Cineroid EVF - pointed into sun burned pixels

S

sloppygummo

Member
Hello all, my first post here.
Just got a Cineroid EVF from Germany, after playing with it for a couple of hours in interiors I decided to give it a try outside. Guess what ? Not long after setting things up I discovered that the LCD panel showed two white spots of several pixels each... To cut a long story short, the sun has probably burned the LCD panel even in the few minutes of setting the camera, tripod and lens :crybaby::crybaby::crybaby:
Being winter here in Italy, the sun is not harsh but quite low towards the horizon, therefore BE EXTREMELY CAREFUL with your Cineroid because it is SO SENSITIVE to sunrays.
Sh*t happened :(

Bobby
 
Sure it's not just bad pixels? Mass production LCDs are notorious for having a certain number of bad pixels. They actually judge the LCD grades by how many bad pixels you have.

Could be that you just had a latent failure that took some time to develop.
 
Sorry to hear that, Bobby. As with any of these viewfinders (electric or not), you do have to be extremely careful not to point the optical loupe directly at the sun as it works like a magnifying glass.
Svart is correct in that mass production of LCD's are notorious for having bad pixels, but in my experience with the EVF's the bad pixels are just one bad pixel, alone and separate. If you are seeing white spots of several pixels, then it is most likely due to the damage from the sun. You might find it worthwhile to have the panel repaired.
 
Dear Ceneroid, you might consider giving him a discount on that repair/return. When the same thing happened to our old GL2, canon fixed it at no cost even though it was clearly our fault.
 
Svart said:
Sure it's not just bad pixels? Mass production LCDs are notorious for having a certain number of bad pixels. They actually judge the LCD grades by how many bad pixels you have.

Could be that you just had a latent failure that took some time to develop.
Click to expand...

If I got an LCD with a bad pixel I would return it until I got one that didn't. But that's not the issue here.
 
cineroid said:
Sorry to hear that, Bobby. As with any of these viewfinders (electric or not), you do have to be extremely careful not to point the optical loupe directly at the sun as it works like a magnifying glass.
Svart is correct in that mass production of LCD's are notorious for having bad pixels, but in my experience with the EVF's the bad pixels are just one bad pixel, alone and separate. If you are seeing white spots of several pixels, then it is most likely due to the damage from the sun. You might find it worthwhile to have the panel repaired.
Click to expand...

Thanks Joseph for your prompt reply, I'm so desperate about what happened to my brand new cineroid :( Fact is that I've been using analog and digital gear for 25 years now and I never had such a disaster with any of my beloved video/still cameras, even when used for days in bright sunny locations. I couldn't imagine that few minutes spent in setting up a shot outside could give a harm to the viewfinder... I suggest Cineroid to design a way to protect the oversensitive LCD panel before hordes of angry users spread the bad news over the net...
 
Cosimo Bullo said:
Dear Ceneroid, you might consider giving him a discount on that repair/return. When the same thing happened to our old GL2, canon fixed it at no cost even though it was clearly our fault.
Click to expand...
Thanks Cosimo for your message, I would appreciate some kind of discount on repair/return from Cineroid but it seems to me that's not the case here, they warned customers not to point the EVF to direct sunlight :-(
 
My plan was to buy the cineroid this week. But know I will await what cineroid will offer to fix this problem. If it will happen to burn the LCD within minutes, I cant use it. OK, I understand, that an owner has to be careful with this issue, but in everday life of a filmmaker it can always happen that there will be an unattended Minute....
Benn
 
sloppygummo said:
Thanks Cosimo for your message, I would appreciate some kind of discount on repair/return from Cineroid but it seems to me that's not the case here, they warned customers not to point the EVF to direct sunlight :-(
Click to expand...

Hi Bobby.
We do include a warning in our packaging to not point the EVF directly into the sun and we also have a shadow disk installed on the eyepiece to limit the surface area where the sunlight can hit the optical part of the EVF.
That said, give me a day to get in touch with the factory in Korea. I'll have this remedied for you. :)
 
A little quick switch with a shutter that opens and closes like what covers the lenses of Sony video cams (think consumer cams or EX1) might be really helpful and relatively easy to implement.
 
cineroid said:
Hi Bobby.
We do include a warning in our packaging to not point the EVF directly into the sun and we also have a shadow disk installed on the eyepiece to limit the surface area where the sunlight can hit the optical part of the EVF.
That said, give me a day to get in touch with the factory in Korea. I'll have this remedied for you. :)
Click to expand...
Hi Joseph, I appreciate a lot your feedback. As I stated early, I'm not complaining about your product, I know it has been my fault. Nevertheless I do suggest to your company to find a working remedy to what it appears a serious (and scary) issue in using the Cineroid in the field. It seems that Zacuto had the same problem with their VF, and released an upgraded version of their products that fixed the issue. That said, I can only thank you for your dedication to customers and your seriousness.
All the best from Italy,
Bobby
 
Ben_B said:
A little quick switch with a shutter that opens and closes like what covers the lenses of Sony video cams (think consumer cams or EX1) might be really helpful and relatively easy to implement.
Click to expand...
I had the same thought, but I do not know if it's an overly expensive trick...
 
Hmmm.... EVF sunburn happened on Canon and other brands in the past, right? How did they resolve it?

What will happen to 10" LCD monitor in direct sunlight?

Cineroid EVF is so radically innovative product... Hopefully they address the issue quickly.
 
stonebat said:
Hmmm.... EVF sunburn happened on Canon and other brands in the past, right? How did they resolve it?
Click to expand...
Every camera that has a magnifier over its viewfinder, is subject to the same issue. I don't think I've ever seen a user's manual that didn't warn against this.

Canon had it especially bad on the XL1, they modified the camera somehow to make it less likely but it'll still happen.

What will happen to 10" LCD monitor in direct sunlight?
Click to expand...
Nothing -- it's not that the sun's hitting the LCD, it's that there's a magnifying glass over the viewfinder that is causing the problem. Think about using a magnifying glass and how you can intensify the sunlight with it -- now imagine pointing that magnifying glass at your 10" monitor and yeah, you'd have a problem. Well, that's the same thing the viewfinder does -- it's a magnifying glass, and if you point it towards the sun, bam -- burnt screen.
 
benn said:
in everday life of a filmmaker it can always happen that there will be an unattended Minute....
Benn
Click to expand...
That's just what happened... and it was the very few minutes of Cineroid life outside the box :( I can imagine what will happen to a film crew shooting a low angle scene on a beach, you'll have the VF almost all the time pointing toward the sun. And it's quite impossible to be always in control of the sinister sunrays...
 
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OK, I understand - its a common problem of LCDs with magnifying glasses and not a special problem of this cineroid. That calmes me down, but I need always to keep this fact in my mind, when i work in the field. Last question: Can it happen with a stronger studio lamp as well?
Benn
 
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