Small HD 4" EVF - any negatives?

L

Lenilenapi

Carbonite Member
Any negatives on using the small HD4" with the EVF? I need something for outdoors and hate the Zacuto.
Have used a hoodman but even with an arm holding it it seems to bend my flip out door so it doesn't close.

I'm not fond of false color but this doesn't have zebras. Is there a lot of choice on the false color options and do you find it useful and easy to get in and out of?
How about sharpness and peaking functions etc.
Has HDMI been OK and any problems using the 2 SDI outputs at the same time? Does it turn any of those off?
Any negatives at all???????

Thanks
Lenny levy
 
Easy to get burn in a sun! The biggest draw back, for sure...
Everything else, very good to perfect.
No zebras, no need...
HDMI is working fine, on both ends. Bigger issue is to find proper length quality cable that won't brake quickly...
 
The only negative I've heard of so far is the 800x480 resolution. Its basically an SD monitor. Gez some Lilliputs have the same resolution.

In its defense the built in EVF isn't high resolution either and there only a few options for something like this on the market.

Lenny, don't you have a TVLogic monitor? What about an extension for your hoodman loupe for that?
 
I confess to liking the Zacuto. Does fine outdoors (with caveat of sun). I happen to like the false color. Wish the peaking were color and I've already given my feedback on that to Zacuto.

Ned
 
It's an absolutely wonderful monitor/EVF solution in that price range. The menu and presets are very user-friendly, as well as the buttons. The SD resolution has never been an issue for me (using it with a 7D, F3, and EX-1).

The only downside is the thing gets very, very hot if it's not turned off periodically. I recommend always having a courtesy flying between it and the sun or a nearby hot light, as well as turning it off whenever you aren't using it; it comes back on ready-to-shoot in about 5-10 seconds, depending on the camera and if you are looping through. The crop bars and the display feed from the camera will start to burn in to the LCD (or the white AutoFocus box from the 7D), leaving ghosts, but it's temporary.

By far the greatest drawback is the potential to burn a hole straight through your LCD. Whenever I'm shooting with it, I always tell the three people working closest to me - whomever they may be - to always check the EVF and make sure it's flipped up when we're outside.

As for ergonomics, it's really very comfortable against my eye. The only issue I've had is fogging, which can make a long take problematic. I don't have a good solution for that yet.
 
Jordan Scott Price said:
It's an absolutely wonderful monitor/EVF solution in that price range. The menu and presets are very user-friendly, as well as the buttons. The SD resolution has never been an issue for me (using it with a 7D, F3, and EX-1).The only downside is the thing gets very, very hot if it's not turned off periodically. I recommend always having a courtesy flying between it and the sun or a nearby hot light, as well as turning it off whenever you aren't using it; it comes back on ready-to-shoot in about 5-10 seconds, depending on the camera and if you are looping through. The crop bars and the display feed from the camera will start to burn in to the LCD (or the white AutoFocus box from the 7D), leaving ghosts, but it's temporary.By far the greatest drawback is the potential to burn a hole straight through your LCD. Whenever I'm shooting with it, I always tell the three people working closest to me - whomever they may be - to always check the EVF and make sure it's flipped up when we're outside.As for ergonomics, it's really very comfortable against my eye. The only issue I've had is fogging, which can make a long take problematic. I don't have a good solution for that yet.
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I love my DP6, but. I went the the cineroid all metal SDI and have been very happy. Not having to mess with hdmi has been great. They are all SD anyway, so not much to say there...but its a VF, nothin.g else. These aftermarket VF are never going to look like a 12,000 dollar hd VF. Check out the cineroid, SDI is worth it.
 
I've tried the cineroid and the Zacuto at NAB and just didn't find either of them to be very sharp for me. Early reviews I saw here seemed to say it was much sharper than those two.
The hoodman is almost good enough for me but its too hard on the Flip out. It seems like only 2 of the people here have actually been using the Small HD.

Tata Steve - you started with the hoodman right. Was this a big improvement? Did you buy your HDMI cables from small HD - any good or anything I should know?

Lenny
 
The DP4 is awesome.

Love it. Its really packed wth features and build quality.

Only drawbacks sofar have been that, I stll haven't updated my unit to the latest firmware. So it won't understand 24psf, so I have to record 59.94I for the handheld shots. But that's my own fault.

Haven't cooked the LCD yet, as I am very careful. But it is a potential.

I love falsecolor, and focus assist. Both golden, but custom scaling, and frame guides are the real winners.
 
I'm with Timur on how I view the unit. Overall it is an awesome EVF. There are irritants as mentioned and many of them are indeed fixable by the user.

Burn in: buy a screw on ND1 filter and leave in brightness contrast near the default settings
HDMI: get a decent cable with flex or hinged/angled connectors and update the firmware for 24 fps operation
Eyecup falling off: Black gaffer tape
Resolution: When you are looking at the image through the EVF it looks massive and detailed. Non issue in my view

The heat issue I haven't experienced. I sense this is a defective unit issue. Be curious about other people's experience with the heat matter. I do use a power cable so ventilation on the back could be better as a result.

