EVF for the 700

K

kevin gallagher

Active member
I will soon be purchasing a EVF for my 700 and am not sure how they all stack up to each other. I guess there's the zacuto on one end and the ebay specials on the other? Does anyone know of a blog/website that does some kind of shootout or comparison? For my needs I just need something sharp enough to get focus. I don't really need a ton of bells and whistles. As a gearwhore I love all the extra stuff that goes with the top-of-the-line gear but in practice I'm more a set-it-and-forget-it shooter, I find the settings I like and don't futz with it too much. With that in mind, I am open to suggestions on an EVF.

thanks
Kevin
 
Hi Kevin, have you had a look at smallhd's dp4 evf? Seems to be a good bang for the buck. Doubles as a 4inch monitor as well. Seems a bit bulky but it's the one that's standing out for me at the moment.
 
Hi, I use the alphatron on the FS700, i haven't really used the Zacuto or Small HD so i can't really compare but if your looking for a monitor that is pretty easy to focus with and has zebras / peaking etc then it's a quite a good monitor. Bit expensive especially as it's so sensitive to light - do not leave it unattended for more than 5 seconds in sunlight when the hood is down.

I've done a bit of a review on the Alphatron here

Good luck with your search

Paul
 
I must confess that spending $1400 for a viewfinder seems like too much for how infrequently I go off the shoulder. Right now the SmallHD seems the way to go for me. Bonus, they are right down the road from me in Charlotte.
Thanks for the input, guys.

cheers,
Kevin
 
I bought the zacuto evf pro and have to admit, I love it and am glad I spent the extra. I looked at the DP4 but it was a bit larger that I wanted. The Zacuto has some pretty cool built in features (zebra, peaking, zoom etc) which the camera does have but I find the Zacuto peaking a bit easier to see. Couple of downsides: there seems to be lag, about 5 frames or so but I got used to it and I regularly film motorsports and 250mph radio controlled jet aircraft accurately. Also, you will probably need to buy some other bits to mount it on your rods which is extra cost.

I would still recommend it though, the battery lasted me about 7 hours on my last shoot which is great.
 
As a DP4 owner I have to say I've never been very happy with the image quality. Far inferior to looking at the back of a 5D. The panel seems a bit washed out and the adjustments don't get it there for me.
 
+1 for the Alphatron. HDMI to SDI conversion. Good color accuracy. Super sharp and easy to pull focus with. And the waveform in the corner is so handy!
 
roro20 said:
+1 for the Alphatron. HDMI to SDI conversion. Good color accuracy. Super sharp and easy to pull focus with. And the waveform in the corner is so handy!
Click to expand...
...and 24-bit RGB LED backlit LCD / 3.54" , 960 x 640 resolution ... Alphatron metal housing is much better than Zacuto ! :)
 
I need to interject at this point, was waiting for someone to bring it up. I'm an alphatron owner. Love it. Beautiful. Lag is is a bit crap, there are posts on that. im ok with it. Luckily so far I've not had to use it on a set where I am relying on someone else to close the viewing shutter, as a number of ppl burn their screens within minutes (which the manual warns against). At nab they introduced a sun screen to fix this problem. Luckily I've not toasted it yet, so I asked them if I could send it in to pay for an upgrade before I inevitably toast it.

tgey said, talk to the distributor you bought it from (in my case Lemac in oz). I've not done this yet as I asked them aside from that what their official position is (as Lemac was unlikely to know anything two days after nab). Silence.

anyway. I asked if new stock had the sunscreen (not sure about local oz stock).

So if you are thinking about it, and you can do the lag, make sure you ask your distributor if its the modified sunscreen stock.

if anyone has had any purchases since nab, or had any questions answered re upgrading theirs before its toasted, I'd be interested to hear. I've a shoot in about 5 weeks where if I'm not careful, ill toast it :(
 
I sent mine in after burning it and had it back in 5 days with the new screen. This was about a month ago. Excellent service from Alphatron.
 
timmytimetravel said:
I need to interject at this point, was waiting for someone to bring it up. I'm an alphatron owner. Love it. Beautiful. Lag is is a bit crap, there are posts on that. im ok with it. Luckily so far I've not had to use it on a set where I am relying on someone else to close the viewing shutter, as a number of ppl burn their screens within minutes (which the manual warns against). At nab they introduced a sun screen to fix this problem. Luckily I've not toasted it yet, so I asked them if I could send it in to pay for an upgrade before I inevitably toast it.

tgey said, talk to the distributor you bought it from (in my case Lemac in oz). I've not done this yet as I asked them aside from that what their official position is (as Lemac was unlikely to know anything two days after nab). Silence.

anyway. I asked if new stock had the sunscreen (not sure about local oz stock).

So if you are thinking about it, and you can do the lag, make sure you ask your distributor if its the modified sunscreen stock.

if anyone has had any purchases since nab, or had any questions answered re upgrading theirs before its toasted, I'd be interested to hear. I've a shoot in about 5 weeks where if I'm not careful, ill toast it :(
Click to expand...


Minutes! Ha! more like max 30 seconds at 4pm in the afternoon down in Coogee!
 
You would really think they would look after someone who offers to upgrade before its an issue. Guess ill ask lemac.

I've been meaning to ask you Paul what sort of runtime you are getting with your fs700, alphatron coming off your Idx 7s?
your great notes on your Olof rig gave me the certainly to hit go on a handheld setup, same bits.

