Footage/Grabs with Letus35 Flip & indiFOCUS

StormFactory

StormFactory

Well-known member
I've been doing a lot of tests with my DVX100A, Letus35 Flip Enhanced, indiFOCUS, and indiRAILS and thought I'd share some of the results. Here are some grabs from the video that I'll be uploading later. They were all shot with the Canon 50mm f1.8 lens. If you have any questions or comments fire away.

35test_phonebooth.jpg



35test_guys_in_car.jpg



35test_bikecop.jpg



35test_elizabethred.jpg



35test_elizabeth_steven.jpg



35test_waterpipe.jpg



35test_shrubs.jpg



35test_valencia.jpg



kai_on_couch02.jpg


A few words on some of these camera accessories. I was going to do a full review of the Letus35 Flip Enhanced but a few people have done some in the past week so I'll hold the review and just answer any specific questions on this adapter that weren't covered in the other reviews. I also noticed a few reviews on the indiFOCUS so I'll just add the following:

indiFOCUS - Follow focus / indiRAILS - 15mm rods/rails camera support
If you are in the market for a follow focus and want to spend less than $400 then you can stop your search with the indiFOCUS follow focus system from www.indifocus.com. This light-weight and well built friction follow focus and geared follow focus ($299 and $389 respectively) are a bargain at twice the price. Being able to rack focus using a follow focus is a hell of a lot easier than trying to focus without one.

It seems as though most who are looking to build their own or buy a 35mm adatper eventually come to a point where they will need 15mm rails to mount their camera and support their 35mm adapter. The Cavision RS-15IIM Rod Support System from B&H are popular at $159.95. But indiFOCUS makes rails too and with their price point, it's easy to see them being the rails of choice for the budget minded filmmaker. indiRAILS come in two 15mm carbon fiber rod sizes. The 10 inch runs $99 and the 18 inch is only $129.

Tim, the owner gives some of the best personalized customer service for any product that I've ever bought. You will not go wrong with indiFOCUS.
 
i love the look of the letus, but please tell me there is some heavy comopression on those pics cause damn, that is some grain.
 
The phonebooth and shrubs shots had enough light and didn't have any gain or post thus are the cleanest. Some of the other were sharpened in Photoshop and I think that accounts for some of the grain.

Shot #3 with the bike cop was taken at about 5:00 pm after the sun had gone down.

Shot #6 with the water pipe had the Glow effect in Vegas on before I exported the image and the adapter was off on that one. I'll undo the Glow when I render out the video.

Shot #5 with the girl and guy was way too dark and flat so I boosted the levels in photoshop. But now it doesn't look great. I think I also had the DVX gain at +6db. It was also +6 db for shots #4 and #9.
 
I'm also trying to figure out which combanation of 24pa settings on the DVX produce the least amount of grain. I want the cleanest possible image before adding the Letus.

If you know what settings are great for no grain or noise let me know.


The shots with the most grain were also before I started playing around with the Scene Files. They were shot with stock F6.

The phonebooth, shrubs, bike cop, houses, and girls looking out the window were shot with...

Chroma Level: -3
Master Ped: -5
A. Iris Level: -3
Gamma: Cine-Like_D
Matrix: Cine-Like
V Detail Freq: Thin
Everything else was at 0
 
Tibby said:
Was the adapter off in all of the shots?
Click to expand...
I marked the ones where I know for sure it was off. There may be a couple more where it was off. I know for sure it was on shooting the houses, shrubs, phonebooth, and girl looking out window.
 
This has probably been answered somewhere before, but can you put a Mattebox on a 35mm adapter? If so, is it difficult? With it being so important that no light leaks in from the sides and the sort of awkward setup of some of these adapters, I'd imagine it wouldn't be pretty.
 
this really does give me second doubts about the letus flip enhanced.

the images are soft, quite low in exposure and grainy as helll.

barry, does this always happen?
 
Film has grain. Maybe you are seeing more grain than I am on my screen. Like I said these were exported from Photoshop. It could just be that process. Here is a grab from a FILM, not video that went through the same process.

grain_example_01.jpg


I
 
PaPa said:
the images are soft
Click to expand...
I agree. It's pretty hard to focus using the flip out LCD. Focus could be tighter, but with that said these are grabs from hand held footage of moving objects/people so the focus is never going to be as sharp as a photograph.

How sharp is the image below?

grain_example_02.jpg


Brandon Rice said:
They all look SUPER grainy... is this normal? I've never really been a fan of the 35mm adapter look.
Click to expand...
Please explain not liking the "35mm adapter look." Do you prefer the soap opera/news video look? I haven't tested what the adapter looks like under the F1 setting.

Ultimately, I have not noticed too large a difference in 24PA grain with the 35mm adapter on the camera from when the camera is shooting plain. Again, it is more than likely my DVX settings. But film has grain and when the clip is played on my TV it looks like film grain as opposed to video noise.
 
I love grain

I often push my gain on the DVX purely to achieve a little feedback. I find it helps bring a sort of orgainc quality.

These look great. Not only technically, but artistically as well.

-

The softness in these grabs may be simply attributed to a focus point.

They all look SUPER grainy... is this normal? I've never really been a fan of the 35mm adapter look.
Click to expand...

