should a subject in the far distance be in focus w/ letus35?

amber

amber

Active member
okay y'all. I'm re-writing my original post as Quyen Le (the maker of the letus,
has fixed my problem). The long and the short of it is that yes, the letus35 fe
does have a sharp backfocus in HD. I had been focusing fine up close, but not
far away, which freaked me out of course. When Quyen read my post about the
problem here, he quickly emailed me and invited me to his place to get my adapter
in focus. Apparently he already had a good idea of what that problem was).
I'm lucky enough to live near to Quyen, so my dp and I went to his place on Friday.
When we got there Quyen started prying apart my letus (gulp) and got it focused
in less than 15 minutes). Apparently if you're having problems with yours he'll
help you to do the same over the phone, but more sensitive souls can simply ship
it back to him.
Basically I learned that yes, the letus 35 fe can have sharp back focus,
but sometimes it takes a bit of tinkering! I don't know why peopel say that
the letus35 fe is not HD approved, as far as i'm concerned, it shoots HD quality
footage, it focuses HD near and far, and i'm very happy with the Bokah,
the focus, and Quyen's service!

the old post is below the dashed line, all problems have been fixed, and i'm keeping my letus!:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

i'm thinking of trading in my letus35 fe, if indeed an M2 or Brevis35 would fix this problem - but maybe its not a problem, maybe its just the nature of the beast?
we went out to a field with bright sun, and using my HVX with Nikon lenses (35mm 1.2 & 50mm 1.4) tried for the life of us to get our subject in the distance in focus. (imagine she was in the outfield and you're standing at homebase).
For this test we used an 8" hd monitor to check focus, as we're trying to check for hd quality footage.

So is this
normal with the Letus to not get something so far away in focus? Its not like it was so bad that the subject was a complete blur. and sorry i don't have screengrabs, but we definately weren't getting detail around the eyes/mouth/etc...

overall i like the softness and the look of the bokah on the results from only 20 feet away or less. This adapter pumps out some gorgeous footage, and from close(r) range,
it was hd ready...

thanks much,
amber
 
Last edited:
I'm about to buy the Letus Flip Enhanced. So I'm curious about this as well. So you were trying to focus on a subject about 100 feet away and couldn't? How far in did she have to come in order to come into complete focus? Did you try a 28mm lens?
 
The Letus doesn't have the best backfocus registration. That's one area where Quyen could really improve the design.

Basically you're going to have to slide the lens mount in or out, whichever it needs, so that you can focus to infinity. Set your 35mm lens on infinity focus, then take it outside and point it at something "infinity" away (the moon, mountatintops, whatever) and loosen the lens mount and slide it back or forward until the object you're aiming at comes into razor sharp focus, then tighten the lens mount down firmly and never move it again.
 
thanks for the responses

thanks for the responses

hey john scott 3 that's right it was close to 100 feet away, actually i just went to measure the distance and it was between 80 and 90 feet.

barry, i read that you have a letus35 fe and i was hoping that you would respond. Thank you! I think its interesting how you say to 'tighten the adapter down' once
you find infinity, hopefully that point also is the one that keeps the adapter square,
(the sides of the adapter from blocking the corners)!

The good news is that i live near Quyen, so he's been kind enough to offer to help me get to the bottom of this problem, we'll be doing a test sometime in the next few days. I'll let you all know the results. (Quyen is the best at customer service).

"To infinity and beyond!"
 
and one more answer

and one more answer

no we didn't have a 28mm lens to test with, but something tells me it would
have been even blurrier. Also alas we didn't have her walk towards us till we could get her in focus. We already knew she was in focus at a closer range, but it would have
been a good idea nonetheless. next time.
 
I haven't had this specific problem with my Letus35 FE, but more times than not, when there is a focus problem it has been user error.

The lens mount comes off so you can flip it to use Nikon or Canon lens. When you screw it back in place you have to make sure it's snug.

Also make sure that you have the correct zoom and focus levels correct on your HVX. I have big hands and there have been a few times were my hand has brushed the DVX's focus ring and knocked the focus off by +/-1.

Other than that, if you're sure it's not user error, maybe you just got a bad one. As you've already stated Quyen is great with customer service.
 
Strange topic.
You did something wrong, because my Letus35 FE has a super shap infinity focus and it's really in focus.
Obviously, 35mm adapters are things fitted with so much optics + a spinning glass that it's impossible to get a 35mm photo sharpness, but as you are filming video this is not an issue, even with HD.
For example the redrock M2 has a very much more bluried image than the Letus35fe, i tested both and i was surprised to see that M2 cannot absolutely be used for inifiny focus, just use it for everything that has defocused background.
 
Hey Storm, gaffer that focus ring down buddy. I did when shooting my short with my adaptor and was never troubled.
 
