Zacuto Z-Finder EVF Pro Review

K

knuckles

Member
Let me start off by saying I am in no way affiliated with Zacuto. I own other products from them, and have always experienced nothing but the best in terms of product quality and customer service. That said, here's a mini review of the Zacuto EVF Pro:

My EVF Pro arrived this morning and, I have to say, this thing is absolutely wonderful! Makes focusing a breeze, and I tend to shoot 2:35, and the guides make it SO much easier. The controls are fantastic and very user friendly, and the EVF body is far superior to any of the 5-8" monitors I've used (*some* of the higher end Marshall monitors are comparable, but you're paying 2.5x the price for about half the feature this one has!), and the hinge for the flip is solid and appears to be metal, as is the latch. Picture quality definitely is superior to the LCD screen on my 5D mkII, and the scaling feature really rocks! When used with the Z-Finder Pro it is just amazing how comfortable this unit really is to shoot with. The manual it comes with really is great, and goes over virtually all the functions of the camera. The battery locks in securely and does not wiggle, and the HDMI input/output ports are rock solid. This really is a fantastic monitor.

The only caveat I have is with the hot shoe mount. It's quite nice, and looks pretty heavy duty, but because the HDMI input is on the right side of the EVF, and the HDMI camera output is on the left side of the camera, it tends to pull on the cable just enough to slowly cause the hot shoe mount to rotate, no matter how hard I lock it down. However, this is simply a minor issue, and one that really doesn't concern me as I will be picking up the tri-mount kit within the next 2 weeks, before my next commercial shoot. But if you are planning on using the hot shoe mount as your sole method of mounting your EVF, you may want to find a stronger one. Don't get me wrong, this in NO WAY reflects the quality of the EVF itself, and is truly just a minor issue.

I'll be posting a more in-depth video review once I've had a chance this weekend to really put this unit to the test, but as of now I can say, without any hesitation, I would absolutely recommend the Zacuto EVF Pro.
 
lucky basttaard! :) I'm still waiting on shipping confirmation :( I preordered also but still waiting. Glad its working out for yah.
 
you say that its superior to the 5D LCD. i currently use the Zfinder. i thought that the output while recording on the 5DmkII was only SD even though your coming out HDMI. so for it to be superior to the 5D's LCD im curious as to what your getting out of your HDMI output. is it a lot better than a Zfinder on the back of the 5DmkII? if so by how much?

if you could elaborate on these points id greatly appreciate it.

david
 
well the dot pitch on the evf is much tighter they say so you dont see the actual pixels and also the resolution on the camera lcd is 640×360 whereas the EVF is 800X 480

"Zacuto's electronic viewfinder 3.2” monitor has higher resolution than DSLR LCD screens. These screens have a resolution of 640×480 on a 3:2 aspect ratio screen. Therefore, you only effectively see the resolution at 640×360 in 16×9. Our electronic viewfinder resolution is a true 800×480 making the resolution 56% greater than the on-board DSLR camera screens. The Zacuto EVF also has a tighter dot pitch which also improves the quality, allowing you see a much tighter pixel pattern. This electronic viewfinder also has auto-scaling and uses the entire screen therefore you see no pillar boxing."

from the website


Apart from that though all the features like focus assist, blue gun, zebras, aspect ratio guides ect make it worth it for me

I havent gotten mine as yet though so the OP can answer with real world experience.
 
When would you use an EVF over a monitor? I'm used to EVF's for videocameras, but reluctant on dslr's, one because of the focus accuracy and two because it seems like the unit would move all over the place when you put your face up to it. Zucato vs. the smallhd 6dp, why did you guys decide on the zucato?
 
hi jambredz, i get that the zacuto EVF has more than the typical DSLR LCD but still am wondering if all of the tight resolution will be seen using a 5DmkII. i thought on the 7D that the HDMI output gave you higher resolution than the 5DMkII. like you said maybe the OP will reply. i do like some of the features on the EVF though like focus assist.

david
 
Hi guys!

To address the questions by iunknown & david_p, here is a post I answered on another forum about these topics that I think answers both your questions:

I have not had a chance to use a SmallHD monitor yet. I've used several of the Marshall monitors, 2 different Ikan's and a Sony one. Of those, the higher end Marshall's by far had the best built, picture and options qualities, and even though they all had larger screens than the Zacuto EVF, they're really too big to use effectively when shooting. They work great as a monitor for the director or focus puller to go off of, but for the DoP/cameraman they become more of an obstacle than anything. While they do aid in focusing, because of the higher dot pitch on the Zacuto EVF you are actually able to focus much easier as objects look far less "fuzzy" on the screen like they can on the larger monitors.

