F55: DVF-EL200 Viewfinder with F55?
- Thread starter Grug
- Start date
Doug Jensen
Carbonite Member
I don't know much about the EL200, but I have the HDVF-EL30 on my PXW-Z750 and it looks quite similar from the outside with the same controls.
The EL30 has it's own multi-layered menu system, but you cannot control the camera's menus from the viewfinder.
The EL30 does not have false color.
I assume the EL200 would work the same.
Yes, the EL200 will work with the F55 if you add the $800 CBK-55AT adapter cable.
The EL30 has it's own multi-layered menu system, but you cannot control the camera's menus from the viewfinder.
The EL30 does not have false color.
I assume the EL200 would work the same.
Yes, the EL200 will work with the F55 if you add the $800 CBK-55AT adapter cable.
Last edited:
Run&Gun
Veteran
I wanted to switch to the 200 from the 100 on my F55 several years ago when it came out and after playing with one on my friends Venice, but it was just way too expensive by the time you added in the mount adapter and cable needed to make it work. But honestly, now I’d prefer something like the EL30 on my 55. I wish I’d was adaptable to it.
Grug
Veteran
I wasn't aware of the EL30, but it seems like it's on the right-track for what a modern EVF should be.
Arri's new EVF+Monitor for the Mini LF is really what all EVFs should be styled around from now on (albeit companies, including Arri, NEED to start incorporating a bloody protective iris or cover, so that the optics and EVF screen aren't exposed when not in use).
I've poked around on the FB groups as well and it sounds like the EL200 does nothing to rectify the exposure + LUT monitoring issues of the EL100. So it certainly doesn't seem worth the price tag to me.
I wish a crowd like Zacuto would step up to the plate again with a 3rd-party EVF+monitor solution for 2020. Incorporate all of the good stuff from their Graticals (4:3 screen with waveform and information displayed BELOW the image from the camera, robust monitoring features, with the ability to select whether they're applied before or after the monitoring LUT). And then add to it with the features everyone needs:
- Integrated 4"-ish monitor (with decent brightness, like 1500 nits at a minimum)
- Full HD OLED (with a 4:3 ratio for data display beneath the image)
- Proper 3D LUT support
- 12-step False Colour (like Sound Devices provided in their monitors - far superior to all the green/pink/clipping setups everyone else uses)
- Integrated heating element for the optics (to solve fogging issues properly)
- Integrated protective iris (like optical viewfinders had) or ANY kind of integrated cover for the optics (just not the stupid, floppy exterior rubber things).
- Customisable desqueeze and frame guide settings (like the Mini LF has), with MATTES in addition to Frame Lines, so that you can actually clearly delineate your capture frame from its surrounds. And can do so for whatever delivery format/ratio you're aiming for (16:9, 4:3, 2.39:1, 1.85:1, 2:1, both with and without desqueeze in 1.25x, 1.3x, 1.5x, 1.8x and 2x).
Give it the option to be powered both by batteries and an external DC source, so that we have the option to run a single SDI cable (for cleaner camera builds) if we want, but can also just power it from a DTAP or RS port if need be.
Or better yet, talk to the manufacturers and see if they'll give you the protocols to receive both power and video from their own proprietary ports (not likely to happen, but a boy can dream).
That would genuinely be the last EVF anyone would ever have to buy. And no more rigging both an EVF and monitor separately to the camera, just so the operator can move between them as needed.
Arri's new EVF+Monitor for the Mini LF is really what all EVFs should be styled around from now on (albeit companies, including Arri, NEED to start incorporating a bloody protective iris or cover, so that the optics and EVF screen aren't exposed when not in use).
I've poked around on the FB groups as well and it sounds like the EL200 does nothing to rectify the exposure + LUT monitoring issues of the EL100. So it certainly doesn't seem worth the price tag to me.
I wish a crowd like Zacuto would step up to the plate again with a 3rd-party EVF+monitor solution for 2020. Incorporate all of the good stuff from their Graticals (4:3 screen with waveform and information displayed BELOW the image from the camera, robust monitoring features, with the ability to select whether they're applied before or after the monitoring LUT). And then add to it with the features everyone needs:
- Integrated 4"-ish monitor (with decent brightness, like 1500 nits at a minimum)
- Full HD OLED (with a 4:3 ratio for data display beneath the image)
- Proper 3D LUT support
- 12-step False Colour (like Sound Devices provided in their monitors - far superior to all the green/pink/clipping setups everyone else uses)
- Integrated heating element for the optics (to solve fogging issues properly)
- Integrated protective iris (like optical viewfinders had) or ANY kind of integrated cover for the optics (just not the stupid, floppy exterior rubber things).
- Customisable desqueeze and frame guide settings (like the Mini LF has), with MATTES in addition to Frame Lines, so that you can actually clearly delineate your capture frame from its surrounds. And can do so for whatever delivery format/ratio you're aiming for (16:9, 4:3, 2.39:1, 1.85:1, 2:1, both with and without desqueeze in 1.25x, 1.3x, 1.5x, 1.8x and 2x).
Give it the option to be powered both by batteries and an external DC source, so that we have the option to run a single SDI cable (for cleaner camera builds) if we want, but can also just power it from a DTAP or RS port if need be.
Or better yet, talk to the manufacturers and see if they'll give you the protocols to receive both power and video from their own proprietary ports (not likely to happen, but a boy can dream).
That would genuinely be the last EVF anyone would ever have to buy. And no more rigging both an EVF and monitor separately to the camera, just so the operator can move between them as needed.
If interested, here is a download link for a couple of F55 false color luts, one ea. for SLog3->LC709A and SLog2->LC709A.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_j_Taq7GbjiF4f8v4qVuM_zaYIwoUKsn/view?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_j_Taq7GbjiF4f8v4qVuM_zaYIwoUKsn/view?usp=sharing
Grug
Veteran
Yeah, I've already got false colour LUTs for SLOG2 and SLOG3 on mine. With the quick-menu setup it's not horrific to switch them in to check exposure (three button clicks).
Still ridiculous that we've had to develop such workarounds just to access exposure monitoring on the camera.
I just realized something I don't have anymore, an SxS card reader. It was built into an older laptop I got rid of long ago; have been using AXSM memory cards with the R5 raw recorder. I guess I could read them out from the USB port if I had to. That said, the luts are on an SD card. It's been a while since Covid began.
Grug
Veteran
Part of the reason I moved to a pair of 240GB XQD cards + Adapters with mine. The XQD Card Reader uses USB3.1/10Gbps, so transfer speeds are way faster than Sony's SXS reader (which is only USB 3.0/5Gbps).
Hey Bingo! One of my cards in there is already an XQD, forgot about that! But I don't have an XQD card reader either! But if I bring out the F55 I'm shooting raw, so it would only be for backup recording. With raw, you can't play back the file in camera. I learned that when I was shooting stock footage of fighter jets at Buckley AFB. Base security came out and wanted to see what video I had shot, threatening to confiscate my equipment if I had aimed at sensitive areas. Was able to talk him out of it fortunately.
Doug Jensen
Carbonite Member
I have the new SBAC-T40 SxS reader and I can ingest a 240GB SxS ProX card in under 3.5 minutes. Amazing.
Grug
Veteran
Wow! I hadn't heard about the TB3 reader. Sounds like the dream.
Doug Jensen
Carbonite Member
Oh, it is a dream. A few years ago I had to backup an average of 2TB of footage every night in a different hotel room for 28 days during a Tour de France documentary, and then edit a 5-10 minute highlights video from the day's activities for CBS's website. I might have actually gotten some sleep that month if I had had the new cards and reader.