Haven't had this problem either. Last saturday I filmed a short movie which involved a couple of scenes in the distance, but I could perfectly focus on the subject which were about 30 meters away. Also focussing on our car which was about 100 meters away, closing in, was no problem. At least... so far so good.
 
wait - everybody who says they can focus

wait - everybody who says they can focus

okay everyone who says they're able to focus far away subjects with
your letus, are you using a DVX or an HVX?
HD monitor or not?

thank you!
 
amber said:
okay everyone who says they're able to focus far away subjects with
your letus, are you using a DVX or an HVX?
HD monitor or not?

thank you!
Click to expand...

If you have properly set your backfocus, you can easily always focus to infinity.

If you haven't set your backfocus, you can't.

So, you *must* do like I said earlier and go through the process to set your adapter to see "infinity" properly. It won't matter whether you're using a DVX, and HVX, a monitor, or anything else. If you haven't set the adapter properly, nothing else matters.
 
Proper backfocus is CRUCIAL CRUCIAL CRUCIAL. 99% of "bad" or soft adpater footage comes from poor backfocusing. ALSO TRIPLE CHECK that the DVX/HVX is properly focused on the GG.
 
I don't want to seem a moron, but from my experience (i own one) the Letus35 FE has no impact on focus. It's terrific sharp. So there should be a problem with backfocus on your camera.
 
Ferdi Willemse said:
I use a XH A1 with just the camera's LCD with peaking and a Hoodman 300 with 2x zoom.
Click to expand...

I hate to ask this, as I know it will sound ignorant (which it is), but I know what an LCD screen is on the A1 (I get mine in 2 days), but what is "peaking?" Is it just pulling out the LCD screen?

Thanks for all the help guys.
 
Peaking is basically oversharpening the lcd's image. This way you can clearly see what's in focus and what's not. It has no impact on the recorded image.
 
So you oversharpen the LCD's focus? But wouldn't that affect your ability to focus the picture (recorded picture)? So you actually use the LCD monitor built onto the A1 to focus, but why are you oversharpening onlyt he LCD? I know this may seem like a stupid question, but I haven't even got my A1 yet (comes in Friday I think). :) Sorry for all the questions.
 
(if you didn't read the re-write of my first post that began this thread,
then here's what i found out about backfocus with the Letus35 fe,
but non other than Quyen Le (the maker of the letus) himself.
The long and the short of it is that yes, the letus35 fe
does have a sharp backfocus in HD. I had been focusing fine up close, but not
far away, which freaked me out of course. When Quyen read my post about the
problem here, he quickly emailed me and invited me to his place to get my adapter
in focus. Apparently he already had a good idea of what that problem was).
I'm lucky enough to live near to Quyen, so my dp and I went to his place on Friday.
When we got there Quyen started prying apart my letus (gulp) and got it focused
in less than 15 minutes). Apparently if you're having problems with yours he'll
help you to do the same over the phone, but more sensitive souls can simply ship
it back to him.
Basically I learned that yes, the letus 35 fe can have sharp back focus,
but sometimes it takes a bit of tinkering! I don't know why people say that
the letus35 fe is not HD approved, as far as i'm concerned, it shoots HD quality
footage, it focuses HD near and far, and i'm very happy with the Bokah,
the focus, and Quyen's service!
 
That's great that he helped you. I ordered mine on like Wed or Thur so it should be here soon (crossing my fingers). Anyway, I'm glad you had your problem fixed. I'd love to see footage when you have some available. Thanks for all the info.
 
amber said:
(if you didn't read the re-write of my first post that began this thread,
then here's what i found out about backfocus with the Letus35 fe,
but non other than Quyen Le (the maker of the letus) himself.
The long and the short of it is that yes, the letus35 fe
does have a sharp backfocus in HD. I had been focusing fine up close, but not
far away, which freaked me out of course. When Quyen read my post about the
problem here, he quickly emailed me and invited me to his place to get my adapter
in focus. Apparently he already had a good idea of what that problem was).
I'm lucky enough to live near to Quyen, so my dp and I went to his place on Friday.
When we got there Quyen started prying apart my letus (gulp) and got it focused
in less than 15 minutes). Apparently if you're having problems with yours he'll
help you to do the same over the phone, but more sensitive souls can simply ship
it back to him.
Basically I learned that yes, the letus 35 fe can have sharp back focus,
but sometimes it takes a bit of tinkering! I don't know why people say that
the letus35 fe is not HD approved, as far as i'm concerned, it shoots HD quality
footage, it focuses HD near and far, and i'm very happy with the Bokah,
the focus, and Quyen's service!
Click to expand...

Curious to see how he fixed the problem. I tried using my 24mm and it was useless when trying to focus on my subject far away. So I just ended up shooting it without the adapter.
 
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