Letus relases 2/3 B4 Relay Lenses

Joe you show off. Well I am renting an IMAX camera and going forward in time to get my hands on all the RED cameras of the next 20 years and bring them back to see how well they fare against the Letus relay. Should be an interesting test.

You should come over to London so we can do the tests together. I can put you up!! London is dirt cheap for you Yankees these days. The pound is worth about 5 cents these days!
 
zacuto said:
Exactly Tim you get where I'm coming from. And where are you get PL lenses for 7K, I'm in all day on that, let me know? I'm paying almost double for used.
best, Steve
Click to expand...

I'm talking about Optica or 2nd hand Zeiss. The PL market despite the economy is bleak for buyer's. Someone soon needs to break this shortage. Illumina where are you? For now, I subrent all my PL glass. From a business stand point - it just doesn't make sense to buy PL until someone breaks the market. I'm not putting my money on RED giving their subpar debut on the Zooms. Nobody wants to use them in NYC. A real bust.

At least with Hien's new toy it'll save you some money to put towards glass.
 
philip bloom said:
Joe you show off. Well I am renting an IMAX camera and going forward in time to get my hands on all the RED cameras of the next 20 years and bring them back to see how well they fare against the Letus relay. Should be an interesting test.

You should come over to London so we can do the tests together. I can put you up!! London is dirt cheap for you Yankees these days. The pound is worth about 5 cents these days!
Click to expand...

I told you I might be in England all of May and June didn't I?

If plane tickets weren't so expensive... I would totally be there. Being the young student I am... I don't quite have money to fly out there as well as NAB this year. You know?
 
Looking forward to the compact design at $3500. If only Letus would drop the Ultimate price just a hair thousand or two to around the $3000 to $3500 mark.

Not to be a downer, but spending more than $10k on adapter setups is getting hard to swallow when the RED is now running EOS glass thanks to the VF partnership with Birger for the sweetest revolution in camera operation. Smart controlling Canon L series lenses with a bluetooth system doing a zoom, iris, and focus pull all from just two controllers and only ONE motor on the lens is amazing. And with the new plug-in work flows for Final Cut/Premiere AND hackintosh/PC users already running i7 chips and 200 series Nvidia cards, we're editing realtime 4K natively right into the timeline with equally fast turn around versus P2 on machines costing under $2000.

I'm sure I'll still take the relay route just to toss an ultimate/blade(?) on a cinealta or varicam for common client workflows and familiarity. I think Letus got it right with that compact package.
 
augenblick said:
For High Class work I bought the HPX500 a year ago and I was hoping for a decent relay lens to come along. But 6000$ is way out of what I'm ready to pay apart from the needed adapter.
Click to expand...

That's why there is the B4 Compact $3500 alternative.

Plus I haven't seen any adapter footage so far that was not soft at the edges. None. On this topic, until now, only PS can deliver. Period.

Peter
Click to expand...

My Ultimate is very good edge to edge with the HPX170 and EX1 with the achromat. Not good with the 200/200A.
 
The relay mount only works with the Letus adapters. It's not guarunteed to work with the blade nor will it be optimized to do so.

All this talk about RED. It's about workflow people. RED workflow is completely different than the P2 or generic ENG workflow. Yeah you don't have the definition of 4K, but you do have many advantages to ease of use, ergonomics and usability, as well as the fact that you can rent just your relay out in some cases.

Plenty of rental houses still carry their original Pro35. That's why rental people like these things... they hold up. Hopefully the same will be true with the Letus relay. If it's german made glass and is up to spec from what I've heard from some beta testers... then it will last and create a beautiful image.

So it's really a matter of workflow in my opinion. Shooting RAW ain't always easy for some of us on a time crunch!

In my opinion... the Birger mount has problems. It's finicky (the last time I saw one)... so I'd still recommend going with Nikon or PL lens mount. Even though they just reached a warranty agreement (RED and Birger) I think it'll be some time for them to smooth out the kinks and problems. It might have changed since last time I saw a mount! Who knows!

In the end, with a Letus/Relay kit... you can rent your Letus to 1/3" or 1/2" users. You can rent the relay to Letus users and Pro35 users for their 2/3" cameras. And you can rent the whole thing. So I think if you're in a decent area... you'll pay for this little guy pretty quick. Sure it's expensive... but this is "PRO" equipment as Phil said in his blog post today. Not many indies/guerilla filmmakers have 2/3" cameras. so... I can see how these relays aren't geared at them necessarily.

