Grain Patterns Among Adapters

[KyleProhaska]

I was thinking about my next film, and what I would shoot on this next time. I shot my last film on the Canon XHA1 and Letus Extreme with Nikon Primes. I'm very pleased with the results and would love to shoot with an adapter again, but I'm having a dilemma about which to go with, the Letus again, or the SGblade.

Before you say duh to the SGblade, give me a moment. The Letus Extreme has a vibrating GG, so the noise pattern is very filmic and random...I enjoyed that and it made the footage from the A1 combined with it's own noise a very 16mm feel that I loved. With the SGblade it's a spinning adapter which yields it's own advantages when shooting, but how is the grain pattern? Because it's spinning I"m curious how it looks? I've seen sample footage but I want to hear it from someone who's used it a lot.

Because it spins, I'm sure it's a lot cleaner right? Also if you see the GG at all or the noise it gives, it's gotta have a rotating feel right? I'm wondering if I would like that at all...I can't be sure.

Any comments from Letus/SGblade users?

 

[Lenilenapi]

I've compared them head to head and felt that the Blade RR1 looks very similar to the Letus Ultimate with similar light loss. The Extreme is similar but less resolution. The RR2 is the original SGPro screen and has a slightly softer look with noticeably less depth of field. but no less resolution than a Letus Extreme. A lot of people think its the prettiest look of the adapters. - me included. Wayne says its slower than the RR1 but mine is faster than either RR1 or Letus .

Differences in general image grain pattern are properties of the screen and not how it moves . If used correctly you should see no difference between a spinner and a vibrator./ If you see the static grain you are in trouble. Spinners generally give you more flexibility in f stop and shutter speed but that's also a property of the screen itself. If you do see the static grain on vibrator it looks like nasty nssty static rain and dust can look like a soft moving blob. On a spinner it looks more like a dirty windshield wiper left streaks.

Lenny Levy

 

[KyleProhaska]

Hmm ok. If I was going to go with an SGblade it was always going to be RR2, based on a balance of bokeh vs. light loss. The Letus Extreme was a good combo with the A1 in regards to handling light, it never was a real problem to be honest.

I wish more people had their own servers and could post great shots using different cameras/adapters and such (RAW files). It would make things a lot easier for people lol to see what some of these products REALLY give when you sit down at the end of the day. O well...

I'm surprised the grain isn't very different between the two, perhaps that's just my stupidity. I'll have to weigh out my options and see where I end up.

 

[kodjo]

As long as your Letus works, use it. There is no point in making a small upgrade which nobody will notice anyways. If you're going to upgrade, make a big upgrade such as going for the Relay.

To me the only problem with vibrating adaptors is that they are more fragile than spinning adaptors as all it takes is one column to malfunction to have problems. This said, the grain on spinning adaptors looks more organic. But overall the difference is not worth the upgrade or "sidegrade".