Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/749700
FIELD REPORT www.postmagazine.com 38 POST NOVEMBER 2016 screen residue because I touch my face and clothes like most people do, without another thought, until the sunscreen is suddenly streaked onto the view screen! Mounted to the back of the grip is an OLED viewfinder. It is sharp and has good color for a screen so tiny. I found myself double checking my framing a lot on bright sun (of which there is plenty in the Utah desert) locations. It automatically turns on when you put your eye up to it. It has a tiny shutter that closes to protect the sensitive electronics from sun dam- age. When it opens, the big LCD screen shuts off to conserve power and to not be a light distraction in dark studio or night- time shooting situations. This is a great idea in theory, but has led to the most common complaint about the DVX200 to date: the shutter for the rear viewfinder is too sensitive. My own shadow, while shooting, could shut off the LCD while I was in the middle of a tracking or pan shot, suddenly leaving me blind and hop- ing I still had my framing centered! There is no bypass switch for this. This would be a good software patch to work on. The camera housing is compact and light. It is reasonably rugged, if not even durable, but it does not have the feel of an ENG camcorder with a magnesium housing — which it shouldn't at this price point. It held up very well with my bump- ing around and I doubt, barring just flat dropping it to the ground, that it would not outlast its technology in a working environment, meaning it will still be going strong when it is obsolete. Placement of the dials and switches is logical and sev- eral user-assignable buttons are readily available to set common user functions. The gain, while balance and display/ mode toggles, however, need to be recessed more. I found twice that I had accidentally turned the gain into an "on" position while setting up the camera in a run-n-gun shot and was having a hard time getting proper f-stop as my subject The DVX200 features a light, compact and reasonably-rugged housing.