FS7: EVF crossroads - FS7 Z Finder or Gratical?

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bengiles

Well-known member
I can't see any other viable EVF offerings at the mo. So I either go for a Gratical - probably the X or Eye - or continue with the native Sony EVF and shorten/improve the loupe with a Z Finder.

Anyone been down this road yet? Any wisdom?
 
The eye is very good value at about half the price of other OLED EVF,s.. the auto cut off "proximity" sensor on mine doesn't work very well..(maybe newer ones are better) screen goes black even with my eye right up to the finder.. solution.. switch the function off.. it doesn't read my battery power correctly .. and no on/off switch.. but the image is very good, and the design is good.. on the whole I would recommend it .. the native finder on the fs7 doesn't look very good to me.. its alot worse than the f5/55 LCD.. unfortunately..
 
LennyLevy said:
How does the Z finder improve over the existing Loupe?
Click to expand...

I haven't tried one out- but the shorter length is a definite attraction. My Sony original is getting a bit knackered and I'm prepping for a fairly extended shoot.

The whole EVF market seems woefully under-supplied at the mo. Lots of gotchas at every corner - for example, the eye is relatively compact, but you've got to get another power source, and I've purposely moved away from V locks to keep weight down. Then the larger Gratical - takes a battery, but how much does that unbalance things?

I'm tempted by the OLED offerings, but also have got used to shooting from the hip and using the LCD with the loupe flipped up.

Too many decisions and not enough time :-) Anyone else been through this?
 
bengiles said:
I'm tempted by the OLED offerings, but also have got used to shooting from the hip and using the LCD with the loupe flipped up.

Too many decisions and not enough time :-) Anyone else been through this?
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I totally get this. I too would love to find a better solution than the FS7's screen, but I just can't find one. They all have compromises like you said. The Eye looks great, but you have to power it. Same goes with the others. I don't want to have to run V-Locks or even deal with monitoring any of the external batteries that you can get for those EVFs. It either makes your rig bulky or gives you more you have to pay attention to rather than just shooting.

I also love being able to use the LCD screen as both a viewfinder and a monitor when the loupe is flipped up and other than SmallHD, I don't see another one out there that has this option, and even theirs you have to turn the monitor sideways anytime you want to use the loupe. Frustrating.

So I've just stuck with Sony's LCD screen and added Zacuto's Z-Finder. It makes everything smaller and more compact than Sony's own loupe and is comfortable and clear. You're still limited in screen sharpness or resolution due to Sony's crappy LCD screen, but it's the best solution I've found for someone who wants to have a monitor and a viewfinder all in one. If I were only shooting with a viewfinder, I would consider the Eye and put up with the external batteries for it, but I find having a screen invaluable, so I went the Z-Finder route and have been working with it for the last couple years.

My only gripe is that I've had it fog on me a few times. I actually contacted Zacuto about this yesterday and am waiting to hear back from them because supposedly this isn't supposed to fog. But it nearly screwed me on a shoot on the Texas coast a few weeks ago because of that, so that's the only thing I would look out for. Other than that, if you shoot like me, I don't know of anything better than this on the market.
 
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The EYE has no external battery.. you have to power through Lemo plug... Zacuto make an anti fog "disc" 52mm plastic .. you put it into the rubber "eye cup" of any of their products.. it wears out after a while but they are very good.. order a few at a time..
 
Hey Donny, you are right, you don't have to have an external battery for the Eye, but you have to have some place to hook the power cable to, so unless you're running a V-Lock with D-tap or some other external battery source, you can't power it. The only other option that I see is to use the SWIT batteries for the FS7 that have D-tap built in, but I own those batteries and anytime I hook anything up to them while they are in my FS7, they start to die really quick, which would make them hard to use in actuality unless one is ok with changing batteries a lot. At least, this has been my experience and understanding, but if there's another way to power the Eye that I don't know of, please share here. I don't own one so I'm only going off of what I have researched online.
 
