DSMC2 OLED EVF - experiences.

[Alex Waugh]

Hi folks,
I was in the market for the DSMC2 evf but having seen quite a bit of conversation around it regardless IQ over the last week, i thought i'd check in with the group. How is the OLED EVF in use? Does it compare to an Alexa EVF or Kameleon? Is the lack of gamma and contrast control a dealbreaker?

I'm looking at a discounted DSMC2 camera at the moment and the idea of getting a first party EVF is alluring.

 

[James Sielaff]

In use, it is fine. It shows you the frame in relatively crisp HD. Though, if you want the hud, your image drops a little towards 720p.

if you buy used, it isn’t so bad, but a lot of us spent north of $4K and that made it a not so great experience.

Arri LF and Sony Venice EVF’s are in a whole different league. They are the benchmarks. There is very little to no eye fatigue because they use a good diopter lens. The image is superb and feels big even. Rich yet detail in the blacks, and smooth in the highlights. A lot of controls.

by comparison, the Red OLED evf is a bit weird. The diopter is ok, if you are coming from some old 3rd party evf, but I found it fatiguing over the course of a long take. The black detail is slightly milked out, but doesn’t show any more detail. It is like as if a high contrast image had the shadows lifted, but not revealing more detail. Very few adjustable settings. If you change the brightness to make the shadows appear darker, then the highlights look dim and smashed.

the good is that it is small, requires one cable, and has 2 user buttons for 1:1 and false color etc. under $2K it isn’t all that scary. But not worth the original asking price by any means. Basic hardware sold at a high price because Sony and Arri sell theirs for seemingly more. But Sony and Arri actually make real professional EVF’s.

if you did a price breakdown of feature and function:

Arri EVF2
- industry benchmark for optics and image quality
- camera controls
- built in LCD flip out screen
- cable
$7,700


RED OLED EVF
- semi ok optics
- odd image quality, but when not using the HUD, the 1080 full screen can be nice
- no camera controls
- no flip out screen.
- no cable
$4500

add-ones required
- 5inch Red touch to get camera control
$1500
- cable
$250
total:
$6,250

so what would seem to be a deal, ends up costing one nearly the same, but with a lot less quality and user enjoyment. Can be argued that the 5” monitor is easier to use than the Arri flip out screen, but depends on if you even wanted a 5” in the first place. (Arri evf controls work with gloves, the 5” RED touch does not, etc) I didn’t really want the Red touch. Can’t really accurately judge things in ambient light anyway, so might as well save the money sometimes and use an old SmallHD or something with 1000+nits.

For example:
- ARRI EVF2 + high bright SmallHD
$9,500 (buying the SmallHD on sale)
- Red DSMC2 OLED + Red Touch High Bright + side control for run n gun or glove work.
$10,000 (buying all new, at the time)

so the Red option wasn’t actually cheaper when comparing real world functionality buying into Red. But Red does definitely allow a lower entry point.

hope that gives some perspective to the negative opinions. Really just came down to the price vs quality. Those of us that spent the $5K+ rigging one out wanted the quality. But had the price been closer to their low end monitor offerings, it probably would have been expected to be as it was.

 

[James Sielaff]

The issue with the image quality in the Oled Evf is really on the DSMC2 body side of things anyways.

you can see some of the issues even when going SDI OUT to a decent monitor. It is just way out of sync with the OLED EVF for whatever reason. Would be nice if they could fix it in their final DSMC2 firmware release 2023. The firmware release that will also open up 3rd party media.