And like Timur the unique focus assist is wildly good for focusing. False color and frame guides are worth flagging as a major benefit for me as well.
 
Andrew Stone said:
I'm with Timur on how I view the unit. Overall it is an awesome EVF. There are irritants as mentioned and many of them are indeed fixable by the user.

Burn in: buy a screw on ND1 filter and leave in brightness contrast near the default settings
HDMI: get a decent cable with flex or hinged/angled connectors and update the firmware for 24 fps operation
Eyecup falling off: Black gaffer tape
Resolution: When you are looking at the image through the EVF it looks massive and detailed. Non issue in my view

The heat issue I haven't experienced. I sense this is a defective unit issue. Be curious about other people's experience with the heat matter. I do use a power cable so ventilation on the back could be better as a result.

And like Timur the unique focus assist is wildly good for focusing. False color and frame guides are worth flagging as a major benefit for me as well.
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Wow that's a lot of irritants......
 
David W. Jones said:
Have they added an adjustable diopter yet for people that need glasses to see things that close?
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Hi David,

That was a big concern for me before I purchased it as I wear glasses and have middle aged eyes. It is not an issue. The field of view is perfectly in focus. Tack sharp as they say.

The other comment about "a lot of irritants". Every product has issues. The Zacuto Zfinder is not excepted. The point Timur and I were trying to make is we look at things from the half full rather than half empty perspective. I feel the SmallHD DP4 EVF is a "hit it out of the park" product. Most owners of the product I believe would agree.
 
im also concerned about the diopter. between astigmatism and age i wear glasses w progressive near sighted adjustment.

what about the hdmi cable from small hd? is that sufficient?

whats the mm size on the nd screw in and do you mean a 1 stop n3?
 
Got an email from Small HD yesterday, they are working on a new eye-cup with cap. No adjustable diopter yet they say it would raise the cost of the unit but I heard they might be working on a set of screw in diopters in my case I need a negative diopter. For the price the DP4 works well with my F3. The included adjustable articulating arm allows me to use it in both tripod and shoulder configurations. When on the shoulder the placement of the viewfinder allows the camera to balance nicely on my shoulder. Wish the monitor was HD or more then 800x480 but as I said for the price it is a nice EVF.
 
Just be careful when out in the sunlight, I thought I was being careful but just carrying the camera by the handle with no direct sunlight only ambient light caused a small so called sunspot on the bottom of my monitor. Customer service at Small HD is excellent, they said I could send it back for a repair at no cost but once they send out the new eye cups with caps all sunspot repairs will be billed, labor and parts.
 
Just got the my SmallHD 4" wEVF. Still trying to evaluate.
I'm not at all crazy about the false color and thought there were more than 2 options. Also on first glance it seems that the colors don't correspond to the IRE levels in the manual. I haven't tested too much yet but the orange color seems to come on at the same time as my 60% zebras while it is supposed to indicate 41 to 57. Actually I like it more where it seems to be so I shouldn't complain. It does look like it might be a useable function though.

I must admit it does seem very easy to see clear focus even without peaking or focus assist - neither of which knock me out on first look. Surprisingly It doesn't seem like I need an focusing diopter and it might not be bad to judge exposure at least for 709 , just by eye.

Irritated that there was no full size HDMI to HDMI cable though . Didn't realize I need one for the F3. What I'm not sure about is whether it is a good fit with my simple monopod method of handholding as its starting to feel heavy.
Questions:

1 - What length and type of HDMI to HDMI cable are you guys using for the F3? and where do you get those flexed or hinged angle connectors?

2 - What size ND filter works and is it a 1 stop - ND3?

Thanks
 
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I agree with you about the false color and focus assist, I set mine up to peaking, make sure your HDMI out of the camera is HD and not SD. My presets are 1 normal, 2 peaking and 3, 1 to 1. I had purchase a couple of short HDMI cables on Amazon cost less than $3.00, don’t worry about paying too much for an HDMI cable if you plug them in and it works that cable is as good as it is going to get in the HDMI world.
I included a few pictures of my set up and cabling, I mounted my EVF upside down so the cables do not interfere with follow focus when on the shoulder. If you plan on mounting your monitor this way call SmallHD and ask for the newer software upgrade for flip viewing. You may find a recommendation on the SmallHD website for finding 46mm ND glass; http://www.smallhd.com/s.nl/sc.8/category.48/ctype.KB/KB.1407/.f I haven’t gone that route yet, but I might have to seeing as I already put a small sun spot on the lower part of my monitor, it is very easy to do.
 
HDMI output from the F3 when in log mode disbales the SDI port in single link or dual link mode. I have the latest firmware 1.1. If you record to kipro mini, that has both SDI and HDMI active including 24Psf mode.
 
Just received DP4 EVF a few days ago and just noticed that when shooting 24P on my Sony F3 I have to change the HDMI output to 59.99 (or whatever the decimal is) with pull down instead of 24PsF which is what I would normally set it at. Will this be corrected in a future upgrade and will it have any consequences for monitoring on another monitor using the HDMI loop through?
I don't really understand the difference between those settings or why it would matter.

Also scocklin - how could you burn the monitor just from ambient light. Isn't that kind of nuts????
 
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