C300: C300 Mk2 with Gratical Eye overcranking blue screen of death

bluedisk

bluedisk

Active member
I was using my clients C300 MK2 with the Zacuto Gratical Eye EVF a few days ago. Unfortunately when I went to shoot in the Slow and Fast (Slow mo) mode the screen on the Gratical went to blue screen and unresponsive.
It was a bright sunny day outside in a vineyard and I couldn't get the shoot required due to this fault and the cameras LCD screen was not suitable for using as a focussing device..

Has anyone else had this issue?
 
I can't speak specifically to the Eye with a mkII, but I had issues with the 300 and the original Graticle HD on the original shipping/early firmware not recognizing the signal(blue screen) sometimes when it was booted-up or even freezing. It was very annoying, because there were a few times I had to waste several minutes turning it on and off before it would function properly. Reach out to Zacuto. They're pretty responsive, especially to technical issues.
 
Run&Gun said:
I can't speak specifically to the Eye with a mkII, but I had issues with the 300 and the original Graticle HD on the original shipping/early firmware not recognizing the signal(blue screen) sometimes when it was booted-up or even freezing. It was very annoying, because there were a few times I had to waste several minutes turning it on and off before it would function properly. Reach out to Zacuto. They're pretty responsive, especially to technical issues.
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Thanks Run&Gun, yes I sent Zacuto an email yesterday I'm still waiting for a response from them.
 
Bluedisk,

Try changing your 3G-SDI Mapping to Level A when in high speed and see if the VF can see the signal then.
 
What I don't understand is how it would be possible to not be able to pull off a shot with the on-camera LCD. That LCD gets quite bright (brighter than a SmallHD 502) when you turn up the luminance, and pair it with a sunhood, and you'd be hard pressed to find a situation where you couldn't see the screen. The screen is relatively sharp, I'd gather not as sharp as a Gratical, but sharp enough for most cases. I'm not saying it's better than a Gratical setup; I'm just saying I'm having a hard time imagining a situation where it would be completely inadequate to get the shot. I suppose if you didn't have a sunhood on hand, and/or didn't have the proper mounting hardware on hand to get the LCD in the right position, but that's not what it sounded like.

I've had some older field monitors not like the high frame rate feed form the C300 Mark II.
 
Eric Coughlin said:
What I don't understand is how it would be possible to not be able to pull off a shot with the on-camera LCD. That LCD gets quite bright (brighter than a SmallHD 502) when you turn up the luminance, and pair it with a sunhood, and you'd be hard pressed to find a situation where you couldn't see the screen.
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The shot was a long lens pull focus at f2.8 200mm lens walking to camera shot, in bright sunlight without a hood over the LCD. This was a kit that I had just assembled in the airport carpark and even though it was very similar in most ways to my own kit, there were differences.
My own kit is a C300 Mk1 with Gratical X, the clients kit was a C300 MK2 with Gratical Eye. My own camera/evf setup has no issues with off speed work, but I got thrown by not being able to monitor a technically critical shot through the clients EVF.
 
Well there are always workarounds when you don't have a dedicated sunhood, particularity if it's for just one shot. You can use your hands, someone else's hands, a shirt, papers, etc., to shield the screen from the sun.

Also, not sure what frame rate you were shooting at...if you put the camera to 60 fps (not the slow & fast motion setting), then auto-focus still works (assuming you were using an auto-focus lens and not, oh, the Canon 30-300). If you put it to 60 fps in slow and fast motion mode, you don't get auto-focus. I gather the primary advantage of using slow and fast motion mode for 60 fps is that you get slow motion playback in-camera, while filming at 60p without slow and fast motion mode you don't get slow motion playback in-camera. I believe the regular 60p setting also is more friendly with external devices such as field monitors and viewfinders.
 
Eric Coughlin said:
Well there are always workarounds when you don't have a dedicated sunhood, particularity if it's for just one shot. You can use your hands, someone else's hands, a shirt, papers, etc., to shield the screen from the sun.

Also, not sure what frame rate you were shooting at...if you put the camera to 60 fps (not the slow & fast motion setting), then auto-focus still works (assuming you were using an auto-focus lens and not, oh, the Canon 30-300). If you put it to 60 fps in slow and fast motion mode, you don't get auto-focus. I gather the primary advantage of using slow and fast motion mode for 60 fps is that you get slow motion playback in-camera, while filming at 60p without slow and fast motion mode you don't get slow motion playback in-camera. I believe the regular 60p setting also is more friendly with external devices such as field monitors and viewfinders.
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I appreciate your suggestions about work arounds, but my primary concern was getting the EVF to work in the slow and fast mode, as I expected it to do based on my own set-up. Yes, I could have done the things you suggest, but I have always used a viewfinder and did not consider using the EVF outside in bright sunshine as a critical focussing device. Maybe I need to move with the times.
 
Macaholic said:
Bluedisk,

Try changing your 3G-SDI Mapping to Level A when in high speed and see if the VF can see the signal then.
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This has always worked for me. Zacuto only takes Level A 3G SDI.
Canon C300mk2 defaults to Level B 3G SDI.
Another workaround I've used is to connect the Zacuto Gratical with HDMI instead, but that has it's own set of issues so mostly I just connect with SDI and then switch between 3G Level A & B if I have to.

Obviously, a 3rd party EVF like the Zacuto Gratical really should accept all the different formats, also 2K and 444.
 
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I've had my SDI MONITOR OUT go horizontally blurry and had to swap the frequency from 59.94 to 50HZ then back to 59.94 to resolve it. Be careful though as it defaults your frame rate to 29.97 - so remember to switch it back to 23.98.
 
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