Portkeys OEYE RED control EVF

[Russell Morton]

Has anyone used the Portkeys OEYE EVF with RED Control on the KOMODO?

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1606979-REG/portkeys_red_oeye_evf_4k.html

I tested it today and saw that there is a proprietary hub that needs to be connected and mounted onto the camera.

And the only way to power it up is to use that hub? There was no lemo cable that connects the EVF to the D-tap.

Also, there is only a lemo port that reads REMOTE on the EVF.

So 2 questions:

1. Am I able to power the EVF from the REMOTE lemo port without the hub if I want to forego the control?
2. Can I control the KOMODO using the wooden camera B-Box instead of their proprietary hub? Their proprietary hub takes up alot of the precious real estate on the KOMODO.

Thank you!

 

[Thomas B.]

Hi Russell,

Looks like the B&H staff didn't answer all of your questions...correctly... :sosp:

I guess the lack of useful information about how this EVF is being set up on a DSMC2 / Komodo is the main reason why most people stay away from this product.
Almost no pictures of the actual product (just renders), the remote port has 4 pins (see manual) or 5 pins (see renders, maybe from a different version?), why is a 5 pin cable included (B&H) when there's only a 4 pin connector on the EVF, does this thing support RCP2 (AFAIK, there is no way to change the command protocol on Komodo to RCP1), no clear information in the manual how to set up on the different RED cameras (is the hub really necessary?), and a minimalistic support page to name a few reasons why you should ask Portkeys directly if you're really interested in this product.

I think you can use this EVF without RED camera menu control when using the 4pin LEMO to D-Tap cable and SDI cable.
Although John F states in his B&H review that it is possible to control Komodo via the WC B-Box, I'd recommend to ask Portkeys directly about this setup before you buy it.
I guess the 4 pin to 3 pin LEMO is the connection from RED's (WC's) CTRL port to the hub, and the 9 pin to 3 pin LEMO is for Komodo's EXT to hub connection,
so...you would need a custom made Y cable to go from CTRL and D-Tap / Power source directly to REMOTE (do you know the pinout of the connectors?).
Assuming this device "speaks" RCP2 (or you can change the protocol to RCP1 in Komodo's communication/serial menu after the EVF is being plugged in - and since Komodo's EXT port doesn't provide enough power to run the EVF directly),
it certainly makes sense to use the hub to combine D-Tap power and control into one cable.

I hope this helps. Good luck!

 

[Peter Choi]

Do we know if the image quality is the same as the regular o-eye? If that's the case, I think stay away (pretty poor image quality)

 

[Russell Morton]

Thanks for the replies!

@Thomas - Thank you! In communication with Portkeys now. But from their short response I gathered that you can power the EVF via D-tap but they don't provide that cable (strange!). And since there is only one lemo connector on the EVF, the only way to control the komodo is via the hub. Otherwise it will be just a regular EVF with no control.

@Peter - I'm not sure about the regular O-eye but when doing the quick tests, it seemed OK. It may be the best EVF in the small market of EVFs. One advantage it has over the Zacuto Kameleon is having an SDI out.

 

[Peter Choi]

Thanks for the replies!

@Thomas - Thank you! In communication with Portkeys now. But from their short response I gathered that you can power the EVF via D-tap but they don't provide that cable (strange!). And since there is only one lemo connector on the EVF, the only way to control the komodo is via the hub. Otherwise it will be just a regular EVF with no control.

@Peter - I'm not sure about the regular O-eye but when doing the quick tests, it seemed OK. It may be the best EVF in the small market of EVFs. One advantage it has over the Zacuto Kameleon is having an SDI out.

At this type of price point I think i'd rather go with zcam's, but I haven't tried the zcam one before, just based on what I have heard.