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RED EVF vs. BOMB EVF

Michael Totten

Michael Totten

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Hi.

I've been on a waiting list for the original RED EVF for some time now. Last I heard they would be available late Feb. or early March. I wanted to have it in time for a feature that actually just wrapped a couple days ago so that I could pay for it. Since that's come and gone, and I don't have any sizable jobs scheduled right now I'm considering waiting for the EVF BOMB.

My question is: Is there a big difference in quality between the two EVF's?

thanks.
 
Like to know that , too. In own the original EVF for my Red One and plan to make the change to EpicX once available. Unfortunately, the new EVF isn´t in the X package offer. If the new EVF is better, I´d go for that one, but I assume it´s too early to expect details right now.

Frank
 
The bomb EVF will be 1080 whereas the current version is 720. It will also be lighter, with a smaller form factor that looks to be about half the size of the current version. It will probably handle cold/hot weather conditions better, but that's just a guess. Looking forward to it, however, I'm damn pleased with the current EVF. I played with an HVX viewfinder recently and thought I was looking at a tetris game.
 
Richard Darge said:
The bomb EVF will be 1080 whereas the current version is 720. It will also be lighter, with a smaller form factor that looks to be about half the size of the current version.
Click to expand...

If its 1080, is this gonna make the lag worse with sharp pans and general camera movements? I understand the likelihood there is going to be a slight lag but is 1080 gonna make a huge difference?
 
The Bomb EVF is been out there for a while but I have seen little feedback on what users think of the image quality. It has the obvious advantage of weight and size over the original Red EVF but I am just as interested in the quality of the image. Is at as good as the Alexa EVF? I have used a Bomb EVF but only for a short crazy day but my initial impression was it was not a major improvement. Love to hear from people who have spent some quality time with their Bomb EVF.
 
I had the opportunity to go with the Bomb EVF and decided to go with the LCD (on an Epic shoot). For me, the image is too small.
For exemple I've been used to shoot with Zacuto Z-finder 2.5 magnifiing. I hope they will do any optical improvement to magnify the image. I think the quality of the Bomb is really great but the viewing field is too narrow. I love when I get imerged in the picture while shooting. Like sitting in front of the big screen.

Patrick
 
We discussed this in another thread some time ago.

I don't know where 1080 vs. 720 comes from.

The original EVF resolution is 1280 x 848.

The Bomb resolution is 1280 x 784.

So the Bomb is actually slightly LOWER resolution.

The main way this shows itself is that when using a Bomb on a Red One you can't see both the upper (frame rate ISO etc) and lower (histograms etc) data displays at the same time; you have to do a two-button push to switch between them. Now I think this is dumb and wrong, but that's just me. On the EPIC the Bomb works perfectly.

I've used both now and I would say that, despite the slightly lower numerical resolution, the image quality of the Bomb is somewhat higher - the original EVF was already very good of course. And it's heated, and much more compact, and other good things...

If I had the budget and there was no backorder, I'd buy a Bomb. I don't really NEED an EVF at all (but nice to have), budget is constrained, and there is a substantial backorder, so I recently bought a slightly imperfect original EVF for a very good price. I don't regret it.

Mike
 
I just received my Bomb and I'm a little underwhelmed by it honestly. Not seeing the top/bottom menus at the same time seems like a step backwards to me. There is a lot less banding and the size is great but the diopter should be a lot better. I find that unless I put my naked eyeball (I wear glasses) dead center and right in the eyecup the edges of the image go soft. If I pull my eye away from it a little bit I can't see the edges of the frame.

This is just my personal opinion but I've been shooting for two decades now and this is proving to be the most difficult viewfinder for me to use.
 
Last edited:
Quality is great but yes, the edges go soft very fast if you just move a bit and I have difficulties to change between the menu bars. Hitting two buttons the same time and not change other settings with the right or left button, hey man, that is ART. So would appreciate if RED find another one-button-solution for that (or did I missed something?)
 