The "peaking" option you mentioned is something that I've gotten to do a lot of testing on with the various monitors that offer it. Of the larger monitor's, Sony's probably worked the best IMO, but the added color to the sharp lines has always been a bother to me, even on ENG camera's I've used. I gave the Zacuto EVF what I consider to be the ultimate test for this last night with one of my basement walls. The wall itself has white wood paneling, which shows just enough grain that when using one of the larger monitors with peaking becomes a massive pain, as the whole wall turns yellow/red/etc, and more often than not it is not properly focused. With the Zacuto EVF though, I was really able to see what was actually in focus, and the peaking/sharpening that they have went with really works fantastic! Only portions of the wall were in focus according to the EVF screen, which I then verified by checking both with my tape measure to the film plane and by zooming in with my 5D's 10x zoom feature. This is one of my favorite things about the Zacuto EVF so far, as I use a follow focus a lot, and we all know what a pain these camera's can be to focus, particularly with the Canon glass. The sharpening is absolutely noticeable on the EVF, but because there's no added color effect for the peaking, it's not nearly as distracting.

The screen quality when using the EVF with the Z-Finder is great, and makes focusing even easier. I have no problems seeing the whole screen when I put my eye up to the eyecup, and you can only just barely even make out the individual pixels because they're so tightly packed, which is fantastic! I don't do a whole lot of shoulder mount work, mostly tripod and dolly shots, so I can't wait to get my hands on the Tri-mount kit and really finally be able to give my neck a rest and look through a proper viewfinder! One of the best viewfinder's I've seen on an ENG camera is the Sony EX3, and the Zacuto EVF blows it away with it's tighter dot pitch, while still maintaining that fantastic flip up feature that I loved on the EX3. The color on this EVF is just gorgeous too, and so far in my tests, once you've properly exposed and white balanced, it's been like having a third eye. It really is that good. The way things look when I see them is how they look on the EVF's screen, which is just never the case, and actually kind of threw me off a bit at first. Very impressive!

Having not gotten the chance to use a SmallHD monitor yet, I honestly can't even begin to compare features, as it just wouldn't be fair. I've heard nothing but good things about them, though, so I have little doubt that they make a quality product. But right now, for my money, the Zacuto EVF is BY FAR the best value. Loaded with features right off the bat that even some of the $2500+ monitors don't have, and you can update the firmware so they can add even MORE features, which is something that, to my knowledge, nobody else offers right now in any monitor anywhere near this price range. That's huge.

I should add that I had picked up the eyecup cushion from the Zacuto store, and it is SO much nicer than just using the rubber eyecup that comes with the EVF. And since they're cheap enough, I would definitely recommend picking one up if you're planning on getting the Zacuto EVF and using it with the Z-Finder.
 
knuckles said:
Hi guys!

To address the questions by iunknown & david_p, here is a post I answered on another forum about these topics that I think answers both your questions:

I have not had a chance to use a SmallHD monitor yet. I've used several of the Marshall monitors, 2 different Ikan's and a Sony one. Of those, the higher end Marshall's by far had the best built, picture and options qualities, and even though they all had larger screens than the Zacuto EVF, they're really too big to use effectively when shooting. They work great as a monitor for the director or focus puller to go off of, but for the DoP/cameraman they become more of an obstacle than anything. While they do aid in focusing, because of the higher dot pitch on the Zacuto EVF you are actually able to focus much easier as objects look far less "fuzzy" on the screen like they can on the larger monitors.

The "peaking" option you mentioned is something that I've gotten to do a lot of testing on with the various monitors that offer it. Of the larger monitor's, Sony's probably worked the best IMO, but the added color to the sharp lines has always been a bother to me, even on ENG camera's I've used. I gave the Zacuto EVF what I consider to be the ultimate test for this last night with one of my basement walls. The wall itself has white wood paneling, which shows just enough grain that when using one of the larger monitors with peaking becomes a massive pain, as the whole wall turns yellow/red/etc, and more often than not it is not properly focused. With the Zacuto EVF though, I was really able to see what was actually in focus, and the peaking/sharpening that they have went with really works fantastic! Only portions of the wall were in focus according to the EVF screen, which I then verified by checking both with my tape measure to the film plane and by zooming in with my 5D's 10x zoom feature. This is one of my favorite things about the Zacuto EVF so far, as I use a follow focus a lot, and we all know what a pain these camera's can be to focus, particularly with the Canon glass. The sharpening is absolutely noticeable on the EVF, but because there's no added color effect for the peaking, it's not nearly as distracting.

