A Christmas present for my SmallHD DP4

SmallHD is offering some good stuff to their customers at less-than-wholesale prices! It's a bundle package for owners of a SmallHD DP4 monitor, consisting of:

1. a long awaited alternative battery plate (I opted for the Sony NPF-series plate but there's one for AA-batteries or Nikon batteries as well)
2. a wired remote control (nice!)
3. a protective lens cover (no more burning up your screen with old eyecup)
4. a newly designed eyecup (no more worries about sunburning your screen- very nice!!)
5. extra 1.5 ft hdmi cable
6. extra protective cover
7. plastic prying tool
8. cleaning cloth

And all of that for US $34,- including shipping worldwide! Needless to say I didn't have to wait long to jump on this offer! Why, Merry Christmas to you, too, SmallHD!

GH2 shoot with compact rig

Compact GH2 rig 'on the job'

Did my first official shoot with my GH2 today and built this compact rig to suit today's needs. Was shooting with kids at a school and running about in the woods so I need something small and light. I took along my Pentax 6mm 1.2, my Panasonic Lumix 20mm 1.7 and my Canon FD 50mm 1.4. I wound up using the Panasonic most of the time because it is wide and will easily tell me at what aperture I'm shooting at. The Canon is too tele for handheld work and the Pentax aperture ring was too hard to see...
Audio was recorded on a Zoom H4n in combo with the Sennheiser G2 wireless series. My partner was doing the audio.
I planned to use my SmallHD DP4 but I was moving so fast I skipped mounting it most of the time. Can't wait to look at the (hacked GH2) footage.

Mailbox: return of the SmallHD DP4

OPEN THE BOX BEFORE SIGNING!

UPS stopped by today to deliver my SmallHD DP4 monitor after I sent mine back because of a slight sunburn... Too bad it didn't arrive one day earlier- I could have used it for my shoot yesterday! But SmallHD shipped it from NC, USA to Amsterdam in exactly one week from the point they (should have) received my damaged monitor. That's fast!
Last week it passed Germany on the way over here and I got a little suspicious when a UPS-worker from Poland(why Poland?) asked me for my BTW-number (my business tax-number). I get a lot of 'fishing' emails and after my monitor got stolen by some postal worker, I don't trust anyone. I called UPS Holland and they said to ignore the mail. The next day I received another email from a guy from UPS Holland who asked me for my BTW number as well and who signed his email with a very unprofessional 'Mike'. I ignored that as well.
Which is apparently the thing to do because today my monitor arrived anyway. The UPS guy came, asked me to sign for the package but when I was about to take the pencil from his hand hesitated and said "sorry, I want to check if my item is actually in there." I opened the box and there it was. I showed the DP4 to the UPS guy. Then I looked at him intensely and asked him if his name was 'Mike' and if he had friends in Poland. He said "no" and I told him that if he ever saw a colleague of his filming with something that looked like my monitor, he should contact me... 'Sure, buddy' he answered, a little unsettled, excused himself and quickly drove off in his brown UPS truck.

MY SMALLHD DP4: SPOTLESS

Stolen: SmallHD DP4

MY DP4 ONE DAY AFTER I RECEIVED IT

I sent my practically new SmallHD DP4 monitor in for repair a few weeks ago and yesterday I got word from SmallHD that someone along the way from Amsterdam to the USA opened the box, took out the monitor and closed it again in such a way that no one would notice..! Unfortunately SmallHD signed for it without checking the box... And that is very unfortunate, from a legal standpoint.
The only consolation is that the thief has a unit with sunburn spots on the LCD.(the reason my monitor went back for repair.) And because it's such a specialized piece of gear, only SmallHD can repair it. In case you come across a SmallHD DP4 (for sale) and it has serial# DP4-00473, please contact SmallHD.

The good news is that my new replacement monitor is on the way. Let's just hope it doesn't pass the same thieving hands when it travels to Amsterdam. One thing I know for certain: I will check every box I receive before signing for it.

