let's compare our Zoom and Focus settings for Letus Extreme + HVX200

Deuceofspades

Deuceofspades

Veteran
I am still working on nailing it 100% but tonight it looks like:

Zoom = 80
Focus = 50

I am curious to see what other owners with same set-up are dialing their backfocus and zoom at. Please share?

12/27/07 Adendum:

After battling with my adapter for an hour I was able to line it up better and that allowed me to bring my zoom setting down to Z70. Ironically, my focus settings stayed at 50. I am curious to see if the image quality will improve this way (less zoomed in on the Grain)
 
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what would be curious to see is not just on the HVX200, but other cameras as well

Canon XH A1 + UV Filter

Zoom : 78
Focus 4.9 ft
Camera F-stop: F2.6
 
Michael Friedman said:
Canon A1.

Zoom 71
Focus 1.5 meters
F2.4

Papa, why are you zoomed in that far? Or maybe, why am I zoomed out so far?
Click to expand...

at zoom 71, you are going to get some vignetting on either the left or the right of the frame. The point is to fill the frame to get the same field of view as a 35mm film camera, which requires you to zoom in slightly more than you are doing so now to achieve the 35mm look properly. Barry Green and Disjecta have spoken about this on several occasions incase you are interested in searching around ( unless my word is good :P )
 
This is an interesting experiment. I can already see that none of our settings match exactely, due to manute discrepencies in probably both adapters and cameras.

One question though: You guys posted your F stops. Doesn't that change somewhat, from shot to shot? Since with Lx we can't take the Fstop on 35mm lens too far down, or grain will show, you have to compensate a bit here and there with the HVX F stop, to contro the light, so I was told... So it would not be always the same...

Or do you guys use ND filters of HVX or filters in front of the 35mm lense?

In short, how do you guys control the amount of light for your shots?

Also will F stop affect critical focus on GG?
 
Chad Bonanno said:
HVX-200

Zoom 75
Focus 50
F stop 2.4

Shutter 1/24 ( anyone else at 1/24 for minimal light situations?)
Click to expand...

Chad, I LIVE in 1/24 LOL. Probably because currently I always shoot at night, since the days are so short. not sure this is the best setting, but at least I can film, and it seems to look OK to me (but my eye is not as sharp as the experts on this board)
 
Xax said:
hvx200

zoom 72-74 (depends)
focus 49
Click to expand...

I am curious why your zoom "depends"... Shoudn't the adapter always be at the same distance from your HVX once screwed in? Mmmm... Then again.... It's true you can "adjust" it a bit before tightning the 3 little screws... Is that was is craeting the fluctuation between Z72 and 74 for you?
 
Anyone using the LX braket? If so, are you finding the braket screws to be annoying? I can never seem to get them real tight and I just lost one yesterday BOOHOOHOO that way. I wish they had a better shape for better grip OR had a hex or phillips screwdriver compatibility.

What do I do now??? Braket useless with one screw missing... :(
 
just write them, they will send you replacements for sure

what i did was, i broke the thumbscrew off, and if you break it off, it reveals an allen screw underneath, just get a shim and it works that way!

my zoom varies because if i use the 20mm of canon, i have to zoom in a little since it vignettes really bad..

regards
 
Deuceofspades said:
I am curious to see what other owners with same set-up are dialing their backfocus and zoom at. Please share?
Click to expand...


Can we define exactly what the "backfocus " is? To my understanding, the backfocus was set by moving the lens mount on the front of the adapter to get it to focus correctly on the GG. This is what I got from some posts months ago and also the directions that came with the LEX, but maybe they are both called that.
Anyway, I'm not setting mine up until my Letus Rails come (can't wait!!).
But having a discrepency in the zoom is fine. You'd like it to be as wide as possible without vignetting, but if one person is in one or two notches its not a problem. There should be pretty close agreement on Focus I think, but on my Letus Flip I remember the difference between 61 and 62 being negligible.
As for the bracket, I can already tell it isn't the best of the Letus products because I mounted my LEX on it and you can feel the bracket move slightly even when the tightened very tight (the two metal pieces just don't fit snugly enough I guess).
 
Deuceofspades said:
This is an interesting experiment. I can already see that none of our settings match exactely, due to manute discrepencies in probably both adapters and cameras.

One question though: You guys posted your F stops. Doesn't that change somewhat, from shot to shot? Since with Lx we can't take the Fstop on 35mm lens too far down, or grain will show, you have to compensate a bit here and there with the HVX F stop, to contro the light, so I was told... So it would not be always the same...

Or do you guys use ND filters of HVX or filters in front of the 35mm lense?

In short, how do you guys control the amount of light for your shots?

Also will F stop affect critical focus on GG?
Click to expand...

all i am asking, is due to the fact that one must zoom in to the GG to fill the frame, the camera's F-stop will also compensate by closing. I am asking simply to state what your final F stop reading is in camera due to the number of zoom factor being used.
 
35mm lens back focus is one issue and the so-called back focus of the video camera on the ground glass is another. That's what we're talking about on this thread.
Actually I think that the latter might be a misuse of the word back-focus.
Really its just focusing the video camera on the adapter. There isn't anything "back" about it.

- Mine is around 78 or 79 Zoom and 6.17 ft whatever that is on the number chart somewhere around 52 I think . I started using feet because it was outside of macro and the increments are smaller on the footage readout. It should be around 52 though - I'll check it later.

Lenny Levy
 
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Wow, those of you have have Z settings of around 80ish surprise me- For full frame I can zoom out to Z72 (Although I keep it at Z74 to be safe.) and For academy frame I keep it at Z78 (Which I'm liking the Academy framing more - especially if I have to use different unmatched lenses, as it tends to even out the light response.) Something else that I have noticed is that I can zoom out a little more if I have the Letus mounted snorkel up, then if it is down- I have no idea why this is....

So in short I'm using: (Snorkel up)
Full Frame:
Z74
MF50

Academy Frame:
Z78
MF50
 
Pa Pa,

OK here are more exact numbers on my HVX200 ( to get a uuseable frame not academy):
Zoom is Z77 for the LE and for my other adapters (SG & Brevis) its Z72. Focus around F52


I know that when I am wide open with the HVX I lose about 1/4 stop from Z70 to Z80 or so . Probably an extra 1/6 stop is the difference between Letus and other adapters. Can't remember if I lose much up to Z70, probably a little. By 2.8 there is no loss and at F2 its negligeable.
 
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I believe that when the HVX and DVX both say OPEN, it just means as open as the aperture gets at a given Zoom setting. Be it Open, at full wide at F1.6 or whatever the most open aperture setting, or be it zoomed in and Still open ( if you go a quarter stop higher, you will notice it will go to F2.6 or 2.8, which means OPEN is not F 1.6 anymore, but probably somewhere betwee the F2.4 range.
 
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