Eliminates light loss from the Fujinon, shorter optical path.
•• Letus35HD100 Extreme...that's right...I did it! ••
- Thread starter Coco Bermudez
- Start date
Coco Bermudez
Well-known member
I do believe I am...off course i will be testing it more thoroughly as soon as I get the Overaland Cavisione riser. It is complete picture from edge to edge with no visible vignetting...of course this is looking at the flip out monitor...which I do not know if it is already in underscan or not. I will try to measure how much it crops it though.
to be quite honest I had not considered a 30mm...I am not a light expert when it comes to measuring. All I can say is that when I am outside I have to stop down the lense...the question remains....which one do I stop down...the front Nikon or tha back Nikon? For the longest time I was trying to find out which relay lense was on the original Letus35HD100 but no one answered my questions...i do not have any idea if it is even a macro lens. Anyone knows?
jenningsp
Well-known member
i believe the original lens was a pentax 50mm 1.4. though it had a 1.9x crop. (so a wide 28mm lens become the equivalent to a 50mm lens...) making wide shots impossible. and letus used its own designed mount. (so it could have been "extended" like an extention tube would do or maybe not..)
so a 28mm or 30mm lens is ideal for the relay.
so a 28mm or 30mm lens is ideal for the relay.
Coco Bermudez
Well-known member
i believe the original lens was a pentax 50mm 1.4. though it had a 1.9x crop. (so a wide 28mm lens become the equivalent to a 50mm lens...)
huh? ok...how does this math conversion work?
Hey I could be wrong...I know the mini35 eats light even with a relay...but that's supposed to be the theory.
Hunter Hampton
Carbonite Member
Enough smalltalk super8!!! We want grabs!
Coco Bermudez
Well-known member
ok here is the update.......
so I noticed when I put the Letus Extreme with my relay that I was catching some weird dust particles on the screen...when I would put the Letus Extreme in front of my DVX100A...the dust particles would almost dissapear. i could not figure for the life of me what was happening. Could it be that HDV is less forgiving on a relay type scenario rather than mounting it in front of a Fujinon lens or Pansonics stock lens?
I ended researching various forums to find out how to take the GG out of the LEX...very very carefully...the more I digged in..the more I noticed that the specs were coming from inside the unit...EEEK! I tuly do not have time to send the unit back.
I love the Letus guys and their products...but of the three Letus I've owned...all three had to be opened to clean...what a hazzle! Oh and by the way...do not use rubbing alcohol to clean your GG our even any part of the glass..it leaves a cloudy residue.
Well...I figured...WHAT THE HECK! I just have to open this darn thing and get it cleaned myself
***DISCLAIMER***DO NOT OPEN THE LETUS...YOU WILL PROBABLY VOID ALL WARRANTIES***
I felt comfortable opening the unit just because I have been making my own adapters since 2005 so I figured I could do as good a job as the Letus guys.
probably it took me around 4 hours to carefully open and clean everything...even the prism. The best way to clean the mirrors i found out is...soap and warm water...the only way in my opinion to clean glasses...then use a microfiber rag...like one made by Oakley.
I assembled everything and violá! Super clean..and i don't even live in a dust free enviroment. If any of you are brave enough to clean your own Letus...here are some pictures of what you might encounter inside the unit...if you got the time and are in need of a deepcleaning...JUST SEND THE UNIT BACK! If you are desperate with a shoot coming up and no alternatives (like me)...this might be your only solution...at YOUR OWN RISK! I DO NOT ADVOCATE OPENING YOUR UNIT...I WAS A FOOL TO EVEN ATTEMPT IT...but then again I am crazy!
AT ANY GIVEN TIME YOU MIGHT CRACK THE WHOLE THING! Wear some rubber gloves...have a new can of air...and get yourself a pair of cojones...cause it is a little nerve wrecking!
http://vivalavhs.com/1.jpg
http://vivalavhs.com/2.jpg
http://vivalavhs.com/3.jpg
http://vivalavhs.com/4.jpg
http://vivalavhs.com/5.jpg
http://vivalavhs.com/6.jpg
http://vivalavhs.com/7.jpg
http://vivalavhs.com/8.jpg
ok and now for the first test...I shot this just as I put the whole thing together. Just the camera presets since I got it back from JVC after completing service A.
The light was extreme...high noon light and low light shadow under a canopy...I wanted to test the camera and LEX to the limits of what is acceptable for my type of work. I do a lot of run and gun documentary work and these are the conditions I would find myself in. In my opinion...the JVC does not handle itself incredibly well in low light situations..so i was concerned with adding the LEX and losing more light. I am happy with the results....Ok enough mumble jumble...
here is my first test...raw...as is...no nothing added to it...not cropped...about 17MB
http://vivalavhs.com/LEXTEST2.mov
soundprostudios
Member
Wow!! Super8 you are my hero!
