RH10 in bright daylight

[Malcolm Stewart]

I now have two HiMD recorders, an NH900 and an RH10.

Today, I visited an outdoor festival (England's Patron Saint George (and dragon)) and quickly discovered that in the sunshine, I simply couldn't see my RH10's display well enough (i.e. hardly at all) to get it into the Manual Gain mode for recording live musicians. On the contrary, my NH900 is near useless in dim surroundings and I bought the 40ELK remote to help with this. Fortunately, it also works on the RH10 - once you've got the RH10 into Manual Gain mode. (I did manage to find sufficient shade, but that could be near impossible in many outdoor situations.)

What annoys me is that whilst the manual mentions temperature limitations, I can't recall ever seeing any mention of ambient brightness limitations. At least the RH1 (hopefully) will remember its settings, so things shouldn't be so difficult in the future.

[Stuge]

Since RH-10 employs OELD for display ..so it is hard to see anything in bright light ..

[Malcolm Stewart]

Since RH-10 employs OELD for display ..so it is hard to see anything in bright light ..

Yes, but what I hadn't appreciated until yesterday, is that the highly praised OLED display appears to have no reflective component whatsoever, leading directly to its near 100% invisibility in sunlight.

I do have two old Panasonic MD units, which have very clear displays, but which don't offer HiMD, or PCM recording which is what I was using yesterday. Matters should be easier with the RH1, when it arrives, as it's supposed to be able to remember its settings, so hopefully, getting it into Manual Gain mode can be done and remembered, before setting out for outdoor festivals.

[raintheory]

This issue has been previously discussed to an extent here in the forums. But yes, it can be quite a pain. For me though, being able to clearly see the unit in a dark venue without having a light source is a plus.

I tried searching for the previous posts regarding this but couldn't find them oddly enough.

[MDX-400]

That's one of the things about OEL displays in general. They are vivid and bright as anything when in normal lighting conditions or in the dark--viewable with amazing sharpness and clarity in those situations. But in bright outdoors light/sunlight they become more difficult to read, which is kind of odd really considering how easy and eye-catching they are in darker conditions.

Is there no contrast setting on the RH10? Or if there is one, does it still not help? I remember back in the day when I had my Motorola Timeport phone with an OEL display... I always had the contrast at near minimum because the display was so easily readable in most conditions. Only problem was the rare time I needed to see the display in sunlight, I couldn't. If I had increased the contrast it would have been a bit easier to read in the sun but then it would have been too bright anywhere other than outside on a sunny day; so I just left it at a low setting.

[raintheory]

No contrast setting on my RH10 anyway.

[Stuge]

Since you guys are very much interested in OELD or Organic Led Emitting Diode or (Some people say Device etc ) or Organic Electroluminescence (called in Asia )

You can also look here -->>

http://www.oled-info.com/

Edited April 24, 2006 by stuge

[Malcolm Stewart]

I tried searching for the previous posts regarding this but couldn't find them oddly enough.

Before posting, I had done quite a lengthy search with no pertinent results.

In the future, I'll use my NH900 for bright daytime events, and my RH10 for other events.

Thanks to all for your comments, and insight.

[greenmachine]

The night & day combo, lol - why build a unit which can do both (backlit lcd for example) if you can sell two instead?

[tekdroid]

I did manage to find sufficient shade, but that could be near impossible in many outdoor situations

Tell me about it!

LCD = essential for in-the-sun stuff.

The OLED is praised (rightly so) for less than optimal lighting (which most probably record in). An ideal would be a hybrid display that monitors ambient light and changes accordingly, but until then...

[erik1974]

Also a very good information website about OLEDS are:

OLED-DISPLAY.net or http://www.oled.at

[Avrin]

Use a piece of non-aggressive adhesive tape to stick an appropriate piece of thin cardboard on the RH10 display. Put adhesive tape only on the upper side of the cardboard, so that it flips open. This is a solution to the following problems:

1. Direct sunlight and bright light in general.

2. Scratches.

3. Using the unit in dangerous places, especially in the dark.

If you're really interested, you may even invent a means for the piece of cardboard to stay open, so that you don't have to use your hands to hold it open while recording.

Edited June 14, 2006 by Avrin