Just received an email from my Sony rep this morning;

CBKMH01 PMW-F3 eyepiece:


http://i124.photobucket.com/albums/p20/spideywrx/VF2.jpg

Did the rep give you info on availability? price?

Thanks.

Did the rep give you info on availability? price?

Thanks.

He said availible now, $600.00cdn.

So with CDN $ close to par, US price should be just about the same.

I think it's a bit pricey considering it is very much the same loupe as the EX3 and FS100.

So with CDN $ close to par, US price should be just about the same.

I think it's a bit pricey considering it is very much the same loupe as the EX3 and FS100.

I am with you on that. You could almost get an HDMI EVF for that price

It totally useless and too expensive for what it does.

I wouldn't say it is useless. I used the prototype at NAB and found it worked very well. It is basically the same thing as the EX3's viewfinder, and in my opinion, that feature alone is worth the cost difference between and EX1R and EX3. If I hadn't already bought a Zacuto EVF I'd consider getting one. But then again, I wonder if the bracket would interfere with my Berkey plate?

I do agree that it is overpriced. Should be about $200-$300.

One should consider 2 facts:
- The eyepieces will be way too far back on a camrig, which makes the rig front heavy. You wouldn't even last 5 minutes or collapse through the weight of counterweights
- It will be fatique on the joint for the cams viewfinder screen. There will be a lot of weight and movements and I wonder if the joint/hinge will survive this.

But it will be much, much better then te F3 viewfinder, so for those always working in the sun with tripods it should be valueable. but 600 dollars..?..

If you take a closer look at the pitures, the loupe is held in place over the LCD by an adjustable bracket that attaches to the top of the camera and takes the weight off. So, unlike a Hoodman loupe, this one should place no extra strain on the LCD if you use it properly.

If you take a closer look at the pitures, the loupe is held in place over the LCD by an adjustable bracket that attaches to the top of the camera and takes the weight off. So, unlike a Hoodman loupe, this one should place no extra strain on the LCD if you use it properly.

Does the bracket go over the top, or does it go over the front?

It has a bit of a curve, so to me, it looks like it mounts right above the lens mount, where there are to screws.. I could be wrong though.

How could it mount without screws? Yes, it mounts to the top.
The curve allows you to adjust the angle of the LCD.

I think this loupe would be nice for those situations where you don't want any extra kit added to the camera. For example I'm off up to the Arctic at the end of the week and I don't want a whole bunch of extra stuff hanging off the camera with the need to power any extra EVF's etc.

It's not ideal, but a useful option. I'm going to continue to use my Cineroid EVF until I get one of the new Alphatron/TVLogic EVF's, but I could see this being useful for some applications.

Now..... if they could reverse engineer 50Mb/s 4:2:2 internally or better still 10bit 4:2:2 or 4:4:4. I dream of the F5!

Since the camera can do 35Mbps at 30p, it could do 40Mbps at 24p with just a software update as is.

Given engineering safety margins I would even bet it could do 50Mbps with a change in firmware right now. The SxS card is certainly capable of it. (I'm constantly amazed at the extra data rates from Magic Lantern for Canon and Tombstone for GH2.) Don't hold your breath though.

It will be the F9 before the view finder is in the right place and higher resolution, the data rate is up to 200Mbs, 4.2.2 etc. Think of it this way. Remove the design of the $500 of recording circuits in the F3 and pop in the design of the Samurai guts which probably wholesale for <$1k. Only $500 more to have your ideal camera. 1080p will be obsolete by then.

I'd actually be upset if they come out with an F5 right now. I have to get my money out of the F3, recorder, etc. Besides, they aren't going to give us everything we want in one jump if they can get us to buy five cameras.