Opening your Letus is actually more interesting to me than your camera setup although I am downloading the video you posted to check out your rig results as well.
I have so many questions about opening and cleaning the Letus. I only recently recieved mine about a week ago. Still in the heady stages of testing and seeing some early results. I really like it btw! However I have read many posts about the problems with dust, hairs and other issues that require it to be sent back to Letus for service/cleaning so I am also a nervous nelly about it.
I live in Canada and the thought of having to ship it to Happy Valley and then back again is a hard idea to swallow. So any insight I can get as to how user servicable it might be is valuable information to me.
A few questions that came to mind when I was looking at your pics of the guts of the Letus were....
1) Letus describes the device as having a dust trap that a user can blow dust into should it find it's way into the unit. Did you see where this is located? Does it appear in any of your photos? Is there sticky tape or some sort of gum that would trap the dust when it is blown into it?
2) When you were disassembling things like the prisms I would have to assume that they are lined up perfectly to transmit the light properly to the video lens. How did you maintain this alignment when you were to assemble the prisms back in place? As well it looks like the prisms are held in place with some sort of glue (the dark blotches inside the housing). Is this correct and how did you re-affix them?
3) I saw some calipers. Must be an essential tool to properly set the GG height and possibly other alignment issues?
4) Any other pics of the cleaning? Man you should have videotaped that!
BTW, just got finished seeing the vid you shot with your rig as well. Looks very nice and cute twins? Looks like your setup is going to be very enjoyable.
Thanks for sharing and I hope you can find the time to shed some light on some of my questions. I'm a do it myself kind of guy and although I've never built a lens adapter I have the sneaking suspicion that I will be very tempted to clean it myself rather than trust Fedex or any other shipper with my glass items.
FWIW....I've seen clean rooms in electronics manufacturers like Celestica (IBM sorta) and I highly doubt the even the Letus brother have that sort of room to build their units in. When you see people in sealed rooms with special ventilation/filters, double doors, wearing masks, booties, antistatic smocks and getting blasted with air before entering......THEN I will believe that the room is 99% dust free. I think the Letus bros probably just have a very clean workshop and some general air filtering...but hey....you never know.
All the best,
James Hooey
Opening your Letus is actually more interesting to me than your camera setup although I am downloading the video you posted to check out your rig results as well.
I have so many questions about opening and cleaning the Letus. I only recently recieved mine about a week ago. Still in the heady stages of testing and seeing some early results. I really like it btw! However I have read many posts about the problems with dust, hairs and other issues that require it to be sent back to Letus for service/cleaning so I am also a nervous nelly about it.
I live in Canada and the thought of having to ship it to Happy Valley and then back again is a hard idea to swallow. So any insight I can get as to how user servicable it might be is valuable information to me.
A few questions that came to mind when I was looking at your pics of the guts of the Letus were....
1) Letus describes the device as having a dust trap that a user can blow dust into should it find it's way into the unit. Did you see where this is located? Does it appear in any of your photos? Is there sticky tape or some sort of gum that would trap the dust when it is blown into it?
2) When you were disassembling things like the prisms I would have to assume that they are lined up perfectly to transmit the light properly to the video lens. How did you maintain this alignment when you were to assemble the prisms back in place? As well it looks like the prisms are held in place with some sort of glue (the dark blotches inside the housing). Is this correct and how did you re-affix them?
3) I saw some calipers. Must be an essential tool to properly set the GG height and possibly other alignment issues?
4) Any other pics of the cleaning? Man you should have videotaped that!
BTW, just got finished seeing the vid you shot with your rig as well. Looks very nice and cute twins? Looks like your setup is going to be very enjoyable.
Thanks for sharing and I hope you can find the time to shed some light on some of my questions. I'm a do it myself kind of guy and although I've never built a lens adapter I have the sneaking suspicion that I will be very tempted to clean it myself rather than trust Fedex or any other shipper with my glass items.
FWIW....I've seen clean rooms in electronics manufacturers like Celestica (IBM sorta) and I highly doubt the even the Letus brother have that sort of room to build their units in. When you see people in sealed rooms with special ventilation/filters, double doors, wearing masks, booties, antistatic smocks and getting blasted with air before entering......THEN I will believe that the room is 99% dust free. I think the Letus bros probably just have a very clean workshop and some general air filtering...but hey....you never know.
