My take on 35mm Lens adaptors such as the Letus!

Here's some samples. I got our EX3 and Letus Ultimate about 3 weeks ago:

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I would say if you do not like the look, feel or the extra work involved in using the Letus Rig don't buy one. I think your points about it being too heavy and image loss are fairly weak, but if that is your opinion you are welcome to it. If the Letus is assembled and being used correctly, there is no way it adds that much grain to the picture. I have been using my my Elite with a Zacuto rig and Zeiss primes and getting stunning images on local, regional and even national commercials. My clients are requesting the unit and willing to pay extra on the rental. If you don't like it don't buy it. I love mine and am thrilled with the images I'm getting with it.
 
I am also looking for a good rig/shoulder mount to improve handling with the EX1/Letus Extreme setup. Zacuto looks really good - except for the pricing.
Any other good solutions out there?
 
I have the Redrock shoulder mount and sony/letus setup and am looking for good ways in adding some weight to the back to balance the rig a little better. I know about the micropowerpod from Redrock but am hoping for a cheaper solution as I'm not really using anton bauer batteries. Anyone have an ideas/tips?

Thanks
 
Mitch L,

Do you have any pictures of your EX3 with the Letus set up? I really want to see what it looks like.. haven't found any pictures of it yet.

Thanks,

James.
 
James Dierx said:
Mitch L,

Do you have any pictures of your EX3 with the Letus set up? I really want to see what it looks like.. haven't found any pictures of it yet.

Thanks,

James.
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I haven't taken any closeup photos of it yet. Only this one of my buddy shooting some test footage on the original test shoot for the camera. (I haven't used the matte box since)
 

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What MattBox are you using and what Mattbox adaptor ring are you using with whatever lens you're using. Finally, why did you get that tripod instead of one with a ground triangle? I thought ground triangle tripods were more stable.
 
I'm using the Red Rock matte box, mainly because of it's price and that it's a swing away design. But it's very large and heavy and I haven't figured out a way to get the camera rig properly balanced with it. It works fine with a small 50mm lens, but with the 17-35mm or 80-200mm the rig is too nose heavy. I use the foam adaptor rings that come with the Red Rock unit. I'd like to buy the Zacuto matte box ring instead, but I haven't gotten around to seeing if it will work or not.

I don't know what you mean by "ground triangle". The Sachtler I bought has a nice quick release plate that works very well (in my opinion). It's very easy to mount/dismount the rig to the tripod. I also purposely bought the Sachtler as it has a variable rate counter balance spring. This is especially nice when you're changing your rig. If it's setup with everything (matte box, long lens, etc..) it's very heavy so I can crank up the counter balance spring to compensate with the flick of a little knob. But then when I'm shooting without the matte box and only the 50mm lens, I can turn the counter balance spring down quite a bit so the tilt function is still very smooth.

Hope that makse sense.
 
jujufactory said:
What MattBox are you using and what Mattbox adaptor ring are you using with whatever lens you're using. Finally, why did you get that tripod instead of one with a ground triangle? I thought ground triangle tripods were more stable.
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You're asking about the spreader, I presume, when you refer to the "ground triangle." Whether the spreader is placed in the middle (as it is here) or down on the ground is a matter of preference. Some say the floor-level ("ground") spreader is more stable but it is also less flexible: you are stuck with the legs in that position.
 
I still like ground spreaders better than mid-level spreaders. But for some reason Sachtler charges A LOT more money for a ground spreader. Here's why personally I like a ground spreader better: (even though I'm not currently using one)

When you want to collapse the legs together, just lift the tripod, stick your foot under the center of the ground spreader, lift it up and the legs fall together. With a mid-level spreader you have to reach down with a free hand, which means one less hand on your rig, and pull up on the spreader to collapse the legs together. Ground level spreaders seem to make setup/teardown faster/easier.

When you're adjusting the size of the ground spreader you can visually see how far your legs are going to be spread apart with whatever adjustment you make to the spreader. Then once you make that adjustment, you're legs always stay the same distance apart no matter how high you raise and lower the legs. With a mid-level spreader you're always guessing at how far to spread it out, because the distance your legs are apart changes when you raise/lower them.

I've never had problems using a ground spreader on an uneven surface. You just loosen the knob and adjust the speader accordingly. I've shot on stairs, uneven ground, etc... I can't remember ever having a problem with the ground spreader getting in the way of a shot.

It's not a big deal, I'm learning to deal with a mid-level spreader again.
 
Here ya go.

The Zeiss Lens I use here is about the same wight and size as the LEX.
The whole rig, as you see it is about 20 pounds.
I can even fly that with a steadycam.

The last picture is done with the HVX200/LEX/Zeiss 50/2.8 medium format.

Not too shabby, I would say.

Frank
 

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filthrich said:
Redrock micro has some good products.

http://www.redrockmicro.com/microShoulderMount/index.html
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The price certainly looks reasonable; however, I think it still need a lot of weight in the back to balance a EX1 + Letus Extreme + Nikon 80-200mm lens + matte box. I can see the weight is suddenly a problem. I can hardly hand held the EX1 more than an hour. The ergonomic of the EX1 hand grip is one of my biggest complaints.
 
Thanks! (It's funny, sometimes I think clients are more impressed by how your camera rig looks, than the look of the finished video! hehehe)
 
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