Reviews

Just got the Zoom H4n in the mail from the eBay seller, . These guys appear to have the cheapest price on the H4n anywhere. For $299US plus shipping I also got a Transcend 16gb SD card, a wired remote and a useless little tripod.

There are quite a few opinions on the preamps on the H4n. A few people even seem to think they can only get about 10 minutes recording before the batteries run down with phantom power enabled. After testing this out with my mkh416, I can safely say that 10 minutes sounds a little too extreme and I’ve managed to record a 50minute clip with near empty batteries that showed NO BARS on the battery indicator. Even when the “Low Battery” indicator was flashing, I manage to record a 6 and a half minute clip before the Zoom shut it self down. When I turned it back on with different batteries, it managed to save that last clip.

I’ve yet to test it out with fully charged batteries but I’m thinking over 3 hours is possible using the 48v option. There is also a 24v option that allows for even longer battery life. I couldn’t tell the difference in audio quality between the two so I’ll be using 24v with my 416 although Zoom does mention in the manual that not all mics work on 24v. There’s also been instances where a high pitch squeal gets introduced when the batteries go half empty. I haven’t experienced this problem so I’m thinking maybe it’s dependant on the mic.

So far, the ease of use and compactness of the Zoom H4n has been a winner for me. A few negatives I’ve noticed are:

• Clickity buttons that set the record volume up and down. They are clearly audible when you use the onboard mics. A volume knob would be a much better option.
• Unable to adjust each channel independantly in stereo mode.
• line and headphone input are the same. You can’t monitor with headphones if you’ve got a line in to your DSLR.
• The plastic shell feels a bit cheap and flimsy.

If you’re shooting video with your DSLR, you need an LCD viewfinder. period. There are a few different types out there ranging from ridiculously expensive (what did you expect from Zacuto?), to cheap as chips ebay lcd loupes. I went in-between and bought the LCDVF.

Costing $159 plus $30 (US dollars) shipping to Australia, it’s not a cheap piece of kit but as the old saying goes, you get what you pay for.
Included with the LCDVF is a couple of mounting frames, a thick eyecushion for the LCDVF, a lanyard, a handy neoprene bag and a lens wipe.

Fitting the mounting frame to the camera is easy if you follow the manual on their site. You’ll want to follow the manual as you’ll risk having the frame come off in the middle of a shoot such as some people have experienced.

Once the frame is mounted you simply put the LCDVF near it and the magnets in the base, pulls it towards the frame for a perfect fit every time. Even in pitch black darkness, you can’t go wrong. The magnets that hold it in place are quite strong, you wouldn’t want to place it near any memory cards or anything like that. It was so strong that I hesitated when it came to pulling the LCDVF off for the first time, I thought it would pull the mounting frame off with it.

Optically, I have nothing bad to say about the LCDVF. I have perfect vision so the lack of a diopter adjustment is no problem for me. It is crystal clear and looks 10x better than the viewfinder on my XH-A1 prosumer camera, but they are notoriously bad. There appears to be no distortion of any kind and I can’t really fault it.

The eyepiece with the eyecushion attached feels so comfortable, I can safely say, it is the most comfortable viewfinder I’ve ever used. And that’s compared to broadcast DVCPRO and DIGIBETA cams. I can really jam the thing into my face for a real steady shot and it doesn’t feel uncomfortable in the slightest.

When it’s attached to my 7D, it looks right at home. Like a natural extension. It’s quite light but built sturdy out of thick plastic.

For the price, you can’t beat it. The 2x magnification seems perfect, any more and it would seem like pixel peeping to me. You can see the whole frame but also focus and look around the frame with no distortion. The LCDVF gets two thumbs up, 5 out of 5. I just can’t fault it.

UPDATE (02/9/10): I’m on to my second frame for the LCDVF after I left it on overnight and the weight of it peeled the frame off! It has been a heat wave down here in Perth, the glue used by the frame doesn’t deal so well with the high temps.
After shooting outside today in 36 degree heat, the frame was starting to come off again, I could see the glue had melted and the frame was sliding around a tad leaving residue around it. The glue is some sort of silicone cement that rubs off into a ball and leaves no stains which is good.
I’m thinking about permanently gluing the frame to my 7D as it has become so important for shooting video.

UPDATE (15/04/2010): Toenis from LCDVF has confirmed that there was an issue with a small batch of frames that caused them to fall off the camera. His company has sent me some new and improved frames to replace them with. I haven’t received them yet but it’s good to see a company willing to fix any issues. If you have the same issue with your frames, contact them via their website with your purchase details.

This is an update to the previous posting and quick review on the Ikan v5600 monitor.

