The new Cineroid EVF with Retina display... mini review.

legrevedotcom

legrevedotcom

Veteran
So today I got the new Cineroid EVF 4RVW.

I haven't got any batteries with me at the moment, and my FS100 is out on rental, so I can't do a proper review till this weekend.

Here's a first glance.

Out of the box it seems solid. The body is metal, the loupe is plastic. Balance of it seems near perfect when holding it by hand from the top.

The loupe can be swung upwards, detached to have a simple square hood or removed entirely to have a naked monitor.
The monitor itself is super glossy and I don't expect it to be viewable outside in daylight without the hood and loupe *NOTE... like any other EVF, do not expose it to direct sunlight, it will most likely kill it*
Theres a small cap for the loupe to protect when not using it. Try not to lose it ;)

The 4 function buttons on the left side under the scroll wheel seem responsive without too much effort. They aren't hard to press and there's a small click to let you know you actually clicked them. Will have to see once its powered up.
The scroll wheel is with hard stops that roll with a proper amount of force.

It has 1 HDMI in, 1 SDI in and 1 SDI out (loop)... note, when using a angled HDMI, your cable needs to go to the right when viewing the HDMI cable wide end up and facing you. It will not go left if using the battery plates that come with the unit.

You get:
1 Sony NP-F mount
1 Canon mount (5d mkii / iii style)
1 Canon BP mount.

There's also a power cable to use external power from fx. a v-lock station.

You get a tilt head with hotshoe. Unfortunately this only seems usable to DSLR users, since it's short.

The mounts on the monitor are placed top, bottom and right. Simply unscrew the mount from it's slot and move it where you want and screw it in again. Two of these unscrewable mounts are included.

The EVF comes with a small padded nylon bag that holds everything.

Price: 715 pounds incl. day to day delivery. (ex vat, which I didn't pay since I live in the EU)


And then a small word of respect for Paul at 3DBroadcastsales for once again making sure it turns out to be a speedy delivery. From money confirmation till I had it in hand: 26 hours.

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Thanks for the post, looks interesting!

I wonder if a screen protector (like an iPhone matte screen protector, cut to fit) would help the glossiness?
 
I thought about that as well... but since I'm an Android guy I haven't tried it ;) But my fear would be that it might hinder the pixel to pixel etc. usefulness of being bright and sharp?

I'm getting my cam back saturday and will go through the menus and talk about the unit in action. So far I've turned it on and the menu system is pretty straight forward.
Two control menus to turn the various features on / off and two settings menus to change the settings of the controls. Ie. no deep menus you need to go through, I think I counted 3 steps as the most you'd need to go, the majority being two steps.

But... more to come ;)
 
Cheers, can't wait to hear more about how it performs.

Could you throw up some pics showing the EVF's various mounting holes and where they are located?
 
Grug said:
Cheers, can't wait to hear more about how it performs.

Could you throw up some pics showing the EVF's various mounting holes and where they are located?
Click to expand...

Theres not much to it... one type (3/4" or whatsits called?). Placed center top, center right and center bottom of the monitor part.

SolidCamera have a design specifically for the new Cineroid, but it's a bit expensive for my taste though :S I can't really see myself spending 115 dollars for the cradle, 545 dollars (!!!!!) for a bloody arm and then another 100 dollars for the dovetail...
 
Update... with pics. I know the pic limit :S but I'm gonna break it to document the contents of the monitor.

To access the menus click the scroll wheel once.
Scroll to choose topic and click to select. Then scroll to menu item.

Control menus... simply, on / off...
View attachment 62626View attachment 62627

Settings menus... as you see you can go into each setting and change it. There's quite a lot of features in here. Rotation in this case is vertical as well as horizontal.
View attachment 62628View attachment 62629

System menu
View attachment 62630

Scroll wheel and programmable buttons, in the middle there's a head phone jack. For reference in case of the battery... this is a NP-F770. Not so pretty....
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Mount, arm goes in the middle. The two others you unscrew to replace the mount. See top...
View attachment 62632View attachment 62633

Backside... HDMI, SDI, power input, on/off button and battery mount. The battery mount as well as the battery mount holder are detachable. Unscrews very easily but is secure enough to hold the battery plate.
However, I could be concerned about the battery mount itself. The NP-F battery while decently pushed in, is not locked as with other NP mounts. I suspect, but can't (wont :S) confirmed wether or not the mount can endure rough use such as quick swings and tilts.
View attachment 62634

The loupe rubber is easily turned around to be used on the left eye if wanted, while still sticking.

