Extreme + HV20 + Cavision setup (plenty of pics / still no samples, sorry)

jshooter

jshooter

Active member
Ok, so FedEx guy knocked on my door and there it is, my Letus Extreme!
It would have been really odd if I take him a photo so I let him go.
Now I'm gonna explain with text and photos my last couple of hours:

1. Unpacking.
Everybody says it and I'm not gonna be less. LEX is damn solid and professional. Le brothers have made a great work with this. I found the Letus (with lens caps), Nikon mount, rail mount (with screws, just look well in the box), allen wrench and full colour one-page user manual...





Letus, meet my toys:

 
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2. Let's read the manual and follow directions.
Ok, first I connected rail mount to my Cavision rails (as you'll see later, luckily I also have Cavision Lens Support).



Although user manual doesn't explicitely says it, I'll attach the nikon mount (call me an adventurer)



Done.


I loosen the filter ring with the Allen, going to attach it to my HV20 and... oops:



As I had predicted in letusdirect forums, that Cavision bracket is in Letus way, so it's impossible to attach this way. I started to get a little nervous here and try several things. You can flip the base plate and bracket will stay below rails, but in that case, you don't get enough vertical offset, so I finally thought the answer was flipping horizontally the camera plate (I don't think if you get me, that's the reason I took photos...)





Ok, now I have Letus attached to hv20 and Cavision rods but... how should I support it? There are two problems related -as previous one- with Cavision vertical offset: Cavision lens support isn't low enough and neither is Letus one.

Proof of concept 1. Letus rail support not being attached:



It doesn't look professional and frankly, it's not doing almost anything on stability or security.

So, looking back, how did I solve my last problem? That's right: flipping:

Proof of concept 2. Flipping Cavision Lens Support



I inverted it and attached to the letus/nikon mount. A lot better, but I definitely need one of those risers used in teleprompters.
 
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3. Ok, all set. Power on
Now, my real problem. Take a look:





All zoomed out, I can see the frame has vertical and horizontal offset. Sure I can zoom in and get a working image, but I think I shouldn't zoom that much because I'll get big grain. Any tips?

Enough for now, I'm hungry. Here's a final pic for you. I hope I can test it today or tomorrow and post some clips for you.



Thanks for reading the whole post and best regards, mates!
 
jshooter said:
I forgot to say: my mattebox will rest for a while, there's no way I can attach it :(
Click to expand...

Thanks for the pictures, As I said many times It would be really nice if there is a riser Block solution to the Letus Extreme.

I hope they come out with a solution before most of us start start spending more money to change rail sets. I'll rather spend $50 dollars for the extra block solution then change my rail set.

The first problem of yours can be solve, Try mounting your Cavision with the "C" shape way instead of "S" shape that you are showing now.

(Edit) Looks better in the C shape way...

You should zoom in till the edges are gone. And focus as sharp as you can on the Gain. So that your HV10 is set on the G.G .
I think you should close down the Lens so that you can see the gain. That way it makes it easy to know that you are spot on with the G.G . and make focusing easier on the G.G. I would use a big tv so that I can see the gain and get the focus done easly.After focusing is set, open the lens back up. When you start the Letus, the gain will be gone.
 
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First update, I found the screws... you know, in all the excitement...

David, yeah, I zoom into the ground glass, but I think I have to zoom TOO MUCH. If it had less horizontal and vertical offset, I could zoom less and so, get smaller grain.

Regards
 
2nd update, this thing is incredibly sharp. I attached hv20 by component output to my 50" rear projection sony and it's awesome.
This afternoon I'll shoot some exteriors with both 50mm f1.4 and 17-35mm f2.8 nikon lenses and post results.

Regards

p.s. Anyway, I hope there's a way I can zoom a bit out
 
jshooter,

You do have to zoom in quite a bit to get past the edges. On my HV20, the zoom bar indicator is right around the 50% mark between the 'W' and 'T' before it's zoomed slightly past the adapter edges with a 50mm lens.
 
js,
Update us on the nikon 17-35mm please. Do you have to close the 2.8 f-stop on the Nikon 17-35mm in order to get rid of bad bokeh or light smear ??
Some grab from 17mm , 24mm, 28mm and 35mm please :)
 
Patience, Dxmetal, I'll go out in a couple of hours to try both lenses with several apertures. I'm working now but will give it a try ASAP.

Regards
 
Ok, so here you are a little bokeh test. I couldn't shoot with daylight and the hv20 isn't the best at low light, but you can make an idea.
Remember, lenses are Nikon 17-35mm f2.8 and Nikon 50mm f1.4 AIS

17mm f2.8


17mm f4


17mm f5.6


20mm f2.8


20mm f4


20mm f5.6


24mm f2.8


24mm f4


24mm f5.6


continues...
 
28mm f2.8


28mm f4


28mm f5.6


35mm f2.8


35mm f4


35mm f5.6


50mm f1.4


50mm f2


50mm f2.8


And that's it. Tomorrow I'll try to do one of that precious clips with lovely soundtrack...

Best regards.

p.s. Love the Letus
 
jshooter, I'll try and post some pics of my lcd all the way zoomed out tonight. Otherwise, I won't be able to get to it until next week.
 
Thanks Leo. One question: at your zoom level with the Extreme, which is the most open aperture you can get? Mine is f2.6

Dxmetal, you're welcome. 17-35mm bokeh is great, but I also like polygonal bokeh in 50mm at f2. It depends on what's in focus, the story and those other things we (in this forum) are kind of forgetting ;)

Best regards
 
I'll have to double-check, but I'm pretty sure when I locked the exposure and then manually adjusted it, I could get as open as 2.4 at 1/48 in Cine mode on the HV20, while zooming in just enough to eliminate the adapter internals in the LCD.

PS: I just may have to get one of those 17-35 zooms :-)
 
OK, I just double-checked; the most open aperture I can get on the HV20 with exposure locked and manually adjusted to maintain 1/48 and no gain, zoomed in just past the adapter internals is exactly what I thought; f2.4...

Also attached are some pictures of the HV20 fully zoomed out with the adapter on. I'm finding out that I can fiddle with the centering and leveling somewhat and then tighten everything to maintain the positioning.
 

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Ok, I see yours is more centered than mine, so you can open up to 2.4 (less zoom in). Will try to tilt the bak ring a bit.
Thanks for checking it, mate
 
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