F3: How the new Alphatron EVF lessens screen burns from the sun

scocklin

scocklin

Well-known member
Upgraded from my DP4 to the new Alphatron EVF and was wondering how the new LCD with Loupe avoids screen burns. So I wrote to tech support and the following is what they said. As stated below still no guarantee so I'm closing the shutter when not in use.

BTW the Alphatron is a very nice EVF and now with a Waveform and Vector scope monitor offered as a new downloadable free upgrade.


"The lens inside has a focal point that is virtual behind the LCD screen. This means that the sun can’t make a spot exactly on the LCD screen. Therefor no burn-in.
Nevertheless we still advise to close the shutter when you’re outside and it is sunny. But you can move your eye away for some time.
The LCD already has a anti scratch foil attached. Soy you clean it (not too much pressure) with a soft cloth, without making scratches."
 
I had a brand new Alphatron when they first came out. And I am very very particular in either covering it with my hand, or closing the shutter when my eye isn't on it. However, on my first shoot with it, I literally took my eye off of it for a fraction of a second, and guess what, small burn in. And I am talking a fraction of a second. So for everyone out there using this or similar, be incredibly careful and take precaution when not having your eye on it.
 
When I first got Sony OLED VF I cursed at how it went blank after 10 seconds when not looking into it, I guess this is the reason why. Does the Alphatron not do something similar? I almost got the Alphatron over the Sony and still not sure which might have been the better choice. No exposure tools is pretty lame for a new camera.
 
The Sony OLED uses an electronic solution to protect the substrate of the panel. An OLED is very different from an LCD panel, and the Alphatron uses a different solution.

The F5 & F55 will have several exposure tools (waveform, false color, histogram) added to it in the near future via free firmware upgrades.
 
Never worried about when I was using an Ikegami, or Sony Betacam, those tiny little TV tubes never burned. So teaching an old dog new tricks like capping the viewfinder has been difficult. If I had a F55 I'd order the OLED EVF without question, maybe in a few years.
 
Yes Mitch, despite some initial short comings i'm still glad I went with the OLED over the Alphatron VF. I have to thank Ned for this, as it was his recommendation to go for the OLED over the Alphatron since at the time of my order I didn't even have a chance to see the F55 or OLED VF. :happy:

Peter from Sony said recently that waveform and histogram are confirmed and will be implemented. I have not read anything about false color. Despite the fact these exposure tools are being added, whats still desperately needed are the monitoring LUT's. Any idea or guesses if once both exposure tools and monitoring LUTs are implemented if the tools will work on top of the LUTs or remain on the actual signal levels being recorded?
 
I know somebody as well who burned their Alphatron.

To Alphatron's credit, they replace the screen for peanuts, but has to be shipped to Europe I believe.

I just got an Android phone with a 4.7" 1080p LCD that is absolutely jaw-dropping to look at (even contrast levels are amazing), which means the screen is probably $150 in quantity. The future is very bright indeed.
 
My Cineroid retina EVF has a nice big burn in it too after just a few seconds exposed to the sun. No replacement love from Cineroid.
 
TheDingo said:
...DOP Alister Chapman explains at 1:35 that the new Alphatron EVF comes with a filter in front of the screen that makes it next to impossible to damage the display from the sun.

NAB 2013: Alphatron EVF Gains Sun Protection
Click to expand...

The folks at Alphatron said it is not a filter, "The lens inside the loupe has a focal point that is virtual behind the LCD screen. This means that the sun can’t make a spot exactly on the LCD screen. Therefor no burn-in. But they also said no guarantees, best to keep the shutter closed when walking away from the camera.

They also put some type of foil film screen protector on the LCD that can scratch, best to use a soft cloth and remove the gritty bits with air or a brush before wiping with the cloth.