So far so good... Turn on time was roughly 3-4 seconds without being attached to a camera.
 
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legrevedotcom said:
Update... with pics. I know the pic limit :S but I'm gonna break it to document the contents of the monitor.
Click to expand...

That relates to market place - and generally we are happy for numerous pics when they're informative i.e. doing a product review on something you've purchased :)
 
Have expanded with a small video... sorry, it's not to in-depth, but would have to do for now. Had an urgent call to get back home ;)

Anyways, don't slay me, generally I don't like being in front of the camera... consider it a small service.

 
thank you... Cineroid has seen it now as well, and they asked if I would do another one with more examples of the display and so on, so I will redo it later this week, so you can see how the waveform etc. really looks like when filming something.
 
EDIT EDIT:

Two major isssues I've discovered that people should be aware of:

1. The firmware software you need to upgrade the EVF 4RVW is made for pc only. This is in my view a huge issue... I can't remember when I last owned a pc. Really Cineroid, you need to make a mac version as well...

2. Maybe partly because of no. 1... I can't get a HDMI > SDI conversion going with the firmware in the EVF from the factory. Ie. there is no signal looping through. I've tested the receiving unit and it's not faulty. I'm getting a nice conversion through my BMD battery converter and the receiving unit detects it fine.

This is unacceptable in my opinion. Had I known this, I would seriously reconsider buying this unit.
 
Time for another update!

I had both contacted 3DBroadcastsales and Cineroid... Cineroid themselves weren't very informative, but 3DBroadcast (Paul, Spencer and Tony!) have been very good to deal with. They have shown a genuine interest in fixing the issues I had with the EVF.

So here's what's going on:

Apparently the FS100 and FS700 both have a signal that is different in some way than other cameras. Cineroid is apparently aware of this and is fixing the issue which means a new Firmware is under way. This should be hitting the website within the next week or so. It would ofcourse have been more fun if they had written this themselves on their own website instead of relying on distributers to relay the information... I know they must have something better to do.

So in short I'll get back to this once the next firmware is live and I in fact can have a signal put through the loop from the HDMI.

In regards to my issues with using a pc for the upgrade... after having tried a 3rd pc, I finally got an upgrade running and the EVF is now running version 1.21. Unfortunately this probably wont matter in regards to the loop, but oh well, I'm counting on it being fixed.

So in all fairness; when I can take my time to report issues here, I also think it is indeed in its place to report when they have been addressed and fixed.

I owe a big thanks for both patience and support from 3DBroadcastsales, and I guess I also will revert to saying that I find the EVF 4RVW a nice piece of gear once the next fix has been done from Cineroid :)
 
And I was right... 3DB and SoonGi did some nice support. The firmware is up to 1.3 and Im getting a fine loop.
In short Im pretty happy with this purchase. Both in terms of shop but also product... Its rare to get this kind of support!

So if you want retina display with hdmi / sdi loop, dual waveform, b/w mode pixel to pixel and all that other fun stuff I can vouch for EVF 4RVW. Solid and functional.
 
The Cineroid is better than the Zacuto and DP4. The resolution is more satisfying than most ENG shoulder mount cameras. Perhaps only the Alphatron and New Sony's are better in resolution. The Waveforms and Battery give an extra boost of confidence when filming, but I have more testing to do with that. The four button configuration is nice as it gives more options at one touch. Comes with almost any powering input option you may need or want (p-tap to Canon LPE6), rather than that being an extra thought or cost. Overall very positive feelings about this product until further review.Only potential negative, is the 1:1 pixel function when I am in 25p is showing an interlaced look.
 

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Nice to see someone agreeing on this.... funny how this site seems to have a HUGE bias towards American products when you can find Asian products that are at least as good or in this case even better.

Seriously... the Cineroid IS better than Zacuto and Small HD. Haven't regretted my purchase one bit!
 
legrevedotcom said:
Nice to see someone agreeing on this.... funny how this site seems to have a HUGE bias towards American products when you can find Asian products that are at least as good or in this case even better.

Seriously... the Cineroid IS better than Zacuto and Small HD. Haven't regretted my purchase one bit!
Click to expand...

Getting more happy with this EVF.

I tried out a Sony F5 with the new LCD EVF, and to be honest, I did not feel it was better than the Cineroid in any noticeable way. That weird strobe when panning is present in all EVF's I have tried.

Focusing and having waveforms has been fantastic.
 
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