Anyway I'm pumped... for all the news coming to the adapter industry in the next couple of weeks!
 
Joseph, check out the latest on the birger. Its rock solid, reliable, and working on almost all lenses and should be shipping in full stock within a week or two (or even a few days) now that they have released the contracts with RED. The integration with the VF system is considered by many ASC members to be one of the best out there...period.

Not trying to dive off topic, I just think their system is a MUST for the adapter folks too. If someone like Letus (who is good at bringing high end options to the market in a relatively good time frame) could work with them, they could eliminate the iris ring and offer an even cheaper version of the B4 relay.

Also, regarding RED workflow, check out the newest plug-ins. I wasn't sure if you're using RED gear as well, but if you are you'll be surprised to see people comparing the workflow speeds to P2. We cut on a Macbook here on set and deliver QT Prores quite quickly. The main difference is money spent on HD space (which has gotten cheaper).

I also think Letus will find a good amount of sales coming from scarlet owners. Even after battery and recording media, scarlet will offer good framerates and resolution for around the same price as an HPX/HVX or EX1. The compact model will likely allow an out the door price of under $10k
 
Phillip: "I also think 1/3″ relays are in the works as I have convinced Hien that the Canon and JVC users are crying out for them, especially with the new JVC 700 almost here. 1/3″ cameras are far from dead"


that would be great !! there are more informations about ?

thanks :)
 
Phil, my questions are for Hien or anyone are:

1 - Is the compact as sharp as the Pro? Besides light loss compared to the Pro, what else is different about the compact in terms of performance?


2 - The Academy Frame Size? Forgive me but from memory that's 1.85:1? 24x18mm ? How does that relate to a 2/3" CCD?

3 - eg Will a Canon FD 20mm lens be cropped, or will you get the correct 20mm FOV?

4 - Are there any other issues?
 
cd_albert said:
Phil, my questions are for Hien or anyone are:
1 - Is the compact as sharp as the Pro? Besides light loss compared to the Pro, what else is different about the compact in terms of performance?
Click to expand...

On paper, the Pro is slightly sharper, but to the naked eye, it's barely visible. The main and significant different in terms of performance is length and light loss.

cd_albert said:
2 - The Academy Frame Size? Forgive me but from memory that's 1.85:1? 24x18mm ? How does that relate to a 2/3" CCD?
Click to expand...

Academy frame size is correct. It's the only way these relays will work properly wiht PL glass. These are aimed primarily at PL lens users.... therefore they have to be academy frame size otherwise when you put a PL lens on there... it'd show a big black ring around the frame. The pro's suggest that everyone shoot with Academy Frame Size because it will have the same DOF as 35mm film.

cd_albert said:
4 - Are there any other issues?
Click to expand...

Nope. You'll probably want some sort of rod support system to go with these relays... for obvious reasons.
 
cd_albert said:
Phil, my questions are for Hien or anyone are:

1 - Is the compact as sharp as the Pro? Besides light loss compared to the Pro, what else is different about the compact in terms of performance?
Click to expand...

Subtle sharpness difference, as Joseph stated, the Pro will have better MTF and contrast vs. the Compact.

Hien did say that the final production version of the Compact exceeded his expectations performance wise. He also told me that it takes three days to assemble a Br Pro Relay lens--very labor intensive.
 
In the end it means it will work stellar with PL glass and will give you the same DOF as 35mm film with SLR lenses.

If the thing has edge to edge sharpness, loses minimal light, and has little distortions, I'm game!
 
Joseph Stunzi said:
In the end it means it will work stellar with PL glass and will give you the same DOF as 35mm film with SLR lenses.

If the thing has edge to edge sharpness, loses minimal light, and has little distortions, I'm game!
Click to expand...

It won't give you the same DOF as 35mm still (assuming your talking about full frame) for the same FOV. Full Frame still is 24x36 (Vista Vision) and Academy is 24.89mm x 18.97 mm. Super 35 uses something like 24mm x 13mm. That's a huge difference.

I personally would like to be able to use full frame but most PL lenses won't cover that size. Pros don't prefer "academy" or super 35 because it looks the best, it's because it's the only choice we have with cine lenses.

As much as I love my RED, the thing I miss from the low cost adaptor world is the option of being able to widen out very close Full Frame SLR a la low rent Vista Vision. I feel has the potential to create images distinct and in many cases more appealing than shooting "Academy". It's like portraits, given the choice would you shoot it on medium format or 35mm SLR?

Give me the big target.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top