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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

Talk about EVF, RED arm, and stress

Jay A. Kelley

Jay A. Kelley

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Here's something that's been on my mind, and since Jim and the others are still tweaking, it's worth bringing up.

The EVF is held to the camera via the REDArm, right? How much push pull action can you put on this arm before it starts to give way and the EVF moves out of the place you put it in.

On my 900 I have been known to push my eye hard against the eyecup, using my neck muscles to steady the camera when my right hand stuck in the zoom grip would not do the job.

Other times, on tripod or dolly, I have noticed myself putting a lot of force on the eye cup.. Don't know why, I guess to have a solid connection with the camera and feel every movement.

I would not mind seeing a 2 point mount for the EVF to increase stability.

Anyone agree? Granted I have not seen the setup at NAB so I don't know much here.. It could be when these arms lock, nothing moves them.

One thing I do know, if that arm moves with a little pushing or pulling, the EVF will not be so great.


Jay
 
there are actually 4 mounting points in a row on the EVF.. so you have alot of options.
 
although i can't say for sure, when i got to play with the red arm briefly at NAB, the "stiffness" was adjustable so you could make it really loose, or just sturdy enough so you could still make little adjustments to the LCD for example. However when you made it tight, it was rpretty rock solid. You could pick up the whole camera from the arm, and it didn't feel like it moved at all.
 
I have to admit I've been thinking the same thing.

If you operate an Aaton XTRprod with short eyepiece (not likely to use the other one, it's Baad) and press against it as I tend to do handheld, the eyepiece always used to tilt up. Sometimes to the point that you couldn't see it anymore! Very frustrating.

We use Noga arms for our monitors a lot these days and they have a tendency to fall when too much weight is being carried (the Panasonic 9" monitor springs to mind). Are the Red arms much beefier when locked off fully?

(also I do recall people commenting on the strength on the arm at NAB I think)
 
I'm just thinking about duct-taping it to my eye if it gets too weighty for the camera.

If that fails, I would think that somebody will be offering "fixed" or "semi-fixed"
arms in a few common configurations.
 
I know i'm not duct-taping anything to my eye! ;)
 
I plan on using the RED arm to mount the LCD directly to one of the forward 1/4-20 receivers on the camera body itself (near the front/left/top of the camera). This is the configuration I experimented with (using the camera where Brook was standing at NAB). This allows me to use the LCD to emulate the position of an EVF (which I'm not buying, in lieu of getting the LCD). My concern is stressing (and possibly stripping) the 1/4-20 receiver threads on the camera body itself (which I assume are cast-in), since that LCD will be mounted in that configuration 99.99999% of the time. I'd hate to have to re-tap a 1/4-20 receiver into my precious RED body someday.

One design component of Sony ENG cameras that I think is really smart, is the way they mount their 1/4-20 receiver for a camera-mounted light (e.g., "Sungun"). This receiver is actually a small metal plate (stamped, I believe), mounted with four tiny allen fasteners. It's a "break-away" design. If you accidentally kick the Sungun, the plate just neatly "comes off" without tweaking anything or actually "breaking" anything. Then you simply replace the little stamped metal plate with four allen screws.
 
Been discussed before but putting the EVF mounted from the head will work nicely too. More like a long eyepiece, it'll pan but not tip. If the Red arm isn't appropriate for this I'm sure a fixed arm will be easy to whip up
 
Hey Dale, wots up? When are you back in town?...
But on this subject...would love to see your or anyone elses EVF config by way of a quick photo?.... It all feels a little bit scary with this massive bazooka hanging off by one spindly red arm...
 
The EVF extension from Element Technica looks like a nice addition to their EVF mount.

EVF-extension.jpg
 
Yeah, I would go with ET's EVF mount. Noga arms and RED arms are great and all, but they do have a fail point, and once it begins to wear away, the arm can never fully lock into place again. I think you could mount an EVF for a while on a RED arm, but I would not do it if I was always using it that way. Wouldn't want the arm to give and have to wait again for an EVF replacement.
 
Yes, two small Red arms have failed on me. One of the failures could have been very bad.

I had my EVF on it and the camera was mounted to a moving vehicle. The Red arm popped completely out of socket, sending my EVF flailing in the 70 mph rush of air! Luckily the cable saved it, and I grabbed it before the wind caused a severe impact.

Red warrantied both arms (thanks, Randy), but I won't put my EVF on Red arms anymore. They seem to do better with the LCD.

The Nogas seem better, but they are the same design and may fail eventually, too.

-Thor
 
I'm not sure how you happily could use the EVF without the ET bracket. the 2 times I used the EVF with a Red arm I found it be endlessly annoying and counterproductive.

I consider the ET bracket a necessary part of the EVF.

Matt Uhry
www.mattuhry.com
 
Matt Uhry said:
I'm not sure how you happily could use the EVF without the ET bracket. the 2 times I used the EVF with a Red arm I found it be endlessly annoying and counterproductive.

I consider the ET bracket a necessary part of the EVF.

Matt Uhry
www.mattuhry.com
Click to expand...

It's a MUST have. Period. Worth every penny and then some.
 
The Element Technica EVF is such an essential bit of kit it should really be in the Red Store (with a link or something). Apart from the safety aspect of adequately supporting your $3000 investment it's also essential for handheld - if your viewfinder is on an arm and it's not completely level with the plane of the camera/frame you'll find a lot of your shots will have a slight Dutch angle...basically it makes it a bit of a struggle to keep your framing level. As others have noted just the weight of putting your eye to the eyepiece can move the EVF so it's no longer level with the plane of the camera/frame.

Another drawback to having the eyepiece on an arm is that often you need to move it in a rush (tilt it up or down, sometimes in-shot). Once an arm is locked they don't really like being moved around in this way by brute force without first unlocking the knob (this might be why many of them are crapping out?) The ET EVF mount solves all these problems and was probably the best non-Red-made investment we've made so far :love:
 
Agree with all. The ET bracket is ESSENTIAL.
Peter, are you looking at the ULCS bracketry in the photo? It's great stuff. MILES better than any NOGA arm. I use it for HD monitors, Firestores, etc. Anything that has to go on a camera and needs to stay in place.
Cheers,
Harry
 
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