WHY ME??? Brand new LetusX dies in the middle of my shoot

I can't get beyond 4.0 without a spot showin' up on my GG. I dunno if it's the GG or the condenser, though.
 
Huh. I recall Barry saying it didn't matter what the camera Iris was set to. I have the HVX and LEX myself but now I don't remember. Maybe because it's pretty rare that my HVX iris is above F5.6 - usually it is below F4.
 
Kholi said:
I can't get beyond 4.0 without a spot showin' up on my GG. I dunno if it's the GG or the condenser, though.
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Man, 4.0 isn't that much. The brevis and the sgpro go go higher than that.
That is some very important (and basic) information that totally slipped my mind regarding the letus.

Also, one of the reasons why I sold the brevis was the fact that there's lots of users with motor issues...and since adapters today are basically silent I only notice it once I captured everything to my pc after one day of shooting. Needless to say I ended up loosing loads of material. Does anyone know if this is also a known issue with the sgpro?
 
rawfa said:
Man, 4.0 isn't that much. The brevis and the sgpro go go higher than that.
That is some very important (and basic) information that totally slipped my mind regarding the letus.

Also, one of the reasons why I sold the brevis was the fact that there's lots of users with motor issues...and since adapters today are basically silent I only notice it once I captured everything to my pc after one day of shooting. Needless to say I ended up loosing loads of material. Does anyone know if this is also a known issue with the sgpro?
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It's actually not the GG and I think Taormina is right about the camera iris. I think that there's a lot of dust behind my condenser (where I can't get to) and that's what I'm seein', not the ground glass.

Well, I KNOW so because I took my Letus apart last night again to investigate the motor issue. =P Don't try that at home, kids.

And we all know there's a trade-off: Sure you can go higher everything on the SGpro and M2... at the cost of light, right? Some can deal with it, some want better light efficiency. You pretty much have to choose more light or faster shutters, smaller irises. With the Letus and Brevis that means steppin' up the production and gettin' a mattebox and some filters to chop light. No big deal for some, and I do love the way these FrankenCams look with the whole deal (FF, Rods, Mattebox, OnBoard)
 
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Sigh, adapters dying, motors, shafts not moving, glass falling out because they come uglued, noise, grain, vignetting..Are any of these things tested before being released????? There is just simply too much at stage during a shoot to have these things fail as much as they seem to be doing!!!!
 
Jokerswild said:
Sigh, adapters dying, motors, shafts not moving, glass falling out because they come uglued, noise, grain, vignetting..Are any of these things tested before being released????? There is just simply too much at stage during a shoot to have these things fail as much as they seem to be doing!!!!
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Hey, it sucks, but consider that you're not spending thousands more on Camera gear. If anyone's afraid of using an adapter because of these things, the next step is to rent a Genesis or a Viper.

HVX200, A1, EX-1? They were never made to accommodate a 35mm Adapter. People are forgetting that these are add-ons, Frankenstein contraptions and the cost is relatively low.

You can easily go and spend 3K on a Pro35 if you'd like, but even those will have issues. It's all just another part of the system. Even cameras have their issues: see the EX-1 lens vignetting debacle that delayed the release of Cameras. I'm sure they tested but maybe never found it in the unit that they tested.
 
HEY GUYS!

OK, I edited the footage I was able to salvage from that scene my Letus killed prematurely. :angry:. I need your opinion: Does it bother you that I edit back to the master instead of a reverse shot on the other 2 characters? I was about to start filming their reverse shots when the Letus died, so I never had a chance to get all my coverage for the scene. I am trying to figure out if I can use the scene as is and not have to redo it.

NOTE: there is a refrigerator shot missing from the beginning. What you see as BLACK frames right now will in the end be a shot taken from the fridge POV as the girl opens its door and looks inside for anything to eat, but finds it empty. She then closes the door and we cut to the master shot (which currently is where you will begin to actually see some images). Sound track remains the same.

Also note that dailymotion.com compresses the quick time files resulting in degraded, dark, contrasty image and weird sound (metallic and hissy). But it loads up fast so it will do for now.

Two links:

Just the master shot, raw unedited footage:

http://www.dailymotion.com/FaithGranger/video/x46qdk_the-bench-scene-9-raw-footage-no-ed_shortfilms

and my editing all the coverage I was able to film that night before my Letus crapped out on me and adding some soundtrack.

http://www.dailymotion.com/faithgranger/video/x46p1u_the-bench-tentative-edit-scene-9_shortfilms

Can this scene still fly with only one wing? Let me know.