Small HD DP4 and Zacuto EVF compared

Nice Lady does it again: nice review of the DP4 vs the Zacuto EVF! She's turning this review into a series with a cliffhanger: part 3 is still to come! I was planning to do my own review but then my DP4 got fried before I got the chance to. I was going to spend a day shooting with soundman Neal McDiarmid -who owns a Zacuto EVF- and compare the two but Nice Lady beat us to it. That's fine: the more, the better, right? We will do our own anyway, so people can make an even more informed decision. Meanwhile, this is what Nice Lady has to say about both EVF's. Nice work, Nice Lady!

SmallHD DP4 and sunlight

BELOW RIGHT: WHITE SUNBURN SPOT

I have been using the SmallHD DP4 for about a month now. It's been sunny and that's the reason I have been shooting outside a lot, experimenting with different lenses, rigs, my new mattebox and glass filters. My DP4 made it a lot more fun and so much easier to shoot with these accessories and judge what I was doing.

But there is a big drawback to shooting in the sun with an Electronic View Finder (EVF): sunlight. And when I disovered a few spots/specks on my monitor and contacted SmallHD what these spots could be, they said they recognized the spots as coming from sunlight going into the EVF burning holes in your screen. The EVF is a magnifier: remember as a child using a magnifying glass to burn stuff? SmallHD says it takes no more than 30 seconds to burn holes in your screen. Considering that, I'm glad the damage was limited to a few spots...

Problem is that most often we're shooting with the sun in our back. So fiddling with equipment, searching your bag, talking to talent, whatever... 30 seconds is gone in a spiffy...

Is it a flaw in the design? I am not an engineer and cannot answer that. I have read that Zacuto's EVF has the same problem and most likely every monitor/EVF combo. Can't they redirect the sunlight so it won't hit the LCD? My uneducated guess is that -if possible at all- that would require very expensive optical engineering that would put the DP4 out of our financial range.
SmallHD has warned for use in the sunlight and consider this 'user damage'. But I have to give the company credit for the way it handles this issue. For now, clients are getting their DP4's fixed under warranty. In the future the sun warning will be more explicit in the manual and a lenscap for the EVF will be shipped with the package. I would add: preferably permanently attached to the EVF and with a big yellow warning sticker on the EVF itself. Because in the rush of the job, 30 seconds can pass before you can change a lens...

SOME SPOTS ARE ONLY VISIBLE WITH BLACK BACKGROUNDS

Super Takumar test footage

I shot some video here in my father's place in Vero Beach, Florida using the Super Takumar 50mm 1.4 on my Panasonic GH2. I also used my SmallHD DP4 for the first time in the way I will most often use it- without being plugged in to the wall, battery-powered. (what a pleasure to work with, by the way!)
The footage was shot with available (evening) light, which was very little. I was wide open and had to up the ISO from 1600-2500. No grading. The image looks tacksharp and has great bokeh. I pulled focus -manually, on the lens(!)- from inch to inch and you can see how incredible a job it does with the twigs, coral and shells. In the last shot the focus moves from the couch and pillows and then closes in from twig to twig. (it looks like a lot of dissolves but it's 'straight footage')

The music is from a CD that was lying around here and it won't get me in trouble with copyrights: it's kind of a spoof made by my niece Frederique Masselink-van Rijn, who has moved on to becoming a rising star as a photographer.

Super Takumar test footage from Filmersblog on Vimeo.

Mailbox: SmallHD DP4

SMALLHD DP4 ON PANASONIC GH2

GREAT PICTURE WITH ALL THE NECESSARY INFO ON DISPLAY

I received my SmallHD DP4 today. First -superficial- impressions: great design and feel. The monitor itself is featherlight, the viewfinder feels rocksolid, almost clunky in comparison. I'm almost afraid to mount it on the monitor for fear of bending/breaking it! It's probably better to attach the monitor to the viewfinder than vice versa. That is to say, don't mount the viewfinder when the monitor is on the hotshoe or on a flexible arm. Hold the viewfinder in your hand and press the monitor in place, that way you can exercise more controlled pressure.

