C100: C100 evf

scorsesefan

scorsesefan

Veteran
I've had the C100 for a few months now and I'm finding the EVF quite usable, even in direct sunlight. I bought the C-Cup but it has just been sitting in my bag. Has anyone else made peace with the EVF or am I alone? Disclosure: I have kind of a flat nose, so maybe that helps get my face closer to the camera ;)
 
You talking the viewfinder or the flipout LCD? You said EVF but I think people probably use these terms interchangeably.

I'm pretty sure I'm getting one of these, so I will have to make peace with it. People complain about the LCD being "too blue." Most cams' EVFs of them seem to blue when correctly white balanced. I use an EX1 a lot and have (finally) learned to just trust it knows what it's doing when manually white balancing and that when I get home and see the footage that "too blue" in the field will translate to "just right" on a computer monitor.

As for direct sun I just did a shoot with the C100 outdoors with no cup, etc. It was miserable. I could barely see **** unless I was in a shaded area. A colleague highly recommends the Zacuto Z-finder pro (I think it's the pro) for outdoor work, so I guess now I have to get one of those. Maybe it stays on all the time. I did use the viewfinder now and again but yeah it's pretty soft/small/awkward so I'd like to stick to LCD whenever possible.
 
I mostly use my Ninja Blade with a Hoodman but I recently shot two weeks in 128F in Africa and yes, it was quite bright out. Here is a picture of me shooting footage of a drone taking off and you can see that I liked the C cup although for this shot, I used the Blade screen because of position. For me at least, C100 MKI VF is useless outdoors without it, although I can use it indoor without it.

IMG_3896.jpg
 
I meant the viewfinder, not the fold out LCD. I'm finding right now I prefer it without the C-Cup because the C-Cup takes your eye further away from an already small image...
 
I bought the C-cup. At first I liked it, but then found it was often getting in the way and was essentially trying to make something bad less bad, so I stop using it. I actually kind of preferred the smaller and less obtrusive eye pad options (for about $7) that I used before the C-cup simply because they didn't protrude from the camera as much, though they did tend to fall off and get lost.

I considered getting nose surgery to flatten my nose, but found that was going to be too expensive, so I then thought about hiring someone to beat my nose in with a baseball bat, or asking if a friend could do it at a discounted rate, but in the end I decided to buy a C100 Mark II instead and that solved my issue. My nose was very happy with the C100 Mark II, and liked the smell of the new camera too, so much so did it like the Mark II, that it "got involved" with it. I don't want to go into further details for fear of causing scandal to my nose, which has a reputation to maintain, so I'll just leave it at that.

I did buy Sachtler Hoods to use on the LCD screens for my various C100s, and often still find those very useful outside. http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1115070-REG/sachtler_sa1018_mini_hood.html
 
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Does that sachtler work well outdoors in bright sun? a colleague/friend swears by the z finder pro which is of course about 15x the price of that sachtler hood.
 
Yeah, my flat nose came free courtesy of my parents. Come to think of it I've been punched in the face a few times, so that didn't help...

btw Eric, were you using the small evf eye cushion that everyone recommends for the c100?
 
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Josh Bass said:
Does that sachtler work well outdoors in bright sun? a colleague/friend swears by the z finder pro which is of course about 15x the price of that sachtler hood.
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Yeah, I find I can see everything well outside with it in most cases. I prefer it over the Zacuto since you can see it without putting your eye right up to it. The Z-finder is good if you want an extra point of contact for handheld/shoulder mounted use which a hood doesn't provide as well. Most of the time I'm on a slider, monopod, tripod, Steadicam, etc., so I want to be able to see the LCD screen from around a foot away.

I just got a Zacuto Z-finder for my C300 Mark II which came in the Zacuto kit I bought, though I doubt I'll use it much for the reason I just mentioned. Whenever I want to make minor camera menu adjustments without having to pick up the whole camera and put my eye to it, it's a pain to do with the Z-finder attached. It'll probably be useful for the rare reality TV gig I do two or three times a year where I want a full shoulder setup for a long day.

I used the use the Z-finder on my 60D. I need to sell that one, if it's still worth anything.

I have a Hoodman and Sachtler hood for my C300 Mark II, and prefer the Hoodman as it's less pieces and quicker to assemble. It's deeper than the Sachtler, so doesn't have as much need for the extra piece which attaches via velcro to the Sachtler to increase the depth, and the Sacthler also has the extra step of connecting clips to assemble it. Not a big deal, but from out of the bag we're talking about say a 25 second setup time on the Sachtler to a 10 second setup time on the Hoodman.

The C300 Mark II's LCD screen is really bright, a lot brighter than the C100's, so I find I don't need to use a hood as often. I haven't seen a similar product from Hoodman specifically marketed for the C100, though I've been thinking lately that perhaps some of their options made for cameras in general may work if you pick the right screen size, such as some of these options.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/185507-REG/Hoodman_H_400_H_400_Hood.html

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/840775-REG/Hoodman_HD350_HD350_Video_Hi_Def_16.html

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/835407-REG/Vello_LHV_3_5_3_5_LCD_Hood.html
 
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scorsesefan said:
btw Eric, were you using the small evf eye cushion that everyone recommends for the c100?
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I was using the Bluestar Round Extra Small Microfiber Eyecushion (Red). It worked pretty good, but gets loose over time and kept falling off. I lost two of them. I suppose with two lost it's still cheaper than the C-cup. I also suppose one could makeshift some kind of tape, glue, or other way to keep it on, if one was resourceful. I think overall I preferred it over the C-cup, though; I never did end up using the C-cup that much.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/837359-REG/Blue_Star_20102_Extra_Small_Round_Eye.html
 
Eric Coughlin said:
Yeah, I find I can see everything well outside with it in most cases. I prefer it over the Zacuto since you can see it without putting your eye right up to it. The Z-finder is good if you want an extra point of contact for handheld/shoulder mounted use which a hood doesn't provide as well. Most of the time I'm on a slider, monopod, tripod, Steadicam, etc., so I want to be able to see the LCD screen from around a foot away.

