new LEX achromat worth it or not?

B

benandaim

Well-known member
Hi Guys,

I got my LEX in Jan this year and love the images i can capture with it, However i have the same issue most people have with edge to edge sharpness.

I'd just like to know if you guys can tell me straight, Does the HVX optimization kit resolve the edge softness??? I'd really appreciate knowing from a few of you guys before i purchase the upgrade from the U.S

Regards,

Ben
 
It greatly resolves it, yes. I'd say it's 80-90% improved. For me that took it from unacceptable to acceptable. Not perfect, but good enough, and IMO well worth the $200 (after the rebate on the old one).

Others have reported less satisfying results though, so I'd recommend you read a few of the relevant threads here about it.
 
You should also check out Leni's thread on lens collimation. I am now hunting for a shop that I can take my rig to get it collimated.

I am going for the new achromat, will report back on what it does for me.

Dan
 
Dan, your comments on collimation are more important than most realize. We were do ing some EX1 fix testing with a 50mm Canon lens and were struck by how bad the 1200 line res chart was looking. After a few minutes of checking, it turned out I'd failed to seat the FD mount against our collimation ring with the result that the mount was slightly askew. The results of a 10 second fix were easily 150 lines of resolution at the corners, and a much clearer image. A lens that is out of adjustment may be seriously compromised for sharpness as well as the focus mark congruence issue.
 
Hi Dennis,

I'm going to have to read that collimation article... But tell me, Is the collimation something that's adjusted with the 35mm lens? or adapter?
 
Ben:

Depends on your rig but on the Letus, it would be the lens mount adjustment. Dennis can fill you in how the Brevis adjusts collimation but I know it has some sort of micro-adjustment.

Dennis, I read Leni's thread and it made a lot of sense. I know that these adapters are an amazing piece of low cost, high quality engineering but so far my experiences with the Red Rock and the Letus have proven to be that all of these adapters require extraordinary diligence and persistence on the part of the DP/owner to make look their best. None of the solutions are "plug and play", another factor that newbies who are not familiar with dealing with film cameras should be aware of. A lot of your buyers don't have a clue about any of this stuff (collimation, edge to edge sharpness, vignetting) and as a result, we see a lot of lousy adapter footage. It would be nice if there is a way to make a lot of this stuff idiot proof so that the adapters do become more "plug and play".

Dan
 
What I dont get is, why Letus and other adapter makers are still selling a $1300 product that is flawed to hvx200 , Ex1 owners ? From what I can tell, the only cam that the letus ultimate works 100% without any image issue is the Canon Series(A1, G1 ..etc).

Is "edge to edge sharpness" acceptable to a $1200 imaging product ? Is edge to edge image sharpness an option that one can choose to have or not to have ?? Can you produce a "half screen out of focus/soft" image to your clients ? Do you have the following printed on your contract ?

"For a fully focused and sharp image edge to edge footage. Please add $ 500 to the total Optimization fee. The standard rate include only a partially focused image. Thank You."

Let me reenact a typical scenario.

Meet Joe. Joe is indie with tight monetary fund.

Joe orders barebone $1300 35mm adapter for Joe's HVX.

Joe thinks he doesnt need any fancy "optimization kit".

Joe waits for 3-4 weeks for adapter to ship.

Joe gets adapter and super excited. Joe shot some footage, CC with magic bullet and post footage online in the forum.

Joe gets good reviews from your ordinary forum members that was astounds with shallow dof and amazing film like cc footage.

Joe gets 'real' reviews of his footage from more experienced forum members. Joe now notices his footage is soft/out of focus.

Joe's clients came back barking because their footage when screened on 50" Plasma, is CLEARLY SOFT on one side.

Joe's good name is now smeared. Joe now orders the "Optimization Kit". Joe has to pay to ship back the original achromat and lens mount for the 'rebate'.

Joe has to wait for another 4-5 weeks to get 'optimization' kit.

I can understand if beefier nikon mount or new rail support can be deemed as "optimization options". An imaging product that produces partially focused image is certainty not acceptable and should not be a "customer optimization option". Letus did not even explain what "Optimization options are and why it is necessary for HVX and EX1 cameras".

I rather have my 35mm adapter comes with whatever optimization kit as standard for all the "problem cameras". Even if it means my MSRP is going to be higher. A pin stripe on a car is an option, the flawed Rear brake system should never be an " OPTIMIZATION OPTION".
 
Dxmetal said:
What I dont get is, why Letus and other adapter makers are still selling a $1300 product that is flawed to hvx200 , Ex1 owners ? From what I can tell, the only cam that the letus ultimate works 100% without any image issue is the Canon Series(A1, G1 ..etc).

Is "edge to edge sharpness" acceptable to a $1200 imaging product ? Is edge to edge image sharpness an option that one can choose to have or not to have ?? Can you produce a "half screen out of focus/soft" image to your clients ? Do you have the following printed on your contract ?

"For a fully focused and sharp image edge to edge footage. Please add $ 500 to the total Optimization fee. The standard rate include only a partially focused image. Thank You."

Let me reenact a typical scenario.

Meet Joe. Joe is indie with tight monetary fund.

Joe orders barebone $1300 35mm adapter for Joe's HVX.

Joe thinks he doesnt need any fancy "optimization kit".

Joe waits for 3-4 weeks for adapter to ship.

Joe gets adapter and super excited. Joe shot some footage, CC with magic bullet and post footage online in the forum.

