Was working on a 2 camera shoot with the FS 7 and had a few gremlins during the day.

First: Has anyone experienced the SDI out on the FS7 Freezing while the camera is on? I was using a Clients FS7 yesterday and the the SDI out would freeze occasionally. The viewfinder was acting normally. A restart would clear it up. We were using both outputs to separate monitors. Both Froze. Happened about 10 times during the day. Running the Camera on Batteries and might be voltage related but we weren't completely at the end of the battery before it happened. Luckily the shoot we were doing didn't suffer too much over this but it did cause us to stop a few takes.

Second: The other FS7 we were using had a different issue. The viewfinder would go green at times. Seemed like a physical issue with the cable at the screen side. If we touched the cable where it attached at the screen the correct way the color would come back for a while.

If you're using right angle cables, any movement can cause them to drop signal. If the cables aren't being moved, that's a different issue altogether.

3G-SDI modes run shorter than HD-SDI by sheer design. If your cable is too long, it might be losing signal over the distance.

Hey Jack,
I was using straight BNC's. Camera was on a jib so it was moving but freezing output seemed unrelated. Could have been a power drop. The real concern was it required a restart to clear. We were working too fast to take time to experiment to see if we could make it happen. It would often work for 15 to 30 minutes so maybe some sort of heat issue for that unit.

Was the rig blocking the vents? Very likely that would be the issue if it was encased in a cage designed for a different camera.

Sorry No rig blocking the vents. Camera was sitting on Sachtler head basically stock on jib arm. Same as a tripod set up but moveable.

Just a Follow up. Used the same monitors and cables with my New FS7 and another FS7 from the client and didn't have any issues with freezing so it does seem it was a problem with that specific camera body firmware combo.