The advantages of the RED EVF

[Mike Krumlauf]

I have a RED PRO LCD 7' and i'm considering down the road investing in a used original red evf for my red one, but i was wondering, what are the advantages of having the evf over the lcd or better yet, along side the lcd? is it worth an investment?

 

[Thomas Koba]

Matter of taste. I hate filming with monitors. Putting an eye into a viewfinder blocks everything else out, and makes you concentrate on the framing more... for me, that is.

 

[ericyoung]

It's really useful in bright sunlight or very contrasty lighting on set as the glare makes LCDs hard to see, let alone focus with. So it's good to have available for certain situations.

Having said that I personally much prefer LCDs most of the time, but yes it's a matter of taste & preference. If you're an owner operator without a crew and it's only you using it, and you've been fine with the LCD, I'd use the money on something you use all the time on every shoot.

 

[Mike P.]

For handheld it's another point of contact with the camera (which actually helps quite a bit with lighter, top-heavy cameras like DSMC).

 

[David Mullen ASC]

I would think it would also be an issue of how well your eyes can focus on the monitor if you at the age of needing reading glasses, as opposed to an EVF with a diopter to allow focusing for your eyesight. Of course, you could just operate with reading glasses or bi-focals, or in my case sometimes, just peering over my eyeglasses (I'm extremely near-sighted so looking at tiny screens with no glasses is the easy part, it's just the need for glasses when you look up from the camera at the world.)

 

[Patrick Tresch]

On the cheap side have you tried the Grid loupe viewfinder? They also do a 7".

http://www.reduser.net/forum/showthread.php?131489-EVF&p=1534311&viewfull=1#post1534311

Pat

 

[Brian Timmons]

One other nice feature of the RED ONE EVF is it allows one to change some important settings like, ISO, SHUTTER, FRAMERATE (must be set in Varispeed mode though), and AUDIO through the EVF as opposed to going through the menu which can be a PITA on the RED ONE. You also get 2 USER keys and a MAGNIFY button to check focus.

Because of that functionality alone I still tend to use the EVF over the LCD on a RED ONE.

Brian Timmons
BRITIM/MEDIA