Joe gets good reviews from your ordinary forum members that was astounds with shallow dof and amazing film like cc footage.

Joe gets 'real' reviews of his footage from more experienced forum members. Joe now notices his footage is soft/out of focus.

Joe's clients came back barking because their footage when screened on 50" Plasma, is CLEARLY SOFT on one side.

Joe's good name is now smeared. Joe now orders the "Optimization Kit". Joe has to pay to ship back the original achromat and lens mount for the 'rebate'.

Joe has to wait for another 4-5 weeks to get 'optimization' kit.

I can understand if beefier nikon mount or new rail support can be deemed as "optimization options". An imaging product that produces partially focused image is certainty not acceptable and should not be a "customer optimization option". Letus did not even explain what "Optimization options are and why it is necessary for HVX and EX1 cameras".

I rather have my 35mm adapter comes with whatever optimization kit as standard for all the "problem cameras". Even if it means my MSRP is going to be higher. A pin stripe on a car is an option, the flawed Rear brake system should never be an " OPTIMIZATION OPTION".
Click to expand...

LOL... I can't help but agree with the pain of waiting for this awesome adapter and then find out you have to pay extra to get sharp edges. I have to get this sucker from overseas aswell to make things worse
 
There should just be a box to check for HVX and notice that says 200.00 bucks extra. Too many folks are ordering the wrong gear. The old achromat should never be presented as an option for HVX / EX owners.

Anyway, got mine. Love it. Waited a month.
 
Tim Naylor said:
The old achromat should never be presented as an option for HVX / EX owners.
Click to expand...

Agreed.
There was no other option when I purchased my LEX and now try as I might I have an image that is always soft on the right side of frame. I'm not certain that the new achromat will even fix that issue - and I'm still not certain I want to spend an addiitional few hundred to find out.

But you bring up a good point - image quality shouldn't be compromised on a base product. If we were talking about some added feature set then an upgrade package makes sense. But it seems that if there is a solution for a weak link in the image chain, that should be part of the standard package.

Just my 2 cents.
 
I understand people's harsh feelings on this, but it may simply be that Letus and others (most adapters have this issue on one camera or another) designed their product using a given camera, built thread rings for other brands, and made the mistake of assuming it would work equally well on all of them. To test it on every possible camera might have been prohibitive for tiny companies like these.

I agree that the HVX and EX-1 should probably only be offered now with their "fix-kits", but I'm not really complaining about how things have turned out. Many people were (and still are) perfectly happy with their un-fixed HVX/LEX rigs. I wasn't one of them, and am among the few who apparently drove the company to offer the optimizer. I paid the extra, and am delighted with the results. Letus didn't have to offer camera-specific versions, and they were the first of the adapter makers who did, so I think they deserve some credit.

Griping about this reminds a little too much of those who rant against Panasonic every time they try to do something nice - rebates, freebies etc. - because they bought something before the deal was offered. Or well intentioned parents who order DVD players for the back of their minivans only to see the kids go postal over who gets to choose the movie.

"No good deed goes unpunished" as they say...

Stepping off the soap box now...
 
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Ted Spencer said:
Griping about this reminds a little too much of those who rant against Panasonic every time they try to do something nice - rebates, freebies etc. - because they bought something before the deal was offered. It's the old "No good deed goes unpunished" problem, or so it seems...
Click to expand...

I wasn't trying to gripe about buying an adapter before an upgrade came out.
That's bound to happen with any piece of gear - and trust me I understand.

What I was saying I don't understand is that if the old achromat was not good enough to yield sharp images then why continue to sell it with that achromat?

That's all.
 
I am not ranting about having to spend extra $200 for the kit. Heck, I was the one suggesting they up their MSRP so that optimizaiton kit is made into stock archomat for problematic cams (EX1, HVX ...etc).

What I dont understand and complaining about is that why are they still selling the old "Half Focused" $1200 35mm adapter to EX1 and HVX owners ? and i believe i'm alone with this sentiment.
 
Although it's unfortunate about the old achromat being soft. It seems that the people who have upgraded are happy, and given we can't change the past it seems like it'll be a welcome upgrade to the LEX for me.

One more thing. Is it worth getting the NEW Nikkon lens mount while i'm there? :)
 
The LEX was a good system as it was originally. It was the sharpest adapter around with the least amount of light loss. I think the problem is that they found an even better product product to improve it but used a bad marketing technic.

They should have call it a different name (LEX+) for the new mount and achromate. Sell only the economy with the old mount and achromat and offer an upgrade to the LEX-PLUS.

It is still the same, but at least you don't feel stupid when they call it an upgrade.
 
benandaim said:
Although it's unfortunate about the old achromat being soft. It seems that the people who have upgraded are happy, and given we can't change the past it seems like it'll be a welcome upgrade to the LEX for me.

One more thing. Is it worth getting the NEW Nikkon lens mount while i'm there? :)
Click to expand...

I just bit the bullet and ordered both the 'optimization' kit AND the new nikon mount. Regarding the new Nikon mount, I just decided to get it anyway. I didn't have time to go hunting for posts to see if it was worth it or not. I just figured that it was worth it since they came up with a new design in the first place and therefore there was something wrong/inferior with the first mount. We'll see what it looks like when I get it.
 
Nikon mount - Absolutely worth it, much beefier and more professional back focus. Achromatte - Worth it, but not earth shattering. I did a bunch of test and posted grabs in another thread. Not too much of a difference. But that could be because my other Achromatte was pretty good as well.

I don't think you will regret buying either.


J
 
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