Bought a viewfinder for my F900 and it does not work.. need help finding other option

Mike Krumlauf

Mike Krumlauf

Award Winning Filmmaker
I recently purchased a modified OPTEX sony viewfinder for my F900 from a guy off ebay. He assured me it would work as he had used it with "many sony cameras". The pin plug fit into the 900's viewfinder port but when i turn the 900 on, all i get in the viewfinder is the "gain up" light turning red. What led me to believe for sure this unit will never work is the creation date for the electronic part of the viewfinder is "September 1990" which leads me to believe this is an SD unit and SD viewfinders do not work with HD Cameras (am i wrong?). So, while i am awaiting the seller's feedback on return policies, i need to find a replacement viewfinder for my 900 for under $600 and fairly quickly. New, used, does not matter, as long as it works. Does anyone have any ideas? I tried finding the HDVF unit that came with the 900 (which i ironically had and sold to get this unit) but the cheapest i see them on ebay is 1200 bucks. I also know of SDI viewfinders now a days, but, i was trying to find something that worked with the cameras viewfinder port so i could have one monitor on showing camera info at all times and use my SDI color monitor for just a clean feed signal. If i missed something on this viewfinder i bought and i can actually get it to accept a signal from my F900 please enlighten me, but im sure im dead in the water on trying to get this to work.

Thanks Guys
 
I had to do some digging to find out what this is and I think I found the original eBay listing that you probably bought it through. https://www.ebay.com/itm/VARIABLE-LENGTH-EXTENDED-FINDER-OPTEX-SONY-CAN-WORK-ON-MOST-CAMERAS-/302448165643?hash=item466b50c30b%3Ag%3APe0AAOSwGvhT5XSn&nma=true&si=D4paLNVvKpihMOiBSTa2xQLl2LI%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

You may be screwed. I did not see anywhere in the listing that it is specifically compatible with the F900, it's pictured on an old dockable SD camera and the listing specifically says "seller does not offer returns" under RETURN POLICY. I think you presumed too much with "Can work on most cameras" or the seller just saying that he had used it on "many sony cameras", and reading the listing description it's in reference to the actual "extender" portion that can be used/modified to work on other cameras VF's.
 
Yeah, as much as i dont believe the extender mount is worth $600 bucks, i'm just taking this sale as a learning experience. I think its best to wait until i can afford the color view finder.. i saw one for 1800, im sure that will come down in a year or two, who knows.
 
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Ouch! That was a fairly expensive mistake.

New this unit cost over $3,750.00. You can have it for a fraction of that. Will earn it's price back in rentals in no time flat.
Click to expand...

LOL! The seller is dreaming thinking a buyer could quickly earn back its price in rentals in 2018
 
I ran across at least one or two Sony color VF's on eBay around $1500. I thought I saw one around $1300 earlier, but didn't run across it again. Crazy when you look back and realize that these were $8k-$10k-$12k VF's not too long ago. Of course, at one point the F900 was listed at over $100K.

There are several B&W 20A's on there, as well. One close to your $600 price range listed in your first post, but I wouldn't buy it. It's beat all to hell.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/SONY-HDVF-C30W-COLOR-LCD-Viewfinder-for-HDCAM-HDC-SRW-PDW-F55-F65-F35-cameras/123151088889?hash=item1cac607cf9:g:FBcAAOSwNhpa5nIX

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Sony-HDVF-C30W-2-7-HD-Color-LCD-Viewfinder-for-PDW-700-F800-PMW-500/273051851227?hash=item3f932899db:g:HXkAAOSw9vladCaz

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Sony-HDVF-C35W-Color-viewfinder-For-XDcam-PDW-PXW-HDC-HDW-F900-F800-F700/142807710431?hash=item214000badf:g:078AAOSwx6pYrzko
 
yeah, given i am not getting a refund from the ebay guy and am now stuck with what i purchased, i dont have any money to drop on a new viewfinder right now. I could see if Adorama could buy it from me, but i doubt it. Nobody is in the market for SD equipment anymore. I was thinking i could try to find an SDI viewfinder that could work with that bracket. Not a good feeling to spend almost $600 on something only for it not to work and now you're stuck with it... hard life lesson..
 
It shouldn't be a problem to adapt the bracket to work with other viewfinders. If it's worth $600 is another story. Only you can know that. But given that Optex was a high end place and similar types of system like Solid Camera, Wooden Camera etc don't really sell for less the price doesn't seem too bad.

But did you specifically ask if the EVF would work with the F900? Because if you did and he said yes, you may have a case with ebay and paypal. They always protect the buyer. It doesn't matter if he says no returns on the list. If he misrepresented the item you have a case. You have written proof. If you just assumed it though then it's all lost.
 
Ebay sided with the guy and closed the return.. now im stuck with something i can't even use and am out $600. anyone need an SD viewfinder? lol
 
Run&Gun said:
I ran across at least one or two Sony color VF's on eBay around $1500. I thought I saw one around $1300 earlier, but didn't run across it again. Crazy when you look back and realize that these were $8k-$10k-$12k VF's not too long ago. Of course, at one point the F900 was listed at over $100K.
Click to expand...

The Blackmagic Design viewfinder is quite amazing value for its low price, I reckon any manufacture today would struggle indeed to sell $10K+ viewfinders.
 
I'm assuming you've moved past this now, but in the off chance you're still looking to make the thing usable you could do a couple of mods or add a custom intermediate cable connector.

I can't see the images from the original ebay post, so I'm guessing this optex VF is based off a Sony BVF-10 or 20, and you'll see that the connector pinout below:
BVF.jpg

Is different to the HDVS / HDVF-CW30 here:
C30_2.jpg

Also the BVF series won't know what to do with a luminance Y signal beyond that of NTSC/PAL (I assume).
However you've got a perfectly good composite Y signal on the miranda that you can make use of.

If you could even remotely be bothered (and have the soldering skills), you could either make a custom connector to split off the VF's cable into DC power and Y signal or just cut some holes in the VF casing to either wire straight out of or add your own connectors.
You'd want to be mindful that there's a CRT inside and that it has hazardous voltage in places.

Personally I'd probably just stick a BNC connector and a barrel jack or DTAP on the casing, allowing you to run standard-ish and neat cables across camera.
Then I'd wire up internally to the pins on the multiconnector.

It looks like you'd need to do something about the voltage that it runs off, which seems to be 9.3v.
Another user Northdevontv in this dvxuser thread used a stepdown regulator to pull down a standard 14.4 unregulated DC source (such as that from a battery) to what the VF is expecting.
Hell, the viewfinder might not even need that, who knows...

It also looks like you'd have to tell the VF to power on by tie-ing one of it's pins to ground, otherwise I think it'll just stay off.
 

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Yeah im long past this.. just invested in a panavised HDVF-30 and the other VF is sitting in its case in my closet collecting dust as nobody wants to buy it given its SD
 
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