Well I was hoping the monitor would work fine for my 11 hour shoot but the battery adapter issues I had last time had gotten worse. The monitor was barely bright enough to view even in a dark reception room, it was totally unusable anywhere there was any daylight, even in the shade. I was hoping Ikan would have sent me out a replacement battery adapter by now but I’m still waiting even after Kan, CEO of Ikan, said they would send me out a replacement right away. This was over a week ago so I’m now going to try and go through Adorama, which is where I purchased it from, to see if I can send my broken Sony L battery adapter in and get a replacement.
If the battery adapter had worked, the monitor would have serviced my needs as a focusing device just fine. But after this experience with it, I’m totally disappointed in the reliability of the Ikan products and so far from the unanswered email, I’m disappointed in their customer service. God I’m glad I can vent my frustrations on the interwebs

Update 28/11/09 – Still no reply from Ikan support. Adorama are also dragging their feet on replying to emails. What has the world come to when businesses think customer service is not important?

Update 30/11/09 – Ok Kan (CEO of Ikan) has finally gotten back to me. Apparently they aren’t open on Thursdays and Fridays. Still doesn’t explain the delay in keeping me up to date. He says he will personally make sure I get a replacement battery adapter in the mail. I shall wait and see what happens.
Adorama on the other hand are a good store to buy stuff from, but are really.. crap, average, disappointing when it comes to customer support when things go wrong. A quick search on the net reveals a few other complaints about their customer support. They have no problem sending me spam every couple of days yet take their time when it comes to replying, or not replying to any customer support issues.

Update 1/12/09 – Ikan support came through. My replacement battery adapter arrived today after being posted a week ago on the 23rd of Nov. I feel like an ass for getting worked up about it but it’s frustrating when you buy something that costs a lot of money and can’t use it for it’s intended use. My only advice to companies out there is to keep your customers up to date and reply to their emails in a timely matter, within 48 hrs is acceptable. Kudos to Ikan for standing by and supporting their customer and putting up with my angry ass.
I’m going to put the working Ikan v5600 through it’s paces in another way next week. As a teleprompter monitor mounted above the lens. I just tried it out, hooked up to my laptop via hdmi using free Prompt software and it seems to work beautifully even if the eyeline is slightly above the lens.

After just receiving the the optics upgrade for my Sgblade and installing it, I’ve noticed a couple of things.

The Good
I haven’t really tested it that much yet but the upgraded optics are supposed to greatly reduce chromatic aberation and improve edge to edge sharpness. Especially with cameras like the sony EX1/3 and panasonic hvx200. I did notice a bit of CA with my XHA1 on extremely contrasty shots with the old optics. It didn’t really bother me but the edge to edge was quite off putting, hence the purchase. I’ll have to do some test shots to see if these two areas are greatly improved.

The Bad
As with everything in life, there are always major tradeoffs. With the new optics I’ve noticed I no longer have the ability to zoom my camera all the way into the groundglass whilst maintaining sharp focus. This is especially useful for quick composition changes. With the new optics, I can only zoom in to about 83 before it goes out of focus. Massively disappointing for me. I zoomed all the way into the GG alot with the old optics and found it to be incredibly useful. Sure the more you zoom in the larger the grain appears but for footage meant to goto DVD or the web, the images came out fine.
This is especially bothersome for me, so much so in fact that I’ll probably go back to the old optics for run and gun type situations such as weddings and other live events.

In short it may have been another purchase decision I wish I hadn’t gone ahead with. Sure if I had an Ex1 and the CA problems were major then it would have been a good decision but with a XHA1, the problems weren’t that bad to begin with.

Here’s a review of the Fader ND. Its a variable ND filter that you can put on your photo/video lenses so you can control the amount of light that passes through.

In short, it’s awesome. Instead of carrying around a bunch of nd filters, you just carry one. I bought it to use on my m42 lenses for my Sgblade. Instead of relying on my camera’s (Xh-a1) 2 ND filters, iris, shutter speed settings to get a good exposure, I can just wack the Fader ND on the front of the lens and dial in the perfect exposure. It provides between 2 to 8 stops of filtering which is plenty. It has markings on the front spinning element thingy to tell you where you are at but its a bit off and the best way to use this thing is to just watch your monitor while you dial your exposure in.

A couple of negatives I’ve noticed with the Fader is that when you are at maximum ND stopping power and you point the lens at the sun, there appears to be a dark cross like artifact that appears. The other thing is it screws up my lens flares quite badly and makes them look quite artificial. Apart from those two things which I’d hardly ever encounter, it gets 2 thumbs up. The alternative is a Singh variable ND filter which is over 3 times the price. Sure its probably better made but image quality wise, I’m very happy with the Fader and can’t see how much better the Singh could possibly be.

I’ve heard that putting a ND filter on the front of the lens instead of relying on your camera’s nd filters provides a better image. If it’s true, then thats another bonus to using it and from some testing I’ve done, I think I can see the difference. Another bonus is that you can make your own lightning effects in camera. Check it out..

I bought my Fader ND off of