http://www.studiodaily.com/blog/?p=201

There is an article in Studio Daily blogs that states that a redisigned mini will feature an optical viewfinder. Is this true or is this a misconception of the author of the article?

If it is not true and since I belive that an optical viewfinder is of paramount importance during filming, I will like to ask the developers of the camera if they plan to incorporate one in the near future.

Given the prices quoted, I'd assume that it's not a rotating mirror V/F system. Also, fitting one of those would need an increase in the size of the Mini.

I guess then you would like to really know then what a little birdie from Germany told me :)

. . . it said "Wait for IBC" . . . speculate away!

OK,
I'll bite with a fairly obvious question. Where does this leave those of us who have long ago pretty much paid for a SI-2K and as yet still have no firm shipping date?

I second Bob's concern. It's been almost exactly a year since we paid for my SI-2K and all we have been hearing is "wait for NAB" and "wait for IBC". It's about time you guys felt the heat and thought seriously about promises you have made to people who have already committed to your product.

I agree with both of you guys... What will happen with us, the old Silicon Imaging customers?

****OK,
I'll bite with a fairly obvious question. Where does this leave those of us who have long ago pretty much paid for a SI-2K and as yet still have no firm shipping date?****

I am wondering this myself. I know Ari said he was meeting with PS soon and would have more info when he got back. I'm guessing PS is having issues with production.

I made a substantial down payment right after NAB, but don’t think of myself as an “old customer,” rather a customer who deserves first consideration. I think SI should assign reservation numbers like Red and make a public commitment to deliver in the order reservations (doesn’t that sound better) were received. Rather than feeling left behind because of our early payments, I think we’re entitled to the best treatment. After all, in effect we’ve made interest free loans to SI and I'm sure many, like me, are having to rent gear while waiting for their ever receding delivery date.

SI seems to have a communications problems here, leaving their customers dissatisfied,

Looking at the release the optical viewfinder only affects the Mini, not the SI 2K section. There seems to be problems with a number of these new HD cameras and it's better that the bugs are sorted pre delivery rather than on a production.

However, RED seem to have handled their delays pretty well in this regard, although their final production version's dates could drift as well. As against the none fully functional version being delivered today.

I think the issues go deeper than just communicating what's happening, simple good business practices such as receipt of payment aren't happening. Sending large sums of money via wire transfers is a big enough worry, not getting notification that it got into the right account gives rise to customers with ulcers. The average bod on eBay can manage this courtesy on a $10 sale. In all fairness to SI, RED have fallen down pretty badly in this area too. I think all these companies that are entering this arena need to not just understand the engineering issues but realise that shipping products to clients can require a different or additional business model compared to how they've worked in the past.
Also it's one thing to get the run around between people in the one company, getting caught in the middle of finger pointing between SI and P+S is another.

I certainly don't want to put out any negative vibes here, the product is fantastic, the images are to die for, but the image the manufacturer is generating seem to need some debayering :)

Sounds rather like they haven't yet moved from the engineering development to the sales and support stages required to build up the client base.

First, I'd like to thank all of you for your interest in our camera. I'd like to assure you that it is real. As you have surmised, the move into production is taking much longer than we realized. P+S has brought their tremendous mechanical and optical experience to the new camera design. They have also brought a fine German sense of rigorous design and testing that we are not used to but will benefit everyone once we get the volume up on the camera production.

There will be some new announcements for IBC - some good stuff that people have been asking for.

My apologies to everyone who has been waiting for production cameras.
My Best,
Steve Nordhauser

I know it is frustrating about the delivery schedule delays on the complete SI-2K. Both SI and P+S are burning the midnight oil to complete the production process together with ALL FUNCTIONALITY (and then some) and we hope to fill current backlog for the "NEW" production SI-2K during the next 60-days (or sooner).

Based on the feedback at NAB and valuable input from P+S, we jointly made the decision to significantly improve the SI-2K product family; to make it more modular and field upgradeable. This was done to preserve investment, expand the usefulness in new applications, provide an easy mechanism for field service and the potential for future hardware enhancements. We have added many incremental capabilities and improved the mechanical, optical, electronic and imaging capabilities. These capabilities far surpass the original expectations we set out for the product. All these have been added at considerable cost to the product, while also increasing its performance and value in the market. We will be releasing more data about these enhancements and several new modular options and add-ons, which are now enabled for the SI-2K, during IBC.

Thank you for your continued support and patience.

Ari and Steve:

I think it would be a good idea to mantain the webpage up to date with this kind of information... Its good to hear that from you...

