My Name Is Cesar Charlone. But whats my EVF, so sleek and light!!

[PannySVHS]

 

Hallo friends,

I won´t bother with a SI2K Mini due to lack of opportunity. But this has been bugging me ever since Cesar Charlones photograph hit my eye.

Unfortunately I missed out a big opportunity to ask Cesar Charlone himself at Camerimage last year when he was sitting right behind me: What in the name of mankind is this awesome tiny monitor / EVF you were wearing? I was researching about master Charlones movie sets. Was enlarging BTS photos, was doing my google research tricks. Nothing. No insight found. It is not a Cineroid, which would be way too bulky. It is a phantom. What a DP and what a kewl EVF! So dear lens nerds and camera geeks, what is that EVF or monitor that was in Cesar Charlones box, whenever he put it away from his eye? May your research begin. Here is the man himself shooting with the Si2K on set of "La Redota". Smiling like an enigma of cinemagic. What a legend!

cheers

[BTM_Pix]

The monitoring output on the S2K is VGA if I remember correctly so it is likely a custom/lashup version of a small monitor.

In more contemporary times he has been sporting a pair of Carl Zeiss Cinemizer OLED glasses.

[PannySVHS]

@BTM_Pix Thank you for putting some light into this mystery. Still a mystery though.:) The cable leading from the EVF/Monitor is not the SDI kind? Where is it drawing power from? Year is around 2012 I think. What else could we find out about it? The glasses are rather expensive, close to and even four digit numbers. Photo above is priceless.:) cheers

[noone]

If you are am member of IMDb pro, you could contact him via agent/publicist or what ever is linked there (I m not)

[BTM_Pix]

41 minutes ago, PannySVHS said:

@BTM_Pix Thank you for putting a some light into this mystery. Still a mystery though.:) The cable leading from the EVF/Monitor is not the SDI kind? Where is it drawing power from? Year is around 2012 I think. What else could we find out about it. The glasses are rather expensive I would figure, close to and even four digit numbers. Photo above is priceless.:) cheers

It looks like a BNC connector but that doesn't necessarily mean its SDI and in this case it will be regular analogue composite video.

If you trace the cable down it disappears below the bottom of the photograph where I would suspect there to be a VGA>Composite converter taking VGA from the camera to it and the same cable can also carry the power to it.

In which case the monitor itself could be anything from a repurposed CCTV check monitor to a reversing camera screen which they have then lashed a loupe to.

So whilst it looks intriguing in the picture, there is likely a bit of a mess that you can't see and the quality itself may not be all that but probably adequate for the job in hand at that time.

There is nothing to stop you lashing your own equivalent version together for modern cameras with a reversing camera screen etc, a loupe and an HDMI>Composite converter for probably under €40-50. Converting to composite will give you the advantage of having a much thinner and more flexible cable running up to your eye than HDMI would.

I think the Cinemizer glasses are around €600 but have seen them on eBay for less than half that.

Considering VR headsets like the Oculus Go or PSVR are under €200 even those prices seem steep.

[PannySVHS]

44 minutes ago, noone said:

If you are am member of IMDb pro, you could contact him via agent/publicist or what ever is linked there (I m not)

Wouldnt dare to do that. Didnt dare to ask him when he sat almost right behind me, being in the jury for the documentary section of the festival.  At least I got to ask Michael Chapman a few questions four years ago at Camerimage. Friend of mine is a member, so let me think:)

@BTM_Pix the appealing part is the lack of thickness of the solution and being set up with just one cable. What cable would I need to look for to channel image and power to the display? Just an ordinary sdi cable giving power connection and an analogue composite? Suggestions for a monitor? Not meaning to be lazy doing my own research. Maybe though for today. Thanx and cheers!

[BTM_Pix]

24 minutes ago, PannySVHS said:

@BTM_Pix the appealing part is the lack of thickness of the solution and being set up with just one cable. What cable would I need to look for to channel image and power to the display? Just an ordinary sdi cable giving power connection and an analogue composite? Suggestions for a monitor? Not meaning to be lazy doing my own research. Maybe though for today. Thanx and cheers!

In all honesty, I think you are opening up yourself to a world of clunky lashing stuff together ugliness trying to do this.

I'm not going to recommend any specific monitors etc but here is one example way to do it by basing it on the sort of 3.5inch monitor used for reversing cameras in cars.

This will take in power and composite video and you'll then need one of these extension cables that carries both.

This then connects to an HDMI to composite converter like this 

Then you will have to run power to the converter and also of course up to the monitor.

The converter can run directly off USB so a dual outlet power bank would do it if you use one of these to supply power to the monitor on the other port as the monitor can run off 9v.

And then you just need to add a DSLR loupe that will cover 3.5 screen to the monitor and have a way of attaching it, so try and find one of those that has the magnetic frame type of attachment.

Typical prices for this sort of stuff on Aliexpress would be 

Monitor €12-15

Cables €8-12

HDMI>Composite €6-10

USB>9v step up €3-5

Loupe €10-14

So somewhere between €40-55 plus the cost of the power bank.

Now there is no doubt at the viewing end of this that it will be relatively neat and compact but there is a price to pay at the other end for that (same as there will be in the part of the original photograph that isn't visible) but with enough velcro and gaffer tape I'm sure it could be made to work.

 

 

[zerocool22]

This is actually pretty cool, would love some decent glasses to use as a monitor. Allthough operating the camera is maybe a bit tricky. (and running into stuff)

[BTM_Pix]

4 minutes ago, zerocool22 said:

This is actually pretty cool, would love some decent glasses to use as a monitor. Allthough operating the camera is maybe a bit tricky. (and running into stuff)

Many moons ago I had a pair of these Olympus Eye Trek video glasses and they were OK actually.

Would work in this context if you converted to composite video and are very cheap on eBay !

[KnightsFan]

I've been planning to create a chest mount for a small monitor (actually, phone) that rests just under eye level. I think having it permanently on my eye would be eye-straining and make it hard to walk around which is why I'm planning a chest mount. The nice thing about the E2 is that you can use a cellphone for wireless monitoring out of the box, so there's no extra gadgets required. Wireless latency is noticeable, but no worse than the HDMI latency on half the cameras I've used. So it might even find use when I use a glidecam.

[Geoff CB]

9 hours ago, BTM_Pix said:

The monitoring output on the S2K is VGA if I remember correctly so it is likely a custom/lashup version of a small monitor.

In more contemporary times he has been sporting a pair of Carl Zeiss Cinemizer OLED glasses.

This is fricking awesome.

[kye]

On 5/16/2020 at 10:16 PM, PannySVHS said: