HVX with Letus Extreme first time

M

mrbrycel

Well-known member
In two weeks I'm DPing/shooting a friend's shoot. He's got a pretty low budget, but he's got enough for a Letus Extreme adapter (I've got an HVX and 4 Nikon 35mm primes). I'm extremely excited, this will be my first time with an adapter.

He doesn't have a budget for an HD monitor, and from what I've heard.... HVX + adapter - HD monitor = disaster.

Now I have a lot of experience shooting on still film with my lenses, and I always get accurate focus with my eye. But I know the HVX's LCD isn't great, and that focusing with moving is no where close to as easy as focusing for a still image. I will have two ACs and they will be measuring all shots for setting focus as well as helping me pull focus.

Can anyone give me some advice for my first time with a Letus? And I know it will be a lot harder, but it is POSSIBLE to shoot without a monitor with two ACs right?

EDIT: I just remembered that he has a Macbook Pro, and I think I read somewhere there's a way to use a Macbook Pro as a monitor. Would that be a sufficient enough monitor for an adapter?
 
Take a look at Scopebox as well - you can use as monitor as well but is primarily a vectorscope/waveform monitor. I wouldn't shoot on the HVX without one!!!

http://www.scopebox.com/

I just shot on my HVX with Letus Extreme and PL mount with rented Zeiss lenses. We had a monitor and noticed a softness being unable to pull sharp at infinity. Without the monitor this would not have been spotted. I have now invested in the Back Focus adapter as an addition to the Letus Extreme. Invaluable and time saving!!!.

http://store.zacuto.com/now-shippin...or-your-already-existing-letus35-extreme.html
 
Which - Scopebox?? I shoot 720PN almost all the time - I don't often shoot at 1080i (24P) unless I have something specific in mind. I have always been able to use Scopebox with 720P or 720PN.
 
wow, there are a number of things to watch out for.
keep the take lens(your nikons) as open as possible. don't close any more than 5.6 at the most.
change batteries in the letus after 2 hours or 3 max
don't use a shutter faster than 1/48
don't do fast pans
don't shoot white backgrounds if at all possible, especially underexposed white, no fast pans with blue sky either.
check your focus on the ground glass often. especially after changing set-ups.
it's more than likely that the distance marks on the nikons will be off some.
check the backfocus on the letus.

you should get the letus as soon as possible to get used to it...there are a lot of restrictions....
 
monday1313 said:
wow, there are a number of things to watch out for.
keep the take lens(your nikons) as open as possible. don't close any more than 5.6 at the most.
change batteries in the letus after 2 hours or 3 max
don't use a shutter faster than 1/48
don't do fast pans
don't shoot white backgrounds if at all possible, especially underexposed white, no fast pans with blue sky either.
check your focus on the ground glass often. especially after changing set-ups.
it's more than likely that the distance marks on the nikons will be off some.
check the backfocus on the letus.

you should get the letus as soon as possible to get used to it...there are a lot of restrictions....
Click to expand...

I think the shoot went pretty good. The guy who rented it to me warned me about the batteries, and not stopping down past f5.6, but what would be the problem with shooting at fast shutter speeds?
 
you'll actually see the grain more, instead of a blurred texture, you get a really sharp texture...

glad the guy gave you a heads up...

glad your shoot went well too!
 
monday1313 said:
you'll actually see the grain more, instead of a blurred texture, you get a really sharp texture...

glad the guy gave you a heads up...

glad your shoot went well too!
Click to expand...

Thanks for the heads up on not shooting at fast shutterspeeds. If I wanted to shoot at a fast shutterspeed/shutter angle, what would be the fastest I could shoot at with acceptable grain?

The one thing I thought I noticed, that even when the subject is in focus, it still looks slightly soft compared something in focus on the fixed Leica lens. Is that right? or did i set something wrong?
 
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