For documentary work, the Phil Rhode's suggestion of a histogram in the optical viewfinder would be a good option.

Ari and Steve:

I think it would be a good idea to mantain the webpage up to date with this kind of information... Its good to hear that from you...

Absolutely or even regular postings here. It'd take a lot less time to post a weekly update than answer lots of emails and phone calls.

For documentary work, the Phil Rhode's suggestion of a histogram in the optical viewfinder would be a good option.

An optical viewfinder would be just that - strictly optical. It does not preclude using the 7" touchscreen viewfinder at the same time. This would allow you to use all of the software based tools for exposure, framing, focus, file system control and the other neat features we have. Once the camera is set up, you can use the optical viewfinder for shooting.

If you want control information in an eyepiece viewfinder, the alternative would be an electronic viewfinder.

Steve

An optical viewfinder would be just that - strictly optical. It does not preclude using the 7" touchscreen viewfinder at the same time. This would allow you to use all of the software based tools for exposure, framing, focus, file system control and the other neat features we have. Once the camera is set up, you can use the optical viewfinder for shooting.

If you want control information in an eyepiece viewfinder, the alternative would be an electronic viewfinder.

Steve

I was thinking more like the exposure meter display found in 16mm film cameras. Handy when shooting fast moving documentaries.

I think the only issue would be the added expense that something like this would entail . . . but having used Arri SR-series cameras quite a bit, I do know what you're talking about.

We can ask P+S Technik what they think . . . but rember that there would need to be some way to adjust the ISO of the camera to match the light-meter reading since there are so many ways to manipulate effective ISO that we can't monitor or pass to the viewfinder (stuff like gain, long shutter, shutter-speeds, frame-rate, etc. all will affect the relative "ISO") . . . so really, in the end, you're much better off with a real histogram reading or using the other exposure tools that we make available in the interface. Having a dual electronic/optical viewfinder I'm sure would be considerably more expensive than the optical viewfinder we will be offering (which is not going to be cheap BTW, this is a "real" optical viewfinder like you would find on an Arri or Dalsa, etc.), especially again since there would have to be some remote mechanism for passing data from the camera to the optical viewfinder, and making an electronic communiction layer like that is going to take considerable engineering effort. It would either have to be electronic, or we would have to make a gigantic table with all the possible effective ISO options that can happen in the camera as you change settings in the software interface so that the optical viewfinder light-meter can refelect the proper exposure. But a big look-up-table you have to reference on-the-fly is not going to be very convenient either.

[QUOTE=Jason Rodriguez;738038]I think the only issue would be the added expense that something like this would entail . . . but having used Arri SR-series cameras quite a bit, I do know what you're talking about.

QUOTE]

I'm thinking of a histogram being where the meter LEDs in a Arri or Aaton would be. A small LCD window, I suppose a sort of simple bar layout giving very basic information.

We will have to look into how much data bandwidth is available from the computer host back to the MINI head, as well as how fast it can be updated to see if a usable histogram can be created.

Check it out.

http://www.pstechnik.de/en/digitalfilm-si2k-optical-viewfinder.php

Yup, the real deal . . . I didn't realize they had released it on the web yet . . . I thought they were waiting for IBC . . . oh well . . . time to-do some leg-work . . . I had the info but didn't realize it wasn't under embargo anymore :)

Thanks,

Jason

Yup, the real deal . . . I didn't realize they had released it on the web yet . . . I thought they were waiting for IBC . . . oh well . . . time to-do some leg-work . . . I had the info but didn't realize it wasn't under embargo anymore :)

Thanks,

Jason

How easy is it to flip or remove/replace the V/F prism when shooting in low light conditions?

It's really easy, you just swap out the camera heads. It would require a second camera head, but just saying, it's a very simple operation since the SI-2K MINI connection with the SI-2K body is completely cable-less . . . it's a pure tool-less unlock, remove and re-insertion operation.

It's really easy, you just swap out the camera heads. It would require a second camera head, but just saying, it's a very simple operation since the SI-2K MINI connection with the SI-2K body is completely cable-less . . . it's a pure tool-less unlock, remove and re-insertion operation.

OK. It's a either an optical V/F or the EVF for each Mini. Looking at the pictures, I assume that you can remove the optical eyepiece, block the V/F port into the camera head and fit an EVF onto the camera if required.

Nice that the camera head removal is a tool-less operation.

I've just noticed the Modular Rig System for the Mini. It looks extremely interesting, I hope the price is competitive with a camera of a certain colour.

We'll be posting the full price list after IBC. Keep in touch though as I should have a new PR with all the details of what's coming out at IBC up shortly.