I just got a Zacuto Z-finder for my C300 Mark II which came in the Zacuto kit I bought, though I doubt I'll use it much for the reason I just mentioned. Whenever I want to make minor camera menu adjustments without having to pick up the whole camera and put my eye to it, it's a pain to do with the Z-finder attached. It'll probably be useful for the rare reality TV gig I do two or three times a year where I want a full shoulder setup for a long day.

I used the use the Z-finder on my 60D. I need to sell that one, if it's still worth anything.

I have a Hoodman and Sachtler hood for my C300 Mark II, and prefer the Hoodman as it's less pieces and quicker to assemble. It's deeper than the Sachtler, so doesn't have as much need for the extra piece which attaches via velcro to the Sachtler to increase the depth, and the Sacthler also has the extra step of connecting clips to assemble it. Not a big deal, but from out of the bag we're talking about say a 25 second setup time on the Sachtler to a 10 second setup time on the Hoodman.

The C300 Mark II's LCD screen is really bright, a lot brighter than the C100's, so I find I don't need to use a hood as often. I haven't seen a similar product from Hoodman specifically marketed for the C100, though I've been thinking lately that perhaps some of their options made for cameras in general may work if you pick the right screen size, such as some of these options.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/185507-REG/Hoodman_H_400_H_400_Hood.html

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/840775-REG/Hoodman_HD350_HD350_Video_Hi_Def_16.html

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/835407-REG/Vello_LHV_3_5_3_5_LCD_Hood.html
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Thanks. I'm the opposite of you. . .do next to no slider/etc. work so would be on sticks or handheld more than likely. The z-finder also magnifies too, right? That's gotta be nice.
 
puredrifting said:
I mostly use my Ninja Blade with a Hoodman but I recently shot two weeks in 128F in Africa and yes, it was quite bright out. Here is a picture of me shooting footage of a drone taking off and you can see that I liked the C cup although for this shot, I used the Blade screen because of position. For me at least, C100 MKI VF is useless outdoors without it, although I can use it indoor without it.
Click to expand...

Agreed, the only way to fly with the C100 is with a Ninja Blade. It doubles as a great little field monitor and an external recorder. The majority of my work is on sticks, so I attach the Blade to a Manfrotto ballhead on my hotshoe, which I can then swivel any direction I please while shooting.

You can't count on the base EVF or LCD for focus on the C100 Mk1.
 
jthabel said:
You can't count on the base EVF or LCD for focus on the C100 Mk1.
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I never get these generalizations (or maybe I do, as stated in the last paragraph here). I shoot all of my work with the base EVF (Mark II) and LCD (Mark I & II) and if you go to my Vimeo page you'll have trouble finding out of focus shots. Not saying things on the edit floor are never out of focus, just saying that you can make good in-focus work with lower quality screens.

I used an old HVX-170 on a shoot a few days ago. Geez, that LCD screen is terrible. Felt like I was shooting in SD, but it's an HD camera. But the camera still had magnification while recording, and digital focus distance markers (why haven't large sensor cameras adopted this feature?), along with a deeper depth of field with it's 1/3 inch sensor, which all helped with getting shots in focus. I think many forget how terrible the on-camera screens on some cameras used to be and yet people were used to them and still found ways to get the shots in-focus.

It's funny how it's difficult to go backwards. I shot with the A7s II recently, and the producer on the shoot had two field monitors with him for the three camera shoot; the other two cams were C-series. I wanted a field monitor saying, "I wasn't comfortable pulling focus on that little A7s II screen." Yet, I used to pull focus on the 60D's small LCD screen all the time. So what changed? I guess I got spoiled by better screens, such that I lost confidence in my ability to get focus on lesser screens. I think you also get used to particular types of screens, how your eyes perceive what's in focus on a particular screen, you get used to the idea of having to use magnify to check focus, or peaking, etc. I recall with the GH2 I had a lot of difficulty judging focus on the LCD when I first got it, but over time my eyes adjusted to it such that I could better tell what's in focus.
 
I think with peaking you can pull focus on the c100 stock EVF/LCD. I guess it depends on the work you do. As I've mentioned I do a lot of run n' gun doc stuff so it's more forgiving than narrative work...
 
in my limited experience with the cam (and most cams with peaking) i have found that there is usually a range over which the peaking is active/shows that youre in focus. especially at wider focal lengths this is kind of misleading cause you are NOT in crisp focus over that entire range. so you have to ride the focus to find where the peaking "rings" the brightest/strongest and that is your true "in focus" point. Not a big deal for a sit down interview or controlled situation, problem for run n gun when trying to grab shots quickly. punching in AND using peaking is probably best if you can. whats the cheapest external electonic vf out there? including arm and whatever else?
 
The C300 Mark I EVF was the best I've ever used, so while the C100 Mark I EVF is rough and (for me) pretty impossible to use (especially since I have glasses), the Mark II is the same as the C300 which makes it perfect.

I almost always have peaking set to RED. I can be very confident with that turned on that I'm nailing my focus.
 
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