man’ interface/adapter module, the HXR-IF5 along with the AXS-R5 recorder. What we probably didn’t expect was support for 2K CinemaDNG at up to 240fps, or even 4K DPX at a more modest 30fps (still — it’s DPX) by way of another external recorder, the Convergent Design Odyssey7Q. Click through for further details from Sony, some speculative pricing on the R5, and a quick look at these beastly additions to the FS700 system. (more…)

OLED Monitor? 4K RAW Recorder? Convergent Design's New Odyssey7 Series Combines All of the Above

Joe Marine — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 17:40:12 +0000

Convergent Design, one of the first companies to introduce a small and portable external recorder with the Nanoflash, just unleashed a brand new 7.7″ OLED 1280 x 800 external monitor that also doubles as an external recorder capable of receiving 4K RAW as well as uncompressed and DNxHD formats. That’s right, the company has decided that your external monitor isn’t good enough, and your external recorder is a little boring, so the best of both worlds should be combined into one device to rule them all. Here is the introduction video from the company: (more…)

Working with Canon C500 RAW and the Convergent Design Gemini 4:4:4

Joe Marine — Thu, 27 Dec 2012 22:07:06 +0000

With each new camera comes a slightly different workflow, and the situation is no different with the Canon C500. We already talked a bit about the interesting way in which Canon is producing a RAW image with that camera (aside from being completely uncompressed), but we didn’t get into what you’ll actually need to do in order to begin working with this footage. Click through to check out a great video from Andy Shipsides of AbelCine on importing footage that has been recorded with the Convergent Design Gemini 4:4:4. (more…)

RED Announces Price and Availability of New 'Lower Cost' SCARLET-Friendly REDMAGS

Ryan Koo — Thu, 04 Oct 2012 19:20:48 +0000

I’ve pointed out in the past that one of the things keeping the RED SCARLET from being anywhere close to a $10k camera (as its price tag first indicates) is the price of its accompanying REDMAG media. RED recently dropped the price on REDMAGs, but even with the new pricing it’s still easy to spend half as much on the media as you did on the camera body — a ratio that is almost never true for other cameras. The EPIC needs high-speed media for its decreased compression and increased frame rates (and the ratio of media:camera is more friendly with a $1,000 media card when you’re spending $30k on the camera brain), but the SCARLET could use some correspondingly cheaper options. Not just in terms of capacity — also in terms of speed, given no one is shooting 5K at 120FPS on their SCARLET. Enter the new 48GB REDMAGs. (more…)

What Good's a 4K Ready Camera Without a 4K Recording Device? Convergent Design's Gemini RAW Does 4K

Joe Marine — Sat, 14 Apr 2012 08:00:26 +0000

There is no shortage of 4K RAW ready cameras being announced recently, from the Sony FS700 to the Canon C500 (and one internally recording 4K camera). It reminds me a little of when HDTVs were first released and many didn’t include HDTV tuners internally to actually get HD over the air. It’s a nice gesture and a smart idea to attempt to future proof a camera line – but details are a little more hazy on actually recording those 4K video streams to external recorders. Well, for a solution right now, you need to look no further than Convergent Design’s new Gemini RAW recorder. (more…)

NAB Roundup: Monitor/Field Recorders from Atomos, Sound Devices, Convergent Design, and Blackmagic

Ryan Koo — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 01:20:04 +0000

As large-sensor cameras at all price points become more prevalent, one of the most limiting factors to the image quality is the native video codec used for compression. Many of us are used to DSLR codecs that may hold up initially, only to fall apart during color correction (some codecs don’t even hold up very well initially, except for viewing on the web). One way to overcome this limitation is to buy a much more expensive camera with superior recording options, like a RED or ARRI ALEXA. Another way to overcome the same codec issue is to pair an external recorder with a cheaper camera. Here’s a roundup of the field recorders I saw on display at NAB. (more…)

Convergent Design Announces Gemini 4:4:4 Uncompressed Field Recorder/Monitor for $6k

Ryan Koo — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 12:13:26 +0000

Convergent Design, manufacturers of the popular NanoFlash flash-based recorder, have announced the Gemini, a new 4:4:4 uncompressed field recorder. The Gemini features twin SSD slots, which allow for simultaneous recording of an identical backup, or gapless spanning from one drive to the next for longer recording times. The Gemini also integrates an 800×480 5″ LCD screen in a package that’s roughly the same size as the SmallHD DP6 monitor: the Gemini is 5.4″ x 4.5″ x 1.1″ and tips the scales at a scant one pound. (more…)