The screen quality when using the EVF with the Z-Finder is great, and makes focusing even easier. I have no problems seeing the whole screen when I put my eye up to the eyecup, and you can only just barely even make out the individual pixels because they're so tightly packed, which is fantastic! I don't do a whole lot of shoulder mount work, mostly tripod and dolly shots, so I can't wait to get my hands on the Tri-mount kit and really finally be able to give my neck a rest and look through a proper viewfinder! One of the best viewfinder's I've seen on an ENG camera is the Sony EX3, and the Zacuto EVF blows it away with it's tighter dot pitch, while still maintaining that fantastic flip up feature that I loved on the EX3. The color on this EVF is just gorgeous too, and so far in my tests, once you've properly exposed and white balanced, it's been like having a third eye. It really is that good. The way things look when I see them is how they look on the EVF's screen, which is just never the case, and actually kind of threw me off a bit at first. Very impressive!

Having not gotten the chance to use a SmallHD monitor yet, I honestly can't even begin to compare features, as it just wouldn't be fair. I've heard nothing but good things about them, though, so I have little doubt that they make a quality product. But right now, for my money, the Zacuto EVF is BY FAR the best value. Loaded with features right off the bat that even some of the $2500+ monitors don't have, and you can update the firmware so they can add even MORE features, which is something that, to my knowledge, nobody else offers right now in any monitor anywhere near this price range. That's huge.

I should add that I had picked up the eyecup cushion from the Zacuto store, and it is SO much nicer than just using the rubber eyecup that comes with the EVF. And since they're cheap enough, I would definitely recommend picking one up if you're planning on getting the Zacuto EVF and using it with the Z-Finder.
Click to expand...

thanks for getting back with more details. after reading your above replies and watching the video links posted im sold about 98% of the way. the only thing im not 100% sure of is their style of peaking versus the garish "red" type bombastic edge coloring. i can appreciate the thought to be able to really see focus without the red type of peaking but still a little nervous that the zacuto's style might not be enough? from what your saying...it is though and you seem very confident about your statement. im inclined to go the zacuto route anyway. the scalability is really nice. im convinced enough that the EVF's scaling up from the 5DmkII's 480 will still be a notable improvement over my Zfinder on the back of the 5D's LCD. the durability factor is really comforting. of course their warranty is as good as it gets which is also comforting.

thanks for your detailed overview!
david
 
got my shipping confirmation today. I will review it in this thread when i get it.... if Knuckles doesnt mind. Doesnt make sense to start another.
 
knuckles said:
Hi guys!

To address the questions by iunknown & david_p, here is a post I answered on another forum about these topics that I think answers both your questions:

I have not had a chance to use a SmallHD monitor yet. I've used several of the Marshall monitors, 2 different Ikan's and a Sony one. Of those, the higher end Marshall's by far had the best built, picture and options qualities, and even though they all had larger screens than the Zacuto EVF, they're really too big to use effectively when shooting. They work great as a monitor for the director or focus puller to go off of, but for the DoP/cameraman they become more of an obstacle than anything. While they do aid in focusing, because of the higher dot pitch on the Zacuto EVF you are actually able to focus much easier as objects look far less "fuzzy" on the screen like they can on the larger monitors.

The "peaking" option you mentioned is something that I've gotten to do a lot of testing on with the various monitors that offer it. Of the larger monitor's, Sony's probably worked the best IMO, but the added color to the sharp lines has always been a bother to me, even on ENG camera's I've used. I gave the Zacuto EVF what I consider to be the ultimate test for this last night with one of my basement walls. The wall itself has white wood paneling, which shows just enough grain that when using one of the larger monitors with peaking becomes a massive pain, as the whole wall turns yellow/red/etc, and more often than not it is not properly focused. With the Zacuto EVF though, I was really able to see what was actually in focus, and the peaking/sharpening that they have went with really works fantastic! Only portions of the wall were in focus according to the EVF screen, which I then verified by checking both with my tape measure to the film plane and by zooming in with my 5D's 10x zoom feature. This is one of my favorite things about the Zacuto EVF so far, as I use a follow focus a lot, and we all know what a pain these camera's can be to focus, particularly with the Canon glass. The sharpening is absolutely noticeable on the EVF, but because there's no added color effect for the peaking, it's not nearly as distracting.

