Introducing the Odyssey7 and 7Q from Convergent Design

[Chris Hurd]

Convergent Design, maker of the popular nanoFlash and Gemini 4:4:4 onboard recorders, announces two new additions to their product suite, Odyssey7 and 7Q, full-featured 7.7” OLED monitors, both capable of professional recording with extra cost options. The Odyssey series combines Convergent Design’s knowledge and experience of both broadcast and cinematography recorders, while adding the capabilities of a high-end professional monitor for an amazing $1295 USD.

The Monitor and Recorder Unite... full press release, photos, video at

Introducing the Odyssey7 and 7Q from Convergent Design at DV Info Net

[Jack Zhang]

It's Adobe Creative Cloud's business model, but in hardware form.

Convergent might want to look into a XAVC recorder in a smaller form factor IMHO.

[Stewart Chong]

7" OLED monitor is a need for any Camera and Pay to grow is a good business model though.
Cheers,
Stewart Chong
Founder and DIS ( Digital Imaging Strategist )
Wow Holdings
HK - CHINA
Thailand

[Dennis Hingsberg]

So far all I read was ARRIraw, Canon RAW and Uncompressed DNX. .. any codec there for just regular HD?

I do like the idea of a nice OLED external screen though, I have the Sony OLED HD VF on my F55 and no way I'm ever giving that up!

[Dan Keaton]

Dear Dennis,

Yes, there will be an option, a low cost option, for recording Avid DNxHD.

Avid DNxHD can be used in Final Cut Pro very easily, just download the codecs from Avid.

And we expect to offer additional codecs, when they are ready and approved later.

The price for the options and the 7Q will be announced in May.

Come see us at NAB, we will have the Odyssey7 and 7Q in our booth and many others.
Our booth is C6713.

[Mark Kenfield]

What a terrific offering! I've been in need of a client/director's monitor for a while now - and in lust of the ability to pull 1080p50 off my Sony F3 for even longer. Looks like I can now get both solutions in one. Great stuff CD.

Any prospect of ProRes recording down the line Dan?

[Dan Keaton]

Dear Mark,

Thank you very much.

We worked very hard to put all important high-end professional monitor features into a very low-cost OLED monitor.

The images on the OLED look great, with great blacks and great contrast.

These are very good implementations of the various features such as two-level Zebras, Waveform Moniting, Peaking (Focus Assist), False Color, and RGB Histogram.

Each image analysis tool can be shown in Full Screen, or in Four Quadrant mode. Since we have a 7.7" diagonal monitor, we have the room to show the video, plus three additional tools in separate quadrants.

With the Odyssey7Q, one can monitor four images simultaneously, in four quadrants.

And with the Odyssey7Q, with extra cost recording options, one will be able to record, for example, ARRIRAW plus record a Proxy file in Avid DNxHD-36, which is commonly used in on-line/offline editing workflows.

There are many more features. For Tech Specs and a nice introductory video about our new products, please visit

Odyssey7 and 7Q

[Tim Polster]

Dan, do you have a brightness rating for the monitor? I could not find one on the site.

[Dan Keaton]

Dear Tim,

It is nice to hear from you.

Yes, it is 250 Nits which is 250 Cd/m2.

But, this number cannot be compared to LCD Nits.

The OLED Monitor will have a lower Nits value, but will appear brighter.

I have not researched why this is so, but I feel it is due to the fact that the OLED has much better blacks, while an LED shows blacks as grays, adding to the Nits value.

These are not dim monitors. The images look great, as we will show at NAB.

But, I feel that one will want a Sunhood, which we will offer as an accessory, for shooting in the sun.

We are also working on an anti-glare treatment for the monitor.

[Tim Polster]

Thanks for your reply Dan.

[Emmanuel Plakiotis]

dear Dan
will be a ProRes option?

[Dan Keaton]

Dear Friends,

Our first compressed codec will be Avid DNxHD.

As soon as we develop, test, and get approval, we will add a popular second compressed codec.

[Dave Allen]

I am comparing this to the Ikan D7, and aside from the record feature, so far I can't figure out the manner in which this does focus assist. Does this have monochrome peaking as a focus assist or how is it accomplished?

The price is not too much more than the aforementioned, so I am checking.

Also, will this eventually be able to handle recording the 4k signal out of a Sony FS700? Sony's add-on 4k recorder may be in the $2k range. I wonder what frames rates the Sony 4k recorder will handle.

I'll come by the Convergent booth at NAB.

[Dan Keaton]

Dear David,

We have attempted to implement professional level features in every image analysis tool.

For Focus Assist (Peaking) you have your choice of color to be used to show the peaking.

One color does not work in all situations, so you have a choice of colors to use.

I do not know, at this moment, if we have a monochome setting for our Focus Assist, but I will check.

We are very happy with our Focus Assist in how it is working and will be happy to show it to you at NAB.


For the FS700, we have been working with Sony USA for quite some time now.

We are ready, willing and able to support monitoring and recording from the Sony FS700.

We are seeing some progress in the approval process of Sony, in their allowing us to accept the 4K signal from the FS700.

This would be a great question to ask Sony at their booth, which is not far from ours (C6713) in Central Hall.

As I understand it, for the FS700 to record 4K, you need two items plus the media.

1. An adapter (around $2,000 or so) to add some interface capability to their 4K recorder.

2. Their recorder (around $5,0000 to $6,000, more or less) + their media.

These prices are just general ballparks, I did a quick search to find the prices, but did not find them.

For us, you will need our Odyssey7 or Odyssey7Q + a recording option + media.


On a side note, the Odyssey7 or Odyssey7Q will be able to record the Super Slo-Motion out of the camera, just as the Gemini 4:4:4 does now.

I hope this helps. I am sorry that I do not have the exact pricing.

[Chris Tangey]

Originally Posted by Chris Hurd

The Monitor and Recorder Unite... full press release, photos, video at

Introducing the Odyssey7 and 7Q from Convergent Design at DV Info Net

Wow Dan (and CD gang) very impressive. Pity many thousands of us can't just duck down to NAB to see the monitor ourselves, which as you allude to doesn't look very impressive brightness-wise purely on specs. I know exactly what you mean with not just going on specs though, it's a bit like "wall of sound " V volume, tech stats don't give the whole story on the actual loudness you hear.

Like the various add-on capabilities and the rentability thing? Brilliant. Still, as I'm sure you well know, what the prices of all the "bits" add up to will be the key, but judging by the initial unit price you are following a (relatively) larger production run model rather than an elite high-cost one. Who knows?.. maybe with the inherent buildability and future-proofing you CAN be all things to all people with this one. Anyway, as always CD, well done.