What would you do? Keep dvx and get Letus or upgrade to HDV?

triplej96

triplej96

Veteran
In the next few months I will either buy a Letus economy/extreme or upgrade to Canon A1. What would you guys do? I work for a small production company and don't use any of my equipment. So my dvx is for persnoal use and some free lance work.

Thanks for any comments.

Josh
 
Well, the question is: what is it about your current situation that you find lacking? Is it that you want the filmlike shallow depth of field? Or you want the high-res quality of HD?
 
Hey Barry

Yes that is the tough question. I would like both but the more sensible decision for me is probably the letus. I can always upgrade hdv and still use a letus I buy in the next few months. Thanks for pointing that out and reinforcing this question in my mind. Not to mention the lack of Canon's 24f mode in Avid helps the question as well.
 
I KNOW it doesn't turn it into HD. What I'm saying is, if your going to spend all the money on the XHa1, but you still want the DVX, then why not spend a little more money on an adapter? The SGPRO is better than the Letus.

r
 
Como is that due to your extensive tests? :)

SGpro and LetusE are both excellent adapters with different strengths and weaknesses due to the limitations of the technology.

SGpro you can stop down more, way down, and it has arguably better bokeh.
The LetusE has the lowest light loss of any upside down or flip module, and has very good bokeh, certainly as good or better than I've seen in tons of professional stuff since I started paying attention to the out of focus parts of the movies I'm watching :)

Both are very sharp. but in Tim Naylor's shootout he found the letus slightly sharper and after testing both side by side he put his SGpro up for sale (even though it had slightly better bokeh in his opinion).

So ... I don't know if we can say "better" just like that. Same way its hard to argue coke better than pepsi, mac better than PC, or vanilla better than chocolate.
 
triplej96 said:
Hey Barry

Yes that is the tough question. I would like both but the more sensible decision for me is probably the letus. I can always upgrade hdv and still use a letus I buy in the next few months. Thanks for pointing that out and reinforcing this question in my mind. Not to mention the lack of Canon's 24f mode in Avid helps the question as well.
Click to expand...

Canon A1 is a great camera. But I would go for what gives you the most tools to tell your story. HD is not a story telling tool in so much as it is more a perceived overall quality enhancement. It might help tell your story because you have a better clearer image, all things being equal, and you can push you footage more in post, but that hardly compares, IMHO, to the ability to direct the viewers eye or to distort reality in service of the story ... such as using a wide angle lens to make the characters look further apart in one scene when they are in confllct maybe, and a telephoto lens to compress the space and make them seem closer together once they reconcile (for example). So I'd stick with the DVX and ad an adapter of your choice. Unless you are a still photog, remember that a decent normal lens will run around $200, but to get full story telling bang from your adaptor, skies the limit on the cost of really good / fast wide angle and long lenses. So budget for that as well.
 
Jack makes some fantastic points - go with what is going to give you the most tools to tell your story - I would go with the adapter.
Do you already have your DVX setup with rails? Or is that going to be an added expense as well?
 
Thanks for the replies everyone. I will be getting a 35mm adapter in the near future. Seems letus economy is best value in terms of price, optics and flip aspect right? Nope don't have rails yet Luis.
 
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