Kinefinity unveiled its new Universal Electronic Viewfinder at NAB 2024. There has been very few decent and affordable (of course this is subjective) third party EVFs on the market. There have been options in the past from companies such as PortKeys, and Zacuto, but not many others. I think that we haven’t seen many options come top market because a lot of younger shooters don’t use EVFs.
The viewfinder is somewhat based off their existing KineEVF OLED Viewfinder, which used a single proprietary cable to send both power and the image from the camera to the EVF.
It looks almost identical, but there are a few small differences as you can see. I have used the KineEVF OLED Viewfinder quite a lot and it is an excellent EVF, and it is very compact and small.
The EVF utilizes a 0.7″ / 1.3cm 1920 x 1080 Micro OLED panel with a contrast of 10,000:1. It is supported by 10-bit processing to ensures exceptional color depth and precision while presenting a broad spectrum of 16 million colors.
This premium optical eyepiece of the EVF is distinguished by its high resolution, ultra-low chromatic aberration, and a broad field of view. It notably includes a built-in diopter that can be adjusted from -6D to +2D. This alleviates concerns related to myopia, ensuring a comfortable viewing experience for all users.
The Kinefinity Universal Electronic Viewfinder has a single 7-24V LEMO power input and a 3G-SDI in. The power draw of the EVF is just 2.5W.
The Kinefinity Electronic Viewfinder supports the SMPTE protocol SDI interface, allowing it to work smoothly with the vast majority of professional cinema cameras on the market. Whether it’s 3G or 1.5G SDI output video signals from various cameras, in formats like 1080p, 1080i, or 1080psf, they can all be displayed on the EVF’s Micro-OLED screen.
The EVF weighs 348g / 12.2 oz and it made out of aluminum. Kinefinity states that their EVF is 40% lighter than competing products. It is nice and compact for a universal EVF which makes it suitable to use on a variety of cameras. In saying that, it doesn’t have an HDMI input, so that would make it difficult to use with mirrorless hybrids.
The EVF utilizes an innovative FPGA-based hybrid processing architecture, achieving rapid boot-up, quick responsiveness, ultra-low power consumption, and virtually no delay in monitoring equipment. With ultra-low power consumption and no fan inside, the EVF operates silently.
The zero-delay feature of EVF ensures real-time framing and seamless focusing, capturing all the exciting moments as if using an optical viewfinder, rather than an electronic one.
The EVF features a new mounting design, offering two ways to mount it on cameras: one is the traditional ARRI Rosette bracket, making it compatible with a multitude of existing viewfinder brackets; the other is Movcam’s more compact, flexible quickplate bracket. Both methods allow users to work in conjunction with their cameras conveniently, flexibly, and reliably.
There are 5 function buttons, a toggle button, and a function knob for making changes.
Below are the video assist functions you can assign to the 5 function buttons.
| Luma Waveform |
| SDI Metadata |
| Desqueeze/Scaling (Anamorphic) |
| 4:1 Zoom In |
| Peaking |
| Histogram |
| False Color |
| Zebra |
| Safe Guides |
| Screen Markers |
| Image Rotation |
| Image Flip |
| Freeze Frame |
| Frame Lines |
| Center Marker |
| Audio Meters |
| SMPTE Color Bars |
| Noise-Free |
| Zero-Delay |
Micro-OLED 1080p and Premium Optics
Noise-Free and Zero Delay
Moreover, equipped with a comprehensive suite of software features such as Luma Waveform, Peaking, Histogram, False
Color, SDI Metadata and more, Kinefinity Electronic Viewfinder empowers filmmakers with the essential tools needed to achieve precise, professional results.
Price & Availability
The EVF will be shown at NAB 2024 at Booth C7310. There is no current information about pricing or availability. The official release date announcement and price should be made soon.
As a reference, the KineEVF OLED Viewfinder retails for $1,799 USD.