QUIZ: Two of the 3 non-actors are musicians in real life , one is not. Guess which?
 
My LEX stopped vibrating a while ago and Letus promptly replaced it; I think it had something to do with the motor as someone previously mentioned. I had one of the first ones off the assembly line (third one).

I received great customer support from Letus and the new one I received works perfectly; I have not had a single problem with it in over a month of moderate use. I love using the adapter and at this point, I'd be comfortable using it on a critical shoot.
 
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You have my sympathy for the bad experience you've had with your lex. I am waiting for the delivery of mine as an alternate to my M2 (which I will keep). I would like to hear the outcome of your problem and how customer service treats you.

In my opinion bad things happen to good equipment and sometimes you get unlucky with a lemon even though the company produces good equipment. It all comes down to how the company handles the situation.

I recently had a scare when one of my boxx tech computers (8K machine)suddenly would not display anything on the screen. I was in middle of a project with very little time left. I immediately called boxx tech. After 1 ring tech support picked up (live person ,no irritating menus). This was our exact dialog.

Me- Hi my computer turns on but there is nothing on the screens.

Tech-Did you hear any beeps when your computer powers up?

Me-Yes I heard 8 beeps.

Tech- Let me look it up (15 seconds go by).....the beeps mean the fan on your video card has failed and its overheating. Open the side and put a fan to it. Meanwhile I am going to overnight you a new card (2K card). You should receive it 8am tomorrow morning,please send us the faulty card back at your convenience.

Me-................thanks.................!!!!!!!!!!!!click...:cheesy:


I hope your experience turns out to be similar given the fact you are in middle of your production and bleeding money everyday you are down.

PS: Very nice pictures at your website.

Emre Tufekci
www.productionpit.com
 
The Le Brothers' Customer Service is top notch. Every situation you see that's an issue has been rectified or is being.

To put it into perspective: The EX-1 Camera has been a nightmare for all adapter manufacturers (ask Dennis Wood). The Le Brothers have a solution for the lens problems that'll correct it.

The Letus rails had a fluke, they're replacing them daily free of charge.

They're right up there with Redrock.
 
Customer service has to be top priority with all of us. What we've been doing when a problem arises is overnighting a replacment module via Fedex Express, having the user swap their imaging elements over, and then return the defective unit when time permits. Rods have been a challenge, and our solution to these issues are the new solid carbon fibre versions with a variance of less than .001" along their diameter. Given increases in strength over stainless, as well as 50% weight advantage, we won't sell stainless rails ever again.

Brevis users are about to see something very special in the internal department that will bring our reliability/flexibility to a level not seen anywhere close to this price point in adapters.
 
If your adaptor dies during a shoot and you can't reschedule crew and all those other elements, take the sucker off and shoot with the HVX lens.
 
Isaac_Brody said:
If your adaptor dies during a shoot and you can't reschedule crew and all those other elements, take the sucker off and shoot with the HVX lens.
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S'exactly what I did after we flew the M2 in. There was no reason to have the adapter for the rest of the music video anyway.
 
Isaac_Brody said:
If your adaptor dies during a shoot and you can't reschedule crew and all those other elements, take the sucker off and shoot with the HVX lens.
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I thought about it, but I was at my 100mm lens type shots at that time. Hard to duplicate that look with the HVX unless you can back up immensely and zoom in, which was not the case, since we shot in a tiny den. I felt the footage would not have matched and I can reschedule that shoot again, although it is going to cost me since I had to pay crew and also crew and actor's meals, my gas, as well as everyone's time of course.

The bummer is that my actress now has surgery so no way to finish the scene for 2 weeks. This was her only scene in the film. I was still able to cut the scene as is, missing the reverse shots, but still useable, will finish it later, meanwhile I still have 15 scenes to film in the next 10 days, so getting another adapter is VITAL.
 
UPDATES:

I contacted Letus via email this morning and then noticed Aaron had already PM me about this. So far my dealing with the Letus people have been very very good. I have been very pleased with their courtesy and level of professionalism, so I am sure they are going to take very good care of me and will keep you posted on what happens next.

Meanwhile I did one last shoot yesterday, I needed time lapses of a storm and had been waiting for the one we had Sunday all week. So I flipped the Letus upside down and screwed it on and ironically the GG lined up better that way with my camera LOL... I was able to get one last shoot with it, although the trick only worked on and off and for about 4 hours, after which the adapter gave up the ghost FOR GOOD. But some of the footage is useable and at least I got my time lapses.


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