Andrew Stone
Veteran
Like most people here, I have been struggling with finding a truly suitable EVF solution for the F3. I've gone through several permutations with varying degrees of success. Ultimately before my final solution the only one I was happy with was hanging a Marshall 651STX in place of where the EVF would go.
I had been toying with going with a real ENG style EVF for a while but the price point was intimidating. However, I hit a brick wall about a month ago on a shoot with my then current setup which was hanging a SmallHD EVF off with the beautifully crafted Solid Camera EVF swivel mount.
I was shooting in Slog and the flesh tones on the subject went all plastic. I went berserk and flipped through the menu system turning the monitor to "monochrome", greyscale which gave me immediate relief. I could now concentrate on focusing, framing and had enough attention left over to think about next shots, etc.
By the end of the shoot, I knew I could work with a greyscale EVF and was reminded of a shooter here that has a setup using a Sony ENG styled EVF in combination with the AbleCine ProVFM mount / transformer solution. At the time (a year ago), I thought "too expensive". I will never do it and I wasn't sure if I could cope with the greyscale EVF and risk the investment to find out I had made a horrible mistake. The other solution was more expensive and less elegant which was to go to more expensive color EVF and have a power sucking converter and all the extra cables hanging off the side of the camera which was necessary to get the color EVF to work on the F3.
Fortunately, I had seen a number of excellent shooters in the past swear up and down that the Sony B&W HDV-F20a EVF was superb as a focusing tool and many would state they would not part with it for love or money. For me, The sealing event was turning my SmallHD EVF into greyscale mode and seeing first hand that on a modern camera it is indeed possible to shoot using a B&W EVF without hindering the process.
A fortune would have it I found a new "out of box" Sony HDV-F20a on eBay within a day or two of making my decision to go this route. Then I managed to get the ProVFM mount/transformer kit through AbleCine. Many thanks to Mitch Gross at AbleCine who managed to pull together the kit for me in lightening speed. I was expecting a long wait given the order lead time specified on their website.
Well all I can say now is I no longer have a love-hate relationship with my F3. I now enjoy shooting with it and don't feel compromised by the viewfinder. I can nail focus repeatedly with ease, setup the brightness and contrast in a LUT way of thinking and I can get the tonality of the shot nailed without having to fiddle with the grey card wondering if I have the tonality adjusted properly, the camera has shed a couple of pounds and it is WAY more balanced side to side, I don't have to take the EVF contraption off before going in the bag, the wiring is elegant, the EVF sips on the power, you can stand six to 10 inches back from the EVF and still see the image, so you can look at both the EVF and the LCD in your field of vision to look at the center brightness and histogram on the LCD, the articulation of the EVF makes using the EVF and the camera a pleasure to use, it's got a real adjustable diopter, you don't get screen burn if you have the viewfinder lens pointing skyward to the sun and as I mentioned earlier you can nail focus with ease time and time again.
I don't know if AbleCine have F3s setup with their ProVFM and a proper EVF but if they do and you are considering this route I would pay them a visit.
Some pics just after the initial installation...
I had been toying with going with a real ENG style EVF for a while but the price point was intimidating. However, I hit a brick wall about a month ago on a shoot with my then current setup which was hanging a SmallHD EVF off with the beautifully crafted Solid Camera EVF swivel mount.
I was shooting in Slog and the flesh tones on the subject went all plastic. I went berserk and flipped through the menu system turning the monitor to "monochrome", greyscale which gave me immediate relief. I could now concentrate on focusing, framing and had enough attention left over to think about next shots, etc.
By the end of the shoot, I knew I could work with a greyscale EVF and was reminded of a shooter here that has a setup using a Sony ENG styled EVF in combination with the AbleCine ProVFM mount / transformer solution. At the time (a year ago), I thought "too expensive". I will never do it and I wasn't sure if I could cope with the greyscale EVF and risk the investment to find out I had made a horrible mistake. The other solution was more expensive and less elegant which was to go to more expensive color EVF and have a power sucking converter and all the extra cables hanging off the side of the camera which was necessary to get the color EVF to work on the F3.
Fortunately, I had seen a number of excellent shooters in the past swear up and down that the Sony B&W HDV-F20a EVF was superb as a focusing tool and many would state they would not part with it for love or money. For me, The sealing event was turning my SmallHD EVF into greyscale mode and seeing first hand that on a modern camera it is indeed possible to shoot using a B&W EVF without hindering the process.
A fortune would have it I found a new "out of box" Sony HDV-F20a on eBay within a day or two of making my decision to go this route. Then I managed to get the ProVFM mount/transformer kit through AbleCine. Many thanks to Mitch Gross at AbleCine who managed to pull together the kit for me in lightening speed. I was expecting a long wait given the order lead time specified on their website.
Well all I can say now is I no longer have a love-hate relationship with my F3. I now enjoy shooting with it and don't feel compromised by the viewfinder. I can nail focus repeatedly with ease, setup the brightness and contrast in a LUT way of thinking and I can get the tonality of the shot nailed without having to fiddle with the grey card wondering if I have the tonality adjusted properly, the camera has shed a couple of pounds and it is WAY more balanced side to side, I don't have to take the EVF contraption off before going in the bag, the wiring is elegant, the EVF sips on the power, you can stand six to 10 inches back from the EVF and still see the image, so you can look at both the EVF and the LCD in your field of vision to look at the center brightness and histogram on the LCD, the articulation of the EVF makes using the EVF and the camera a pleasure to use, it's got a real adjustable diopter, you don't get screen burn if you have the viewfinder lens pointing skyward to the sun and as I mentioned earlier you can nail focus with ease time and time again.
I don't know if AbleCine have F3s setup with their ProVFM and a proper EVF but if they do and you are considering this route I would pay them a visit.
Some pics just after the initial installation...
