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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 :)

OLED Lacking Contrast and Color

steve green

steve green

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Hey guys,
I just got my new OLED EVF (my second one) and yesterday I shot day exteriors, two actors, muted sunlight, trees, red brick building, 60 PFS. Looking through the EVF everything was low contrast, SDI monitors looked OK, and the footage looks rich and lush in RCX. I understand it's not a lot of information to go on, but I'm heading to the set now and would love to get some suggestions of where to look to correct this (if possible).
Thanks as always......
 
steve green said:
Hey guys,
I just got my new OLED EVF (my second one) and yesterday I shot day exteriors, two actors, muted sunlight, trees, red brick building, 60 PFS. Looking through the EVF everything was low contrast, SDI monitors looked OK, and the footage looks rich and lush in RCX. I understand it's not a lot of information to go on, but I'm heading to the set now and would love to get some suggestions of where to look to correct this (if possible).
Thanks as always......
Click to expand...

The only two options are to adjust the brightness, or adjust the shadow setting on the color profile (I don't like doing this if you are also feeding an external SDI recorder). I find that in really bright light the EVF is also too bright. Once I get correct exposure, i switch to RAW view and the contrast and brightness level looks great. Map the RAW view button to the EVF for quick access. I hope in the future that the monitor controls can be separated from the color settings.
 
Bob Gundu said:
I hope in the future that the monitor controls can be separated from the color settings.
Click to expand...


Originally they were supposed to be. So you could have different looks on different taps...

On my wishlist was being able to watch RLF, while sending some RedGamma to the SDI :)
 
Have you calibrated the OLED monitor? Without precise calibration, the problem is, you have no idea what you're looking at. The monitor could be misleading you.
 
Marc Wielage said:
Have you calibrated the OLED monitor? Without precise calibration, the problem is, you have no idea what you're looking at. The monitor could be misleading you.
Click to expand...


It's so frustrating that sometimes the OLED EVF has muted contrast in some lighting conditions and other times it looks OK. It always looks a little on the warm side especially in low light. Is it possible to think in future firmware some contrast control may be added. I only wish for the money spent the OLED EVF would be usable all the time.
 
This was posted in an earlier thread...

Mark Toia said:
You should be able to set exposure very easily with it... I do.
You may not have seen this... But it's working for me, and it gets rid of those bright grays you speak of. It's not a true fix, as RED are onto looking at the black levels in the OLED at the moment. but this is what we do to combat the grey blacks... with perfect results. putting the lens cap on you really notice the difference. see below

OLED_Settings.jpg
Click to expand...
 
Peter.G said:
This was posted in an earlier thread...
Click to expand...

Peter, thanks for this.....

I remembered this post, I was about to ask if someone knew if this shadow correction is being considered for future builds. An adjustment to make the blacks richer in the EVF but not change the actual R3D's.
 
steve green said:
Peter, thanks for this.....

I remembered this post, I was about to ask if someone knew if this shadow correction is being considered for future builds. An adjustment to make the blacks richer in the EVF but not change the actual R3D's.
Click to expand...


... Or effect the image out the sdi/hdmi port.
 
Mark's EVF showed an anomalous look (hence his tweak settings on shadow). I think the next build Mark got fixed his EVF to look correct and he no longer needed that adjustment. You shouldn't need to adjust any settings for an EVF to look great out-of-the-box.

Graeme
 
Hate to disagree with Graeme but my OLED looks about 3000 Kelvin warmer than the SDI output and the R3D files in RCX. I also find that the OLED isconsistently brighter by about a stop. I can turn down the brightness but the image thens starts to flatten. I have given up on it and I use my old Red One EVF for sticks work and only go the OLED when handheld.

Now a strange small round black dot has formed on the corner of the OLED panel. I think its possesed.
 
Tom, I'm talking about the milky black on the OLED EVF image that Mark reported, but was fixed.

Graeme
 
To me, the blacks and dark shadows look ok, but the gamma (mids) seems raised, maybe by a stop, (subjective measure), compared to the LCD. That's the best way I can describe it. Underexposed shots look well exposed in the mids in the OLED EVF, and that's where the danger lies.
 
If you put the lens cap on the camera, can just "just" see the blackness of the lens-cap shot above the black surround or does it look "grey"?

Graeme
 
Graeme who are you asking? I think Tom, but...
My blacks are only just above pitch black, where they should be.
Lowering EVF brightness doesn't really work to make the mids feel right to me, just like Tom. The image becomes dimly reproduced, but still seems properly exposed (when it's actually not).
 
I'm asking about blacks because someone posted up Mark Toia's image from way-back-when which is, as far as I know, relating to a fixed issue, and I need to know if that is indeed the issue the original poster is suffering from.

I must admit I've not played with adjusting OLED EVF brightness, but that sounds to me it's a separate issue and if I can duplicate it here I can talk to the engineers about it.

Graeme
 
Graeme, for me it's really problematic in bright sunlight, as I'm unable to reduce the brightness to an acceptable level. It's only when switching to RAW view mode that the levels look correct.

Graeme Nattress said:
I'm asking about blacks because someone posted up Mark Toia's image from way-back-when which is, as far as I know, relating to a fixed issue, and I need to know if that is indeed the issue the original poster is suffering from.

I must admit I've not played with adjusting OLED EVF brightness, but that sounds to me it's a separate issue and if I can duplicate it here I can talk to the engineers about it.

Graeme
Click to expand...
 
Graeme Nattress said:
I'm asking about blacks because someone posted up Mark Toia's image from way-back-when which is, as far as I know, relating to a fixed issue, and I need to know if that is indeed the issue the original poster is suffering from.

I must admit I've not played with adjusting OLED EVF brightness, but that sounds to me it's a separate issue and if I can duplicate it here I can talk to the engineers about it.

Graeme
Click to expand...


Graeme, love the fact you're on this issue....I'm on my second OLED EVF and I can't rely on it at all. Some conditions it looks OK (just), and others it looks very milky with no contrast. If I look at a scene with my eye it looks nothing like what I'm seeing through the OLED. I've been looking at frames for 30 years through film and video cameras and I'd have to say this is the weakest representation I've ever had to deal with. I'm "all in" on the Epic but this is a real "weak link" in the chain. I'm actually ready to look into third party solutions for an eyepiece. Any help you can provide to fix this would be most welcome.
 
I have an OLED EVF here, so anything you can do to see if I can reproduce the issues here (pm / email me) and then I can talk to our engineers and see what they can do.

Graeme
 
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