What is this, OLED going bad?

[steve green]

My old OLED EVF just started to display this "black dot". Anyone see this before? I'm going to open a ticket and send it in to Red today but wondering if this is a known issue.

 

[Jan Balster]

Looks like sun damage.

I've seen that a couple of times before. Probably sunlight coming in through the eye piece and it was magnified by the optics and burned the OLED.

As far as I know the only way to fix it is to send back to RED and have them replace the OLED.

Sorry for being the bearer of bad news.

- Jan

 

[Tom Gleeson]

Steve,

I think Jan is on the money with the sun damage. It’s very easy to do and can happen in less than a minute. My camera was transported on the front seat of the AC’s car and the sun through the window burnt the screen of my week old EVF. OLED replacement is the only fix and not cheap. In my case insurance would not pay as sun damage was specifically excluded in my agreement. Even film cameras could be susceptible to the viewfinder magnifying the sun and burning a hole in the film in the gate and it’s been true of most electronic cameras since. The tiny OLED screen in the Red EVF requires high optical magnification so its probably especially susceptible

 

[Michael Lindsay]

Tom and Jan have nailed it...

And this is why I believe all electronic VFs should have a easy to activate shut position.... p+s had a auto (eye pressure opened it) attachment that could perhaps be made to work?

 

[Tom Gleeson]

Tom and Jan have nailed it...

And this is why I believe all electronic VFs should have a easy to activate shut position.... p+s had a auto (eye pressure opened it) attachment that could perhaps be made to work?

I would pay for a shutter system and I have seen them on EVFs before usually operated by the pressure of your face. I didn't like them as the tiny delay for the shutter to open was not good for doco work. If you could swing it out for work away from the sun I would be in.

 

[steve green]

My old OLED EVF just started to display this "black dot". Anyone see this before? I'm going to open a ticket and send it in to Red today but wondering if this is a known issue.

OK, here's a strange one.....If it's sun damage which seems likely, why has the black dot moved? I've tried this on my Monstro and Gemini and the dot is now in the info status overlay. At this point I'll just live with it because Red won't even take the EVF in. They say it's been discontinued for a while and don't have any parts for it. They offered me a 5% discount on a new DSMC2 EVF.

 

[Christopher A. Bell]

Looks way too symmetrical to be sun damage. It looks like a perfect circle.

 

[Björn Benckert]

When you kill ants with a magnifier... it also loks like a circle.

 

[steve green]

Looks way too symmetrical to be sun damage. It looks like a perfect circle.

If it's not sun damage, any ideas on how to fix it?

 

[Tom Gleeson]

OK, here's a strange one.....If it's sun damage which seems likely, why has the black dot moved?

Its Alive! Absolutely sun damage should not be moving and that perfect circle is unusual. When my EVF was burnt you could see with a magnifying glass at certain angles the smooth surface of the OLED was rippled/melted from the heat. That may help verify if it is a burn but there may be some kinda different voodoo going on here. Does it move to a different place when on your different cameras? If it stays mainly in the information area you can probably just ignore it and if you do upgrade to the DSMC2 EVF you will be very happy.

 

[steve green]

Its Alive! Absolutely sun damage should not be moving and that perfect circle is unusual. When my EVF was burnt you could see with a magnifying glass at certain angles the smooth surface of the OLED was rippled/melted from the heat. That may help verify if it is a burn but there may be some kinda different voodoo going on here. Does it move to a different place when on your different cameras? If it stays mainly in the information area you can probably just ignore it and if you do upgrade to the DSMC2 EVF you will be very happy.

Tom, I've tried it on two cameras, monsto and gemini, it's in the info area on both having moved lower in the viewing area since I first saw it. It's my second EVF as I've replaced one EVF with the new DSMC2 EVF, and yes, I do love it! Since Red won't work on it, I have no choice but to live with it or sell it cheap.