Landscape Study using EX1 and Letus Extreme

philip bloom

philip bloom

Veteran
Very different from my last short as the barely features any people. I just wanted to show that these adaptors can be used beautifully for just capturing landscapes. It's not just about shallow DOF.

On my blog which is on my website.
 
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philip bloom said:
AVery different from my last short as the barely features any people. I just wanted to show that these adaptors can be used beautifully for just capturing landscapes. It's not just about shallow DOF.

On my blog which is on my website.
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Phillip I love your work. And I love the fact that your latest blog shows that getting the best out of the Letus (and any adapter) is using it the right way. Zooming in to the proper focal length has done wonders for my setup. I wish everyone would experiment with their equipment and learn it like you do (and many others I can name.) A tip: I found that putting your widest lens on the camera and setting your focus and focal length for that is the best way to achieve edge-to-edge with all of your lenses (considering they're all one mount, Nikon or Canon). So, 17mm on my HVX200 is edge-to-edge sharp at 27.3, and I zoom out no further than that when using any of the lenses. It reduces glass fall off and every other problem to zero. Also, that's nowhere near proper zoom for a 35mm FOV/DOF replication, it's just extra room to play with. Tried to tell people this, but I'm not important enough to be listened to. =P

I also like that you're propagating using an adapter not JUST for DOF, but for many other useful aesthetic purposes.

Thanks for always sharing your work. You make the EX-1 sing.
 
Philip,
How far are you zooming in on your EX-1 to get rid of vignetting on the Letus. It seems I have to go awfully far on mine. The other day I tried a 24mm Nikon and got the same field of view as I do with a 35mm lens on my SLR. Nowhere near full SLR FOV.

I haven't really carefully tested it yet though as I just got the camera recently.

Also - I recall you expressed some concern about center to corner focusing issues on both the Brveis flip and the Letus with the EX-1 . Any conclusions about this yet?

Lenny Levy
 
it varies on light and lenses, but around zoom 75.

the ex1 does have some issues with edge to edge sharpness on both adaptors due to the lens design. I know Hien is working on a fix for it. But you can more or less work around it, ignoring the shift tilt lens shots there are some very sharp edge to edge shots in this which I got just by tweaking the focus on both the lens and the camera
 
Thanks Phil,

75 sounds a lot better than it looked on mine the other day. i think i was in the mid to late 80's so much more zoomed in. I need to do a careful test though. Hien has offered to recheck the centering on mine so i will probably send it off soon.

By the way, did you ever get that Arsat lens, or any more of the Hatblei's. I'm interested in your judgements about them. I hope you don't mind if I'm using you for my own R&D.

- Lenny Levy
 
beautiful stuff as usual mr. bloom. have you spoken with the letus guys about the fix for edge to edge sharpness with the ex1? you're edges look pretty good as far as i can tell. they're manufacturing some sort of device from what i gather but not sure what it could be.
 
Yes they are. But I am really pleased with the sharpness I got yesterday. I will be getting the ex1 fix though, so it is super edge sharp.

I have also regraded it to make it monochrome. Something you don't often see with adaptor footage.
 
Douglas, its not lens vignetteing that made me zoom in, its probably something to with my Letus being offset. I had to get past a dark soft edge on the right side. I hate to say to much until I look at it carefully though. Maybe its not what it looked like the other day. i was moving fast.
 
Mine is also off center, but even after I zoom in I still get full 24X36 mm. To make sure I used my old F4. I place the F4 close enough to fill the screen with a chart then I replaced the F4 with my HVX-Letus and the same lens and zoom the camera in to get full frame.

With my HVX I can shoot as wide as 18.5 mm, but to get full 24X36 mm I have to zoom in to 20.5 mm.

Like I said, with my 24 mm I get vignette and it is also soft around the edges. That is the only lens I own that does that.
 
Douglas Villalba said:
Mine is also off center, but even after I zoom in I still get full 24X36 mm. To make sure I used my old F4. I place the F4 close enough to fill the screen with a chart then I replaced the F4 with my HVX-Letus and the same lens and zoom the camera in to get full frame.

With my HVX I can shoot as wide as 18.5 mm, but to get full 24X36 mm I have to zoom in to 20.5 mm.

Like I said, with my 24 mm I get vignette and it is also soft around the edges. That is the only lens I own that does that.
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Dang. I wish I could shoot with mines that far out. 20.5mm is definitely vignetting on my unit. And that's dark corners, actually.
 
I think that I asked you before, but I dont remember an answer.
Were do you get 24X36 mm when you zoom in?
If you have to zoom in closer than 24 X 36 mm then you may have a problem with either the adaptor, lens or I don't know what.

The point is that you should be able to use to the max your 35 mm lenses.
 
Douglas Villalba said:
I think that I asked you before, but I dont remember an answer.
Were do you get 24X36 mm when you zoom in?
If you have to zoom in closer than 24 X 36 mm then you may have a problem with either the adaptor, lens or I don't know what.

The point is that you should be able to use to the max your 35 mm lenses.
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I need to recalculate again. I used Barry_Green's method but I honestly think I cropped to far into the paper. How did you measure your 35mm frame?
 
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I used an old Nikon camera. The new digital cameras don't work because they are not full 24X36 mm.

You can just use 2 markings on a wall. Fill the frame between the 2 marks. Put your adaptor film plane where the 35 mm camera was. Take the lens from the still camera and put it on the adaptor. Then zoom your video camera to fill the frame as you had the still camera framed.
 
Douglas Villalba said:
but even after I zoom in I still get full 24X36 mm. To make sure I used my old F4. I place the F4 close enough to fill the screen with a chart then I replaced the F4 with my HVX-Letus and the same lens and zoom the camera in to get full frame.
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I think the fact that 'zoomed out' reveals a large area of any lens which teases us in thinking when zooming in, we are 'missing out' on part of the lens area. But what you just said shows that we shouldn't be so 'greedy' and that this area we crop out isn't really "lens" - it is just a not-to-be-used mirage :)
 
And in regards to the Short (this topic), Philip it is nice to see a clip which steps beyond showing the 'wow factor' of a 35mm adapter.

I quite like the shot of the CU water rippling on the pebbles, quite a high frame rate?

The shot with the train tracks to screen right is a good example and shows how effective shift/tilt lenses are.

Did you use a follow focus?
Bit of patriotism coming through with the shift to the flag.

Always nice footage :)
 
Charles Lowthian said:
I think the fact that 'zoomed out' reveals a large area of any lens which teases us in thinking when zooming in, we are 'missing out' on part of the lens area. But what you just said shows that we shouldn't be so 'greedy' and that this area we crop out isn't really "lens" - it is just a not-to-be-used mirage :)
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I agree completely with this statement. You aren't missing out on anything, that's the point. You simply have just changed how far you have to pull the camera back, if that.
 
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