The screen quality when using the EVF with the Z-Finder is great, and makes focusing even easier. I have no problems seeing the whole screen when I put my eye up to the eyecup, and you can only just barely even make out the individual pixels because they're so tightly packed, which is fantastic! I don't do a whole lot of shoulder mount work, mostly tripod and dolly shots, so I can't wait to get my hands on the Tri-mount kit and really finally be able to give my neck a rest and look through a proper viewfinder! One of the best viewfinder's I've seen on an ENG camera is the Sony EX3, and the Zacuto EVF blows it away with it's tighter dot pitch, while still maintaining that fantastic flip up feature that I loved on the EX3. The color on this EVF is just gorgeous too, and so far in my tests, once you've properly exposed and white balanced, it's been like having a third eye. It really is that good. The way things look when I see them is how they look on the EVF's screen, which is just never the case, and actually kind of threw me off a bit at first. Very impressive!

Having not gotten the chance to use a SmallHD monitor yet, I honestly can't even begin to compare features, as it just wouldn't be fair. I've heard nothing but good things about them, though, so I have little doubt that they make a quality product. But right now, for my money, the Zacuto EVF is BY FAR the best value. Loaded with features right off the bat that even some of the $2500+ monitors don't have, and you can update the firmware so they can add even MORE features, which is something that, to my knowledge, nobody else offers right now in any monitor anywhere near this price range. That's huge.

I should add that I had picked up the eyecup cushion from the Zacuto store, and it is SO much nicer than just using the rubber eyecup that comes with the EVF. And since they're cheap enough, I would definitely recommend picking one up if you're planning on getting the Zacuto EVF and using it with the Z-Finder.
Click to expand...

We have made many improvement from our latest videos in our firmware and we plan on making continued updates to the firmware which will always be free. One thing that we added that is not even on our website or in the manual of the EVF is we added the false color feature. We have increased the boot up time by 2 seconds. We added the AF100 and F3 camera profiles. It's always best to use the camera presets if possible especially with the 5D and T2i if you want to have the 1080i to 480p full screen and unchanged in resolution. Plus the switch time between the two has been greatly improved to where I think I can say it's the fastest on the market. You must remember to push your info button on the camera to get the image full screen. All of the latest firmware changes will always be available in the on-line manual:
http://www.zacuto.com/PDF/EVFManual.pdf

Thanks,
Steve
 
When using an EVF like a Zacuto on say a 7D does it disable the camera LCD display by default in video mode, or must one select a menu option to do this?
 
When using the EVF it disables the cameras LCD, if you unplug the EVF, the LCD comes back on
 
zacuto said:
We have made many improvement from our latest videos in our firmware and we plan on making continued updates to the firmware which will always be free. One thing that we added that is not even on our website or in the manual of the EVF is we added the false color feature. We have increased the boot up time by 2 seconds. We added the AF100 and F3 camera profiles. It's always best to use the camera presets if possible especially with the 5D and T2i if you want to have the 1080i to 480p full screen and unchanged in resolution. Plus the switch time between the two has been greatly improved to where I think I can say it's the fastest on the market. You must remember to push your info button on the camera to get the image full screen. All of the latest firmware changes will always be available in the on-line manual:
http://www.zacuto.com/PDF/EVFManual.pdf

Thanks,
Steve
Click to expand...

Hi,

Sorry if I am being stupid - I am just not clear about something.

Steve, are you saying that you have added the option to have peaking in say red? I realise that maybe many do not want coloured peaking but its really important for my work.

Thanks.
 
tri_fin said:
Hi,

Sorry if I am being stupid - I am just not clear about something.

Steve, are you saying that you have added the option to have peaking in say red? I realise that maybe many do not want coloured peaking but its really important for my work.

Thanks.
Click to expand...

No, I wasn't planning on having the peaking in Red immediately. We are looking as ways to create the red line feature but that is difficult with the specific platform we picked. We had two options on platforms to program in. One would have allowed a less power feature set but allowed for the red line feature, the drawback is that the system wouldn't allow for firmware updates and that means the unit can never be changed once it's made. We thought that was a bad option considering we've already had about 15 firmware updates since the first beta unit and many more are planned. Especially, considering that future cameras all need to have a camera specific profile created. We haven't given up on the red line feature, it may still be possible, we are working on it.
Steve
 
Mine looks shexy. I finally have an anamorphic monitoring solution!

zacuto evf + lomo anamorphic.jpg
 

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