Letus extreme - rails?

[taormina]

My cavision mattebox came with a rubber step down ring that fit the box on one end and the standard HVX on the other. Obviously, if you put a 35mm lens through this there would be a huge ring of dead air around the lens.....so I built a removable plastic disc held in with four screws that has an aperture sized to fit a 35mm lens. Painted it black - now if you look at it, the ring fits tight around the 35 lens, and can be removed if you use the matte box with the standard HVX lens.

It looks like it came with the matte box - pretty clean.

 

[MalcolmOng]

Taormina - Curiously, what's the length of your rails for your camera set, and what's it like going handheld with such a setup?

 

[DeGrey]

Official Letus35 Extreme brackets to made avaialable soon!

Official Letus35 Extreme brackets to made avaialable soon!

Well, sure. And they may already have something underway for all I know.

Well, well, well.... it's as if you can see the future Barry.


A custom bracket for the Extreme is coming!

Hien and Quyen will be making a bracket designed specifically for the Extreme that will allow one to attach the adapter to a standard 15mm support system. So, you could get a set of rods from somewhere like Cavision with no bracket and get the custom Letus35 Extreme bracket when it is available (which shouldn't be too long).

For any of you that ordered your Extreme from LetusDirect.com, I'll try to get something in place so you can add this bracket to your order if it is available by the time your Extreme heads out to you. That's all the details I have right now. No firm pricing yet until things get finalized a bit more.

 

[davidreimers]

as always Aaron you are on top of things!

will definitely look into this bracket....

 

[taormina]

Taormina - Curiously, what's the length of your rails for your camera set, and what's it like going handheld with such a setup?

Those are 18" rails. Handheld is a nightmare, as you would expect. But let's adress the reality of this adapter for a moment.

First, my setup really is a studio rig sized package. I ran F900s for a few shoots, and while this camera isn't nearly that bulky, you don't just pick up an f900 and do handycam home movies with it, You're in a different league now.

Secondly, you really need someone to pull focus for you, which more or less prohibits handheld work.

The two handheld options for this camera with my rig are as follows:

1. A steadicam. Yes I have one on order.
2. Shoulder mount and hand grips.

Both will require a focus puller!!!!!! there's no way yu can walk around with this rig, trying to shadow the talent while focusing especially since the adjustments are so fine.


I know with the adapter craze going on here, hardly anyone has mentioned or thought of the implications of going with an adapter. If you enjoyed your one man shoots where you picked up your little HVX and held it in your hand by the hand strap, videotaping in a car or something......this rig isn't like that.

You would never run a genesis, an f900, or a 35mm film camera yourself, and neither will you run the HVX unless you've got lots of time or are doing static shots.

This thing really takes you up to the big boy level of complexity. I've shot alot with professional crew. Those that haven't (many on this board) will be in for a shock.

 

[Ryan E. Walters]

I beg to differ. I have a letus, matte box, rails, FF, you name it. All on cavision equipment. I've posted this pic before, but it seems like I need to post it once a week so people get it.

How did you get the HVX up high enough? I have the same setup, but I cannot get the HVX + Letus up high enough to work with the matte box- especially with a ND grad filter. I think I've come up with a way to lower the matte box so that it wil work- but If I don't need them, that would be great.

 

[taormina]

Well Ryan, if you have the same base plate you will notice there is a hex bolt that controls the baseplate height. If you loosen the bolt and raise up the plate to max extension, it works fine. But it has to be max extension.

Also, if you have a cavision matte box, I needed to remove the matte box rail clamp and turn it upside down to make the height fit. It all works very well now.

Biggest complaint is a little bit of instability on the baseplate being so high. There is a gap below the piece that slides up, and you can put a little piece of square metal under there to stop it from laterally tilting. But it really is a minor complaint.

Cavision also makes a base plate with a heavy duty riser that would alleviate this.

 

[Ryan E. Walters]

Well Ryan, if you have the same base plate you will notice there is a hex bolt that controls the baseplate height. If you loosen the bolt and raise up the plate to max extension, it works fine. But it has to be max extension.

Yep, I've done that, but it is still not high enough....

Also, if you have a cavision matte box, I needed to remove the matte box rail clamp and turn it upside down to make the height fit. It all works very well now.

Hmmm, I'll try that out- currently it looks like I need to get about 1" of additional hight for it to work, and filping it upsidedoen, doesn't seem like it will work ... but I'll try it out. (Do you have a close up picture of what you are talking about?

Biggest complaint is a little bit of instability on the baseplate being so high. There is a gap below the piece that slides up, and you can put a little piece of square metal under there to stop it from laterally tilting. But it really is a minor complaint.

Cavision also makes a base plate with a heavy duty riser that would alleviate this.

Another option, which is what I'm doing- is to get a second riser plate and put it in the back (under the current base plate). Cavision has an example here: http://www.cavision.com/rods/minidvFF.htm . You'll need to get longer rails, but it should stabilize everything.

 

[Ryan E. Walters]

So I just flipped the mount for the matte box- and it does work for the matte box, but I still need to get lower so that I can adjust where the ND Grad filter falls in the frame.

BTW- how did you create the rubber filler for the matte box? I was thinking about gettign setup rings, but it sounds like you have a better solution.

 

[taormina]

This should clear everything up...

 

[taormina]

The matte boxe filler was constructed from a sanding disc backing padand can be found at any hardware store. Not only is it round, but it in concave so it matches the curve of the matte box ring pretty nicely. It is removable.

 

[Ryan E. Walters]

Beautiful- thanks!

 

[livelikeriley]

The cavision rods that I.m thinking about buying (http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produ...RS15IIM200MM_RS_15IIM_Rod_Support_System.html) for the letus extreme - I.m curious about using the handgrips cavision sells with them...are the 10" rods going to be too small to accommodate the Letus and the handgrips? And with the HVX up higher is it going to be weird to rest it on my shoulder and use the handgrips? Just getting an idea of a rig here.

Thanks,
Mark.

 

[puredrifting]

Mark:

I think Adam has written in a separate thread that if you want to use the Extreme with a follow focus and a matte box, you need 18" rails. With the Extreme, follow focus, lens support, matte box and a decent length lens like a 105mm Nikon, you are looking at close to a 22" long rig. Add a shoulder mount and handgrips and I think you are going to be surprised at how ungainly this rig will be for handheld.

Good luck,

Dan