New Custom Nikon Mount For Letus Is Available

Just ordered a new LEX. Owned the first but E 2 E and Nikon mount issues had me sell it.

I do think the old Nikon mount should be off the market. It's bad business. It was defective from the start. Unstable, rarely locked in place and cannot focus to infinity out of the box. While many hail the new mount as great customer response - the old one was borderline negligence.

re: D. Villalba comments on back focus.
The back focus adjustment - this is great. Still cameras have no use for it as they never use a tape measure and because it's only coupled once to the camera and directly focuses to the imaging chip (or film plane) there's little error. With an adaptor, because tape measuring is vital and your focusing on moving targets (GG) that are not nearly as securely mounted as stills film plane(or imaging chip), use and temperature will throw things out of collimation. Hence, the beauty of backfocus. Hell, even panavision and arri cameras allow for collimation adjustment.

This is one of the best features as back focus can change as much as the weather so it must be easy to adjust. The only other advance I'd like to see is an X/Y adjustment as I've yet to see a centered HVX.

Picking up the EX 1 next week. Should be exciting with new adaptor.
 
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Tim Naylor said:
I do think the old Nikon mount should be off the market. It's bad business. It was defective from the start. Unstable, rarely locked in place and cannot focus to infinity out of the box. While many hail the new mount as great customer response - the old one was borderline negligence.
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I'm with you on this.

But alot of people don't think so , and they don't mind paying for the so call " upgrade".

I don't find this an upgrade. It is a fix of a problematic old mount.

Remember the Brevis had old FD Canon mount and they were declared faulty by Dennis of Cinevate and when he made the new ones he offered to exchange the new ones with existing customers and only charging shipping. But I guess different companies have different ways of seeing and handling things like that.

I remember that in the early part when the Letus Extreme was still a Demo. I was the one asking alot of question about how the mount was bulid and how the back focus was attained. The people of Letus told and stated in this forum that the mount are set in the factory and back focus can be attained out of the box . But apparently the old nikon is not what is claim to be when you and cannot focus to infinity out of the box.

So now the new mount can do all this. And I have to pay for it. because it is an upgrade( it is an add on) and it is not a fix to a problem ( Because the old nikon mount was never faulty in the first place, )
 
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Look 1st said:
Hey Tim, Im curious as to what made you by another LEX?
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They took care of the E2E, Nikon mount and backfocus issues. I still have my SG as it can't be beat in many respects. But I don't use it with a flip as I can't afford to lose anymore edge 2 edge or light loss.

There's a threshold of light loss you cross that's about at 1.5 stops or so. That threshold suddenly forces you into bigger lights. A 1.2 that I could plug into the wall now becomes a 2.5 hmi that requires proper distro and / or a gennny. At which point you have to scratch your head and ask, "how much extra would a 2/3" camera with PS technik and PL mount primes be?". With that package I can go back to much smaller lights and crew. The savings balance out. So for me, for an adaptor to have a place it can't lose more than a stop. In fact, I was very close to buying a Brevis. But the EX 1 achromat tipped me back to LEX.

If Raylight doesn't come out with a pre-flip on ingest for FCP then I may very well be saying goodbye to my SG or just break it out for special needs (high shutter speed and stops). Having to have clients flip footage gets harder by the day.
 
DavidChia said:
I'm with you on this.


So now the new mount can do all this. And I have to pay for it. because it is an upgrade( it is an add on) and it is not a fix to a problem ( Because the old nikon mount was never faulty in the first place, )
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I went through two of the old mounts. I use one as a key ring. Works great for that. Haven't lost my keys yet.

But seriously on the good side, they made the needed improvements and it's still a bargain. Also, you can trade in the "re-call" mount and credit it towards the new one. That's cool. At least they're not being dicks about it and acting in good faith (which sad to say is lacking in most other American manufactuerers - the bastards). If they only had the one good mount it would be an additional expense. So you don't lose anything except shipping.
 
Light loss is no joke. A half a stop of light given back to you is literally shaving off the cost of light rentals altogether.

Not gonna battle the Nikon mount deal: My Nikon mount, M42 and Extreme PL Mount's backfocus has been on since day one. Can't really measure focus with SLR lenses anyway, but the PL mount confirmed the validity of the unit's backfocus being properly set.

The new Nikon mount with collimation is good for those that haven't gotten proper backfocus.

If anyone need me to prove my infinity with my Nikon or whatever mount I have I'll be happy to do it once my Letus Extreme returns.
 
My old LEX couldn't focus on infinity. To collimate it is a bit of an internal operation. Sold it before I went there. Last time I shot with the LEX we barely had enough light with 1.2's (I don't like to take my Nikons below a 2.8) but it got us by just at 2.8 for day interiors. With my SG I would've been at 2.5 or lower.
 
Dunno what's up with some of them not doing it. I do know the procedure for internal collimation if anyone in LA wants theirs to be adjusted for spot on measurements, by the way. I didn't have to do it when I got mines, I did have to adjust after my Extreme came back repaired and new.

Lighting situations will differ. I've been shooting with HVX @ 3.4 - 5.6 and Lenses between 2.8 and 5.6.

2.png


That was F4 and HVX @ 3.4. I was doing some post processing tests along with trying out the new HMI's so it's nothing special. Again, even .5 stops of light is still .5 stops of light given back to production but I'm sure everyone realizes that.


Going to be doing my own EX-1 playing soon! Can't wait. =B HUR HUR
 
I did work on getting the Nikon mount backfocus dialed in. And it seems to track across multi lenses. I think I either have it slightly skewed or something - my edge to edge sharpness is still off. Maybe the new mount will help.

Plus Hien just confirmed that a specific achromat and ring is in the works for the HVX. Fantastic.

A recent image from a location test shoot.
Sequence 10b.jpg

And here are the settings.
Image10b.jpg
 
If you did the internal backfocus then you may want to make sure that all three pillars are measured exactly the same from the unit to the Ground Glass frame. That will definitely cause edge to edge issues.

As well, we've been using the adjustment trick with the HVX. That is setting the focus somewhere in between edge and center. This works incredibly well and frees up options as well.
 
pxp said:
I did work on getting the Nikon mount backfocus dialed in. And it seems to track across multi lenses. I think I either have it slightly skewed or something - my edge to edge sharpness is still off. Maybe the new mount will help.

Plus Hien just confirmed that a specific achromat and ring is in the works for the HVX. Fantastic.

A recent image from a location test shoot.
View attachment 5657

And here are the settings.
View attachment 5658
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More importantly...where did you get that slate with all of the HVX specific settings on the back?:2vrolijk_08:
 
Oh, and Patrick, we didn't change the price of additional mounts. They've been $60 since launch :)[/QUOTE]

Oh sorry about that, must have been remembering wrong.
 
Douglas Villalba said:
Who came first the chicken or the egg. The adapter has to accommodate to the camera.
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Well, actually the Extreme came out before the EX1 did, so that's a clear cut answer in this case. There's no way the Letus people could have predicted what kind of lens the EX1 would have and make that adjustment.
 
Huy Vu said:
Well, actually the Extreme came out before the EX1 did, so that's a clear cut answer in this case. There's no way the Letus people could have predicted what kind of lens the EX1 would have and make that adjustment.
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Just when you thought you were right...

The adapter was made before there was an EX1. Then came the camera, but wait a minute. There was no 77mm attachment until Letus made it.

So the camera came first and then the attachment. The thing is that it wasn't tested before it was sold and people like Phillip Bloom reported that it too soft around the edges.
 
No adapter had a 77mm attachment. Once a problem with the EX1 was reported, the Le brothers fixed it.


...where's the complaint again?
 
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