Burnt Cineroid

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dafilms

Member
This is just a cautionary tale. The other day, a very sunny day, I was shooting with my AF100 outdoors. Because the sun was so intense, I was particularly careful to make sure that neither the native AF100 viewfinder nor my attached Cineroid were exposed to direct sunlight. Well, the native AF viewfinder made out just find, but my Cineroid had a couple of very close calls. The intense light that did make it thru the EVF's diopter managed to burn some serious scars into that plastic bezel. The LCD itself was spared. Thankfully!

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That happened to me - was holding it in my hand by my side and it was at the wrong angle for about ten seconds (literally). Brought it back up to my eye and half the screen was gone!
 
TomLenham-

I'm curious, was you damage temporary? On a shoot a few months ago, at some point during the morning, I looked into my Cineroid an found a black spot about the size of a dime. I thought, for sure, the EVF was done for, so I tuned it off. After lunch I switch it back on and the black spot was completely gone. I haven't seen it since. I still don't know what caused it.
 
If you get a direct exposure to strong sunlight it's permanent. I burn a hole right through the plastic coating on my Zacuto LCD. They sent along a 16:9 mask that supposed to help with the problem, but I'm capping the eye piece every time I look away now outside. Zacuto was good about replacing the LCD at a reasonable cost.
 
So does cineroid and the rest of folks have a cap like zacuto? I always remember to cap my zacuto evf....except once. but i had the sunmask also on it. It wasn't for 2 long and the sun was low in the sky. When i realized i rushed and capped it. I have an evf snap so sometimes i just pop it off instead which is handy.
 
dafilms said:
TomLenham-

I'm curious, was you damage temporary? On a shoot a few months ago, at some point during the morning, I looked into my Cineroid an found a black spot about the size of a dime. I thought, for sure, the EVF was done for, so I tuned it off. After lunch I switch it back on and the black spot was completely gone. I haven't seen it since. I still don't know what caused it.
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oh no, when I say gone, I mean GONE lol - burnt to a crisp. Bit like my wife's cooking.
 
I wish the Cineroid and other EVFs had some sort of internal cap. I can remember on an Arri SR2, the eyepiece had a spring loaded shutter that opened when you pressed your eye to the eyecup. Something like that would be sweet, but I'm not holding my breath.
 
dafilms said:
I wish the Cineroid and other EVFs had some sort of internal cap. I can remember on an Arri SR2, the eyepiece had a spring loaded shutter that opened when you pressed your eye to the eyecup. Something like that would be sweet, but I'm not holding my breath.
Click to expand...

This has been discussed several times, and frankly I'm surprised that there hasn't been a response from one of the manfacturers... I burned (and totaled) a Cineroid screen, and have since burned the bezel on my Zacuto similar to the above... I do have the 16x9 mask, but it's obviously not a perfect solution.. As said here, there needs to be a shutter, preferably spring loaded, to solve this (I had one on a 35mm Eclair 40 years ago)... even if it was an after market accessory I would pay for it.

My quick and dirty solution, and I do mean quick and dirty, is to use a black foam rubber "cap". Because I always use a chamois eyepiece cover, the stock hard plastic cap is awkward... and letting it dangle from the finder is annoying because it bangs around while handholding. So I cut a circle of 1/4" thick black foam (like hard drives come packed in) just slightly larger than the hole in the chamois. I attached a short leash to it and to the little red "eye" on the Z-Finder.. When I take my eye away, I can easily shove the foam in and don't have to worry about it clicking into place - it just blocks the light... It works, but you've still got to remember to do it EVERY TIME! You would be amazed at how quickly this problem can happen, even in subdued light.
 
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