I also want to comment on this form, when I first considered buying the F3 I dove in buying what was available on the market at the time. Some of the items, shoulder brace, EVF, EVF arm, certain lenses, base plate..... that I did buy just turned out to be a pain to use in the field. Reading the various recommendations from others here on various types of equipment, I have been able to sell off most of the above mentioned and purchase the recommended items like the Solid Camera arm and Alphatron EVF, two items I highly recommend. Thanks and keep those discussions going!
 
I replaced my DP4 with an Alphatron about a year ago, I had 2 small burns on it a couple of months ago ( don't know how it happened as we have had the coldest wettest Spring since records began!)- looked like 4 pixels fused together creating a clear circle - first I thought they were tiny drops of liquid. I paid Alphatron to replace the screen - about UK £150. I don't think they changed to any of the updates Steve has mentioned.

What I liked about the DP4 was when you flicked the eyepiece up it was very easy to use the large screen as a monitor when the the camera was h/h at waist height - I also had a .6ND screw in filter in the eyepiece. I find an eyepiece 'magnifys' the brightness by about 2 stops.

I have now attached a .6 ND filter to the eyepiece of the Alphatron - I can match brightness between eyepiece and monitor and hopefully protect a little more from the sun. The waveform is a great update.

Nick g Smith

www.nickgordonsmith.com
 
I've got the original Alfatron without the anti burn adaptation and have been thinking of sending it on for the retrofit. I briefly tried it out on a friends though and felt like I was seeing a double image. I only played with it briefly but have wondered whether that had something to do with the fact that I wear glasses and maybe there was some reflection from the new coating.
I need to test his again with more time, but am wondering if anyone else has had that issue.

BTW - my way of mounting it on the F3 has been dirt simple, cheap and I think very effective. I mounted a Manfrotto mafer clamp to the F3 handle and then put a baby stud adapter w 1/4" screw in the side of the Alfatron. The stud goes into the mafer clamp and is kept tight by a screw. Sits just above the LCD.

Its secure- Its in the right place for me - its level - its very easy and fast to adjust the tilt , and it can go on and off the camera in seconds. Looks funky but damn it was an easy and cheap solution.
I'll post a pic tomorrow.

Lenny Levy
 
Just finished up a few days of work using the Alphatron with the Solid Camera arm. I was shooting on the tripod, on the shoulder inside outside and in bright sun. The new EVF is a big improvement over what I was using before. At first I did miss the ability of flipping the loupe up as I did with the DP4 and having a decent size monitor to view the subject while shooting interviews off the tripod. There is a difference between viewing the DP4 monitor with a 4.3 inch diagonal screen and viewing the Alphatron 3.5 inch diagonal screen. But viewing through the loupe with the diaopter set to my eye without my glasses on and having a chamois eye cushion on the eyepiece was fine, I mean that is the way I learned prior to external monitors. Also having the Solid Camera arm enabled me to switch the position of the Alphatron from off the shoulder viewing having the EVF towards the front of the camera to shooting on the tripod and moving the EVF towards the back of the camera. The Solid Camera arm has multiple locking positions, I quickly found my two EVF positions I like using, I just rotate the arm to one of those two positions and lock it off.

The retina display is very sharp, you can see the pours on subject’s faces. If I still wasn’t sure about critical focus I would check using the 1 to 1 pixel mapping setting. The color peaking works like Sony’s F3 peaking I set mine up using the color red and boosted the intensity up to around 90%. I set up my zebras to 75% same as my settings on the F3 when shooting REC709, but I found myself mostly setting my levels using the WFM.

The ability to monitor SDI time-code and audio came in handy while recording to my Ki Pro Mini. I was able to see the time code running via HDSDI cabling off the Mini and was comforted to know the Mini was rolling.

While shooting outside I was over cautious about keeping the eyepiece shutter closed. I have the new loupe that is supposed to suppress screen burns but I couldn’t tell you if it works or not, I had the sun over my shoulder most of the time and I did move my head away from the eyepiece from time to time sometimes not closing the shutter but I’m not going to try a real test just yet. The image on the Alphatron is very clean and sharp, I experienced no double image as Lenny stated but I like to work with my glasses off and my head tight up against the eyepiece.