I did a quick tryout with my GH2 and the resolution and picture looks great, straight out of the box. Have to get used to the menu but that's to be expected when you don't RTFM... The feature set and options are manifold and there's 2 preset buttons for your favorite settings. scroll/push button, usb port, HDMI in and out, replaceable battery plates (for now you can only use Canon LP-E6 batteries), and headphone jack for monitoring audio.

QUICK OVERVIEW OF BUTTONS AND PORTS

I didn't get a signal out of the camera straight away: I was about to start sweating when I discovered that either the camera or the DP4 doesn't like it when the camera is turned on before the monitor is. After I turned the camera off and back on again, the picture showed up.
As expected, the package feels very professional and complete. From the design to the materials to the accessories, this EVF/monitor makes me feel I can really go to work with my DSLR's.

I will write more about how the DP4 performs in the field and -when I get back to Europe- how it works with my Canon 550D/T2i.

If there's anything in particular people would like to hear about, let me know.

FALSE COLOR FOR JUDGING EXPOSURE

SmallHD DP4 on the way

 I bit the bullet and ordered the SmallHD DP4 monitor/electronic viewfinder. I am really looking forward to using this device with my GH2 during my stay here in the States. Problem is, the DP4 ships with a Canon LP-E6 battery plate. Since I don't own a 5D Mark II or a 7D, I don't use these batteries. I asked SmallHD about an optional Sony NPF plate (I have a bunch of small NPF's for use with my Z96 led light.) but they don't have an alternative plate as of now. They wrote they are working at it but it doesn't seem to be a priority. They should have alternatives: how hard can it be to produce such a plate?
So I am looking at a charger and a few LP-E6's. There's a lot of really cheap deals: $20 for 2 batteries and a charger. Too good to be true? I'm gambling that they are cheap because the camera doesn't 'read' the battery info. But since I won't be using them on a camera, that's fine with me. I'll let you know how they fare. And I'll tell you all about my SmallHD DP4!

Zacuto EVF review

SALESPERSON DOING WHAT SHE DOES BEST

Andrew Reid from EOSHD has done a thorough review on the Zacuto EVF. I wanted to ask why he chose the Zacuto over the SmallHD DP4 (especially because he already owns the SmallHD DP6) but you have to register to be able to ask a question... I don't want to register!! Open up the response-box, Andrew! I still lean towards the SmallHD DP4 because of the bigger screensize. (And I don't own a Z-Finder...)

Nice Lady does Nice Job! on SmallHD DP4 review

What a relief to hear a lady do a technical review. Gadgets and electronics seem to be an exclusively male universe so hearing a nice lady from Nice Lady Productions do a review on the SmallHD DP4 monitor/electronic viewfinder is refreshing!
Obviously I wouldn't even mention it if Nice Lady was Nice but ill-informed. But that's not the case. She seems to know what she's talking about.
I've been looking at a new monitor for use with my DSLR. My Lilliput monitor is not for use out of the house,  I want to be able to judge exposure on my monitor and I want peaking. So the hunt is on for a monitor that has these features. I've zoomed in on two monitors that fit the picture: the Zacuto EVF and the SmallHD DP4. They're both quality products, from what I've seen and heard. But I really like the extra screen-inch compared to the Zacuto EVF. Ever since I'm wearing reading glasses, I can use every inch I can get...
This video makes me lean towards the SmallHD DP4. Nice Lady is very positive about this little device. (you're not affiliated to SmallHD, are you? And I know I shouldn't be asking but... I tried finding a photo of Nice Lady to see if she's Nice-looking as well... but to no avail... Can we see what Nice Lady looks like- please?)


SmallHD DP4 Monitor Review from Nice Lady Productions on Vimeo.