My idx endura 7 originals haven't been used for ages (my flyer uses AB), and their dead. I noticed the 7s Idx no longer piggyback :( only the 10's

from your picture I also tried hard to find a right angle connector from the bottom of the alphatron to dtap, looks like it would get knocked. No such luck. Problematic or ok? Unscrewing the shroud and bending probably won't help longevity.

also what is the bag you found to fit it built?
 
timmytimetravel said:
You would really think they would look after someone who offers to upgrade before its an issue. Guess ill ask lemac.

I've been meaning to ask you Paul what sort of runtime you are getting with your fs700, alphatron coming off your Idx 7s?
your great notes on your Olof rig gave me the certainly to hit go on a handheld setup, same bits.

My idx endura 7 originals haven't been used for ages (my flyer uses AB), and their dead. I noticed the 7s Idx no longer piggyback :( only the 10's

from your picture I also tried hard to find a right angle connector from the bottom of the alphatron to dtap, looks like it would get knocked. No such luck. Problematic or ok? Unscrewing the shroud and bending probably won't help longevity.

also what is the bag you found to fit it built?
Click to expand...

Hey Mate,

I have 3 of the IDX batteries, they power the FS700, alphatron and nanoflash (if im using it) for about half a day, if im not using the nanoflash i get a tad longer running just the fs700 and the EVF. So with 3 i have never had problems running out of battery on a full day shoot. As you'd probably know, i don't get any battery remaining display into the camera so i use the bars on the battery itself, i don't get any warning that if it about to die so if i'm shooting something with long takes that i can't loose i pu a battery on the fs700 and use the IDX for EVF etc.

Either that or keep changing the battery's when they are down to two bars....

Do you mean the power input for the alphatron? I haven't found a right angled connector either. to be honest i don't find it much of an issue, the SDI cable is bloody annoying though! I had a BNC cable die on me mid shoot earlier in the week, i have right angle connectors on these but make sure they are 75ohm, any lower and you'll have issues.

The camera bag i use is this one:

http://www.kata-bags.com/flyby-77-pl-for-2-4-pro-dslr-bodies-8-10-lensesup-to-600mm-ktpl-fb-77

I am able to pretty much put the rig away without pulling apart (apart from taking the battery and top mic off) zip the bag up and roll away!

camera_case.jpg

I was also wondering if you could help me out of a bit of a problem. Do you have the Sony 18-200mm Power servo zoom lens? I have ordered the lens from Digital Rev for a job on monday, i ordered the lens last week but it looks like it won't be turning up in time... Would you be interested in renting me your lens for monday & tuesday this week?

Hopefully the lens arrives in the mail tomorrow but if it doesn't im a bit screwed....

Thanks

Paul
 
Paul,

Yes I have the lens, got mine from hong kong early. Scheduled to configure my kit re weight/balance this weekend with it, and skype olaf as well (front rail doesnt like my cam tech german steadicam vft plate, pushes down on it). So monday/tuesday ok, except I'm in Canberra. So unless you want to organise a Sunday afternoon courier, might not work out so well :( I'm not a rental house so not set up to ship etc.

I'll email you anyway, so you have my details.

Re the vmount battery. Busted out my 2nd old one (2007), its dead too. So ordered another 7s wihtout piggyback :( and ASSUMED (incorrectly) that it would give a battery percentage since it was coming in the fs700 power socket (but then why would it, power is power) :( I did get a swit from olaf to run the alpahtron from within the fs700 battery area using a 2.5mm tap, but again, hoping once its plugged in AND the vmount is plugged into the power socket, that the fs uses the vmount as prefence. This might work out well as an auto switcing backup as well if the alpahtron hasn't sucked the life out of the swit before I need it too. (has a 4 bar meter on it). I saw your right angle bnc too, going to have to get one, though not using a nanoflash, it will just keep it out of the way. I had a flexible skinny sdi cable made up for the alphatron thats been working pretty nice skiing backwards with it (not sure it would take a fall though)
 
So yesterday I received the DP4 EVF from SmallHD. It's a great little monitor/EFV and more than enough for my needs. I will be shooting with it this weekend doing a lot of hand held stuff am looking forward to it.
cheers,
Kevin
 
Does anybody know which EVF's can put a look up table (LUT) on the image. And if so what kind of LUT's can you choose from? That would be very helpfull when the FS700 has S-Log2 and RAW, otherwise it will be difficult, if not impossible to judge your image when under and overexposed and flat. I prefer to have it on the EVF when used in a run and gun situation.
 
Judging a Log picture is more precise. Its something u need to learn. Im always shooting with LogC in the viewfinder on Alexa. For sure u need to do false colors applied and maybe peaking. Exposing on rec709 but shooting log is just wrong because on log u see the real exposure. The alphatron has false colors so it might be good for fs700 on slog2!
 
@ skylike,

What I meant with under and overexposing was actually if you do it intentionally. With the S-Log2 it's becomes possible to under and overexpose up to 2 stops to store more information from the highlights or in the shadows opposed to shooting with a "correct" exposure. But if you do that you need a LUT otherwise the image on the screen is too bright or too dark to clearly distinguish your focus. Same thing with RAW. They're both different beasts than the old S-Log or the C-Log. We are moving towards a LUT (or ACES) workflow in the near future I'm afraid. Some say you don't need it, but slowly I start to doubt it after seeing different workflows with and without the use of LUT's.
 
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