I did experience some lag, one of the subjects was shadow boxing with very quick movements, as I panned I noticed quite a bit of lag which was annoying. I also notice lip flap on the Alphatron during interviews which I didn’t see in the F3 LCD or on the client monitor. I quickly check the files and didn’t see any lip flap there so I figured it was the LCD panel. I was running the Alphatron off of my Ki Pro Mini SDI out.

The placement of the on/off button is a pain and something I have to get used to. Almost every time I rotated the EVF into a new position I hit the button and turned the EVF off. I think it takes around 10 seconds for the monitor to come back up. The 1 to 1 pixel mapping does not center when engaged, I’m not sure if this is a normal thing or not.

I only just got my Alphatron so I’m not sure about durability, I had my DP4 for over 2 years with no major problems it still works fine. I’m not trying to compare the two EVFs that wouldn’t be fair, the Alphatron is more than double the cost so it should have more features. I just like the Alphatron’s features a whole lot more than the DP4’s.
 
Whoa... guys I'm still learning a lot of things, and this is the first time I heard about screen burn in!! Is this a common problem with all EVFs? Do external lcd monitors suffer from this as well? I knew about the burn in caused by static images on OLED monitors (and plasma tvs) but never heard about the sun issue before!

Thanks,
Adam
 
My Alphatron got a burn from a stupid-short amount of sun exposure. AbelCine received it back from me, send it out to TVLogic and got it back to me for $ZERO!

Thanks Mitch (Steve C) for great customer service--that's why you're always my first call! :thumbsup:
 
Copperplate said:
Whoa... guys I'm still learning a lot of things, and this is the first time I heard about screen burn in!! Is this a common problem with all EVFs? Do external lcd monitors suffer from this as well? I knew about the burn in caused by static images on OLED monitors (and plasma tvs) but never heard about the sun issue before!
Click to expand...

Any viewfinder that has a glass diopter on the front of it is potentially susceptible to getting burned. That piece of glass is just a magnifying lens that focuses the light, whether the light is coming in or out. This problem is nothing new and has been an issue since I started shooting in the early 1980's. Fortunately I've never burned a viewfinder (knock on wood) but apparently some models are more at risk than others, and the Alphatron seems to be at the top of that list. To answer you question about external LCD monitors, no they are not at risk from burn-ins because they do not have a magnifying class sitting in front of them.
 
The new Alphatron design incorporates a new lens at the eyepiece which caused me, and apparently other people, to no longer be able to focus properly. The guys at Abel replaced the lens with one from the old design (which I think has more magnification than the new one) , and it's back to its normal sharp state, and hopefully still has most of the sun protection, although I keep the shutter closed as much as possible. Hard to figure why anyone buys from anyone other than Abel - they're great.

I keep the Alphatron on mono focus assist and use the waveform monitor for exposure, and this works well. The Solid mount is solid. I have replaced the heavy Berkey top plate with a lighter one we designed out of aircraft aluminum, and also swapped the Zwiss battery cheeseplate for a Vocas plate, also much lighter. Took off the Shape 7000 and bought a Vocas bridge plate, less than half the weight. The Vocas shoulder pad that attaches to the bottom 15mm rods is wonderful, quick and the best support I've seen for a handheld S35 camera. Also got the Ergocine wood handgrip for the front rods, again significantly lighter than the Shape handles, and works better. I've cut about 4 lbs off and made the form factor smaller. Tried the Vocas FF, but the focus handle was too small and it didn't reach my Leica prime lens rings, so I bit the bullet and got the new Arri MFF2 which works much better. It's been an expensive journey, but one that works well. Now if I could just get the Dnx codec for my Gemini that was promised about a year ago, I'd be happy (even though the Gemini is now practically worthless).
 
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