Handheld - Ex1 w/Letus or Canon HV20 w/Letus?

[HowdyDoo]

I have never been able to find many answers concerning this and even over at the Letus forums the results have been slim pickings.

In a few months I am going to shoot some short films where I will have a one man crew and a 35mm adapter. I will be shooting guerilla style and under quick run and gun situations. I will not be using a tripod. Everything will be handheld.

I currently own a Sony Ex1 camera. I know in terms of quality and manual adjustments, the Sony EX1 with the Letus Extreme is leaps and bounds beyond the Canon HV20. But I am curious as to whether or not the Canon HV20 attached to the Letus Mini might be a better fit for this kind of shooting simply because of it's size. Again, I am aware the difference in the quality of the footage would be vast. For these particular shorts, my primary focus is content, and if things look a little degraded or dark, that will be okay. I might even go for a lomo look anyway.

Any thoughts?

[moldcad]

Forget about run'n'gun shooting with EX1+Letus.

[HowdyDoo]

That's what I figured.

So for right now, I'm eyeing the HV20/30 with the Letus Mini or the Canon 5D (if it lives up to its hype). Any other suggestions for run and gun rigs with 35mm lenses?

[alexdias]

No way with the EX-1.
This camera is already awkward by itself, with the Adaptor it becomes a handful even for the tripod ;-)

[dwells]

I've seen some cool Letus/HV20 footage online, but the options within the camera are very limiting. Yes, run-and-gun with an EX1/Letus is tough, but you get better options. One solution might be to have an EX1 with the HV20/Letus, and use either when needed.

Renting an EX1 may be an option. Bigger sensors give you better images, low light capabilities, etc.

David

[rainermann]

Beside the fact, that it weights a lot, it's also almost impossible to stay in proper focus with an handheld EX + Letus... I did a short clip of a girl while having a break of a shooting, took my EX + Letus and tried some slomo stuff:
http://vimeo.com/1019771
at the end you will see some shots handheld with a 50mm Nikkor.
But 80% of the footage was just crap because of bad focus...

[HowdyDoo]

Why is that rainermann? I would think the EX-1 would be easier to focus than the HV20/30 thanks to the amazing LCD. Is it because the location of the EX-1 LCD makes it impossible to use in a handheld rig?

[basilisk]

the point of a 35 adapter is to get very shallow depth of field. If you are moving the camera or the talent in unpredictable ways, especially if you don't have someone pulling focus, you will lose focus on the subject. So you stop down to get more depth of field. In which case you are better just taking the adaptor off and shooting without it (and with the EX1, you can get some shallow DOF shots if the lens is wide open on medium to long zoom)

The complaint I hear about using adaptors, is that focus becomes your constant and primary concern, really slowing down your shooting, so just be aware of what you are taking on.

[dwells]

Don't forget that you lose a stop or two (even up to three, in some cases) of light sensitivity. The more I think about it, the more I wonder if run-and-gun with a 35mm adaptor is really practical...

David