Joshua Milligan said:
Hey Donny, you are right, you don't have to have an external battery for the Eye, but you have to have some place to hook the power cable to, so unless you're running a V-Lock with D-tap or some other external battery source, you can't power it. The only other option that I see is to use the SWIT batteries for the FS7 that have D-tap built in, but I own those batteries and anytime I hook anything up to them while they are in my FS7, they start to die really quick, which would make them hard to use in actuality unless one is ok with changing batteries a lot. At least, this has been my experience and understanding, but if there's another way to power the Eye that I don't know of, please share here. I don't own one so I'm only going off of what I have researched online.
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This is part of my dilemma. I've been quoted £560 for a set of 4 Hawk Woods BPU75s with D Taps. Trouble is, I've already got a fleet of very healthy BPUs.

The Z Finder is looking more attractive at the mo - shame Sony don't do something better quality with the proprietary EVF plug.
 
For note one can buy Hawkwoods bpu plates with 2 dtap outs.

If you can belt one of these into the rig then..

-one could power the eye with a bpu30
-power camera and eye with a 60/90
Etc
One still lives in bpu land.

I feel the cable of the Sony Evf is too short. period. To make a really balanced rig.

I'd consider..
Addition of a bpu plate
Purchase of the zacuto golf ball
Using the stock monitor for lo-mode and sticks operation.
 
morgan_moore said:
For note one can buy Hawkwoods bpu plates with 2 dtap outs.

If you can belt one of these into the rig then..

-one could power the eye with a bpu30
-power camera and eye with a 60/90
Etc
One still lives in bpu land.

I feel the cable of the Sony Evf is too short. period. To make a really balanced rig.

I'd consider..
Addition of a bpu plate
Purchase of the zacuto golf ball
Using the stock monitor for lo-mode and sticks operation.
Click to expand...

Thanks Sam - will think about where I can put a battery plate. Not as elegant as a single battery, but Josh's observations about his Swits running out quickly also gives pause for thought.
 
Sod it, life's too short - I've gone for the Gratical Eye plus Axis Mini thingy and a bunch of HW D Tap batteries.

Ans as Sam suggested, I now have a nice small EVF monitor that can plug in without hassle when I need it.

And my wallet's lighter.

What's not to like? Thanks for the input, everyone.
 
Think you’ll love the Eye. Access to False Color alone is a killer feature, & the image is much better than Sony’s LCD.

When running off BPUs unplug it between shots, & be careful with the camera’s overlays, as unlike those generated by the Gratical, these can burn-in to the OLED.

I also have Zacuto’s loupe, but it’s been relegated to backup, & the Eye does the heavy lifting.
 
Thanks Bern. I like the idea of being able to keep the image clean and running the overlays underneath - saves me having to switch the display button back and forth, I hope.
 
Anything from the SDI will burn in.. over time anyway.. but you can toggle display on/off.. re the power .. yes as there is no battery you do ofcourse have to power it from somewhere :).. AFAIK thats pretty much D tap from some battery.. and a small battery will go down faster.. you cane change the laws of physics captian...
 
I've just kept the Sony LCD for a few reasons
- I like the flip up option a great deal
- I like having access to the Camera and LUTs that come through the Sony cable VF cable though I guess you can get through SDI also.
- I like having 2 SDI ports independent of the VF

To deal with the too long eyepiece I replaced it with a longer black 15mm rod from small rig and that allows me to get the VF more forward and thus balance the camera better. For me the VF cable is long enough.

- I also replaced the Sony 15mm rod adapter ( That 90 degree thing) that connects to the camera with one from smallrig that has 2 tightening screws so you can adjust the tilt and the height of the VF separately.
- I replaced the tighten screws that came with the small rig pieces with a couple from J Winco ( a great resource) that have much longer handles that allow a quick secure lock so its just easier to adjust.
- Also added a stronger +3 or +4 50mm diopter (don't remember which) to make the VF image a little bigger .

All very cheap fixes which is to my liking a lot:)

Its still not the greatest image but its good enough for my purposes and the ergonomics are good. I've never been able to focus a Z finder well for reasons I've never understood even though I tried all their spacers. Might have something to do with my glasses or maybe I just expected more when i tried it on a 5D.
 
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