Yeah, what do you mean ?
 
what exactly are you doing once you bring the photos into photoshop? what functions are you using?

i'm a graphic designer and work in photoshop everyday. i've never known it to add grain to any of my images.

I've never really been a fan of the 35mm adapter look.
Click to expand...

i'm curious too as to what this means??
 
My setting...

I'm still tweeking on mine but for now

MAKE SURE YOUR GG FOCUS IS CORRECT AND SUPER SHARP... mine is usually 66 or 67 andy thing else produces blurry grain. Blurry grain means a soft image.

Detail +7
All others at 0

I crush blacks in post and for some reason my reds seem reasonable when I put the Nikon on the DVX. Without the adapter I do back off the reds in camera.



In general I keep the Zebras at %100 and never like to see any of them in my shot.

NO Bump in gain ever. Add light or shoot another time of the day (if Exterior) The adapter ads enough grain as it is.

I try to keep the DVX 100A's iris at 5.6 and adjust the Nikon's iris for the final exposure.. along with ND filters.

If at all possable I try not to shoot wide open because of the paper thin DOF you get. Also it aids in focus.

The key to getting a good image is the proper exposure. Be that film of DV.

1167613345.jpg


Above grab

24pa
60 shutter
28mm
mf 67
z100
f3.5

You'll notice that I have excessive grain on the upper left corner of the grab... not because of the lens or the adapter... it's my lighting.

Same setup with no adapter

1167615019.jpg


Yes, it's sharper.

To me both look good. It just what look you're going after.

And in all fairness I only have one lens to test. I should be using a Nikon 55 Macro for some of these. As eBay gives me new lenses I will continue to test to find the sharpest picture combination.
 
Last edited:
StormFactory said:
Please explain not liking the "35mm adapter look." Do you prefer the soap opera/news video look? I haven't tested what the adapter looks like under the F1 setting.
Click to expand...

LOL

It's funny that some people make that observation of the adapter. The DVX is a step closer to film, at least to me. The adapter gets you even closer. I don't really like the soap opera look all that much either. There are some out of focus issues in those grabs for sure but in general with planning, blocking, etc, the Letus can do amazing things. It seems to me that the grain/noise is there because you brightened up the grabs to adjust your exposure. If you want a clean picture shoot it brighter than wanted and darken in post. When you go the other way, then that's when you'll see these kinds of things which some people prefer. To each his own.
Jgastelb
 
these are mega sharp

THX-1138 said:
My setting...

I'm still tweeking on mine but for now

MAKE SURE YOUR GG FOCUS IS CORRECT AND SUPER SHARP... mine is usually 66 or 67 andy thing else produces blurry grain. Blurry grain means a soft image.

Detail +7
All others at 0

I crush blacks in post and for some reason my reds seem reasonable when I put the Nikon on the DVX. Without the adapter I do back off the reds in camera.



In general I keep the Zebras at %100 and never like to see any of them in my shot.

NO Bump in gain ever. Add light or shoot another time of the day (if Exterior) The adapter ads enough grain as it is.

I try to keep the DVX 100A's iris at 5.6 and adjust the Nikon's iris for the final exposure.. along with ND filters.

If at all possable I try not to shoot wide open because of the paper thin DOF you get. Also it aids in focus.

The key to getting a good image is the proper exposure. Be that film of DV.

1167613345.jpg


Above grab

24pa
60 shutter
28mm
mf 67
z100
f3.5

You'll notice that I have excessive grain on the upper left corner of the grab... not because of the lens or the adapter... it's my lighting.

Same setup with no adapter

1167615019.jpg


Yes, it's sharper.

To me both look good. It just what look you're going after.

And in all fairness I only have one lens to test. I should be using a Nikon 55 Macro for some of these. As eBay gives me new lenses I will continue to test to find the sharpest picture combination.
Click to expand...
 
THX-1138 said:
Yes, it's sharper.

To me both look good. It just what look you're going after.

And in all fairness I only have one lens to test. I should be using a Nikon 55 Macro for some of these. As eBay gives me new lenses I will continue to test to find the sharpest picture combination.
Click to expand...

If possible, do you have the scene file settings used in the above snapshots? The sharpness of the non-adapter shot is impressive, and I would like to compare my scene file settings to yours.

Thanks.
 
Settings for grabs

Settings for grabs

Settings for the adapter/non adapter grabs above.

To start.. I left the detail at +7 on the non adapter grab... in general that stays at 0 for me if I'm not using the adapter.

Stock / Letus 28mm F2.8

Z41 / Z99 - Just trying to get in as tight as I could.
MF37 / MF-66
F9.6 / F3.4
Shutter Off / Shutter Off

For this test scene file settings did not change

Detail +7
Gamma C-L_V
Knee Auto
Matrix C-L
ST-On
V-Detail - Thin
24AP

Settings not noted are 0


Without the adapter I have been known to lower the Chroma Level and
Master Ped sometimes get's lowered a bit.

I do most of that in post.
 
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dberton said:
If possible, do you have the scene file settings used in the above snapshots? The sharpness of the non-adapter shot is impressive, and I would like to compare my scene file settings to yours.

Thanks.
Click to expand...

That's just the detail cranked and remember, the DVX starts out with a nice hunk of glass to begin with.
 
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