Milky blacks is my only issue. hopefully being sorted out soon with firmware.

Arri view finder and canon rear screens have rich blacks great saturation. I'm hoping the bomb will get close to that soon. Would be great if we could adjust the contrast and saturation our selves in camera.

Size is great though. Narrow view of field makes the corners soft unfortunately. In cold climate you have to pull eye away to stop fogging making it hard to see all the image. Image is quiet small to view. But you get use to it the more you use it.

Other than that it is what it is.
 
Daniel Reichenbach said:
Quality is great but yes, the edges go soft very fast if you just move a bit and I have difficulties to change between the menu bars. Hitting two buttons the same time and not change other settings with the right or left button, hey man, that is ART. So would appreciate if RED find another one-button-solution for that (or did I missed something?)
Click to expand...

The correct solution would have been to make the Bomb the same resolution as the original EVF, but for whatever reason RED didn't do that. The less optimal solution is obvious; put a patch in the RED ONE firmware to output the correct resolution for the Bomb! If it can't auto-detect which EVF is installed, make it a menu option. The two-button thing is bad and wrong and an obvious kludge and I don't like it; it offends my hacker ethos.

Mike
 
Outside of the same above noted problems (soft edges unless you bury your eye in the EVF, and the whole crazy rainbow effect if you look anywhere around in the EVF itself) ours gets HOT after maybe about 20 mins of use. So I had a few questions;


I had seen something about a heater in the EVF (?), is that true? Is there a way to turn that off (and can anyone tell me why that would be advantageous)?
Also, there is no manual or anything for it, so...on a Red One do the buttons just basically switch from seeing the top bar and the bottom bar and thats it?
Is there no way to see both at the same time?
Is there anyway to program the buttons? On a Red One or Epic?

Thanks in advance for any insight into this...
 
More salient to our case (since we own an original EVF) is how can one know, in advance, if their original EVF is going to work with the Epic? There are all sorts of reports of some EVFs working just fine on the Epic and others saying all they got was a flashing screen. If find it very hard to believe that it is a "well, it works if it works" sort of thing. Perhaps they will all work eventually, or maybe there is something in serial numbers above or below a certain number that work (or don't). Can anyone at RED chime in on this question?

Stephen
 
Hi Wil,
I belive there is a heater in the Pro EVF and there is no way to switch it off. The advantage with a heater is when it is cold or damp. I've heard the "old" EVF could have problems in those conditions.
There is a manual although not in the box. You will find instructions in the manual for the Red One 30.7 software.
The buttons are programmable, default is "(false) colour" and switch the viewing between Raw and Red Colour. Plus when pushing both buttons you will choose to view either top or bottom information along with the image. There is no way to see both at the same time. Personally I don't find this to be a big issue. I'm not that concerned about the info above the image. This stays more or less the same throughout the shoot normally, maybe except for the colour temperature. The exposure on the bottom is more important to me.
There is a long list of functions that can be programmed to each of the two buttons.
Hope this helps
Andi
 
I just shot with an EPIC-M for 3 days and I thought the Bomb EVF was terrible. Light leaked in everywhere, especially outdoors. It's also uncomfortable to press your eye on. It was really hard to get rid of flares, and because of that, I ended up using the touch screen the whole time. Also - like others have said, the magnification is not the greatest.
 
I just shot all last week with mine for the first time and I thought it was a vast improvement from the old one. Better picture quality, more comfy. I had no problem with the blacks or it being hard to see. Compared to the old one, it's a little different, but compared to an arri viewfinder (optical, not Alexa), I think it's much easier to see. I think that if you are used to say an ENG style eyepiece from an f900 or a varicam, the exit pupil is smaller and the viewing distance needs to be closer, but it isn't one of those viewfinders. That's just been my experience. I did find myself covering the eyepiece when I took my eye off of it out of old habit, which I never really did with the old one. Seems more filmy ;-)

Nick
 
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