All the best,
James Hooey
Coco Bermudez
Well-known member
James:
make sure that it TRULY is an issue. From my own experience with 35mm adapters...when you look through one directly at a light source and without a 35mm lens conected to it, you might see all sorts of crap in there...but once you put the 35mm lense, all of the sudden it disspears...a projected image on the ground glass will sometimes be dramatically different from a bare ground glass...just make sure.
Like I said...when I inserted the LEX to the fron threads of my DVX100A, I had no problems or issues with specs or dust particle...ONLY when I connected it to my JVC GY-HD100U via my relay was I able to see INSANE amounts of dust and particles. Maybe an SD image is more forgiving than an HDV image...I have no idea.
I fully sympathize with you...I live in Florida and eventhough I use FEDEX all the time, there is no guarantee I will get it back super fast. Plus FEDEX mishandled a LetUs package I sent back for repair and ended damaging the whole mirror prism inside the unit...making it unusuable. LetUs was real nice about the whole thing and allowed me to get a newer version for almost nothing...less than cost I believe.
This is news to me...i did not see any dust trap. One thing you have to be EXTREMELY careful about blowing into the LetUs...You might feel tempted to blow air into the unit when you remove the battery case unit (as seen here in http://vivalavhs.com/6.jpg) . It gives you direct accress to to a part of the prism...DO NOT BLOW IN THERE..it might push dust particles into the back of the unit...and it is imposible to get there unless you take it all apart. Take a look here:
http://vivalavhs.com/10.jpg
to be quite honest...I do not think it is rocket science. Nothing that I saw in there makes me believe that the prism is aligned in a certain scientific way. As long as you flush it against the middle divider...it fits perfectly...There is absolutely no way you can mess it up. The dark blotch is a double reversed sticky tape that affixes the case lid to the prism. This would probably give an indication to LetUs that the case has been tampered with...( I only asume this because once it is off I could not attach it back again) maybe this is the way they decide that your warranty is pretty much nill. Once I was inside the case, the prism is held by some sort of glue. I just had to gently push the prism up (thru the opening found in the battery case) and the prism popped off. Be careful though...it might fly off. AGAIN...IF YOU HAVE THE GUTS AND NO TIME TO SEND IT BACK...THEN BY ALL MEANS TRY IT...In my case...I have a shoot this Tuesday...It would be impossible for me to send it back and get in in time.
The good thing about cleaning this this is that...now I feel incredibly comfortable with opening the LEX. As a matter of fact I have opened it like 4 times during the process without a problem...and i like it that way...now I have total control over it and in case that a dust partcle gets inside the LEX during a shoot, in less than 10 minutes I would dismantle and clean it and back to production
yeah I used some calipers to measure...but it is kind of useless...the LEX is kinda odd and in some parts tha caliper would fit and in others it would not. What worked for me...I found a hoya circular polarizer that fit snug in between the base and the GG...so I used that as my measuring distance. READ AND LEARN how to put back those pesky rubber feet. It is easy to do IF YOU READ THE INSTRUCTIONS...I did not read them at first and toyed with the darn thing for about 45 minutes. Once you learn how, it is easy to pop them back in, it should task you less than 2 minutes to insert and correctly post the GG
hmmm...now there is an idea!
yes i do enjoy the rig...very comfortable and great picture quality from the LEX. As I said before...this is my third LetUs and It gives me an edge over my competition. I have used 3 other adapters (which will remain nameless) and in my opinion the LetUs is by far the best adapter out there...the only one that is better the the LEX is the one I built...but I am biased and plus it shoots reversed...
Oh and my twin girls are something else...very hard to get them to act or do anything for the camera...my Olsen Twin franshise dreams are gone in a puff of smoke
JUST BE VERY VERY EASY ON IT...it is nerve wrecking...I do not advocate shredding your warranty to pieces by opening the LEX...but it can be done...just take your time and be at peace with the thought that if you damage it...you might be buying a new one!
you never know my friend....
Last edited:
soundprostudios
Member
Thanks for the reply Super8.
:dankk2:
:dankk2:
Coco Bermudez
Well-known member
no problem..just here to help!
Coco Bermudez
Well-known member
Hunter Hampton
Carbonite Member
Its an mtf services nikon mount with a nikon 24mm f2.8 for the relay, then step-uprings to the letus. Right?
bomazing
Member
That's just what I guessed. There mentioning of something that makes me curious if there is more to it though:
"very close indeed...only thing that is wrong is the extension tube....I am using a little lens in there......."
I wonder if that means little lens as in smaller than the 50mm or little lens as in condenser or achromat.
Hunter Hampton
Carbonite Member
Did you put a sufjan stevens cd inside of the adapter? I thought I heard it vibrating in your footage.