Letus Achromat for Economy

[MagicCat]

HI All

When letus was about to unveil the Extreme, I purchased an Economy due to the ETA Ramp-Up on the Extreme. More importantly, I took the plunge because I was told that outside of the plastic body and external Battery, the Adapter was the same as the upcoming Extreme. I have not been able to use this since day 1 due to the Extreme E2E softening when used on an HVXa. I have noticed that letus has a better achromat for the extreme, but due to the design, it cannot be re-tro fitted to the Economy. If I had known at the time, and letus would have been a little more up front about the differences, I would have waited 2 or 3 weeks for the Extreme. The difference of 300 bucks at the time would have been much better than an almost useless 900 35mm adapter.

Does anyone have any good suggestions for a Mod for the Economy Achromat?.

I did a search and noticed at least one other person in the same situation, but no solutions.

I don't like to complain, but I also being a guinea pig for Letus. (However, it should be noted that at the time I ordered this, Hein Le was VERY nice and very helpful, taking time to talk to me personally on several occasions). None the less I feel completely taken advantage of. Since then, letus Direct told me they discontinued the Economy shortly after the extreme was released because the extreme was a much better product and there ARE/WERE some sincere differences between them. Now, it is obvious that there are and even were at the time. That to me is the smoking gun. They should have wrote all the economy purchasers and offered them an upgrade for an additional fee or something.

I am completely disappointing with Letus. I don't care about how good or bad their stuff is, it is all about service for me. Personally, I have not stayed in Business for 13 years by taking advantage of my clients. I understand this letter is a couple years after the fact, however, I can no longer recommend a company that seems to have intentionally taken advantage of their clients.

Were the sales of the Economy a Ramp up of funding needs for the production of the Extreme?? I would not attempt to make absolute accusations, however, it sure seems to fit the bill here when they knew the two adapters were very very different in upgradeability. It seems many were bought with the assumption the two adapters were Identical except construction materials. There is obviously more to that story than they led on to at the time.

Im putting my Economy up for sale next week, it has been used twice, and IMHO, is totally worthless due to the E2E softening when used in conjunction with the HVXa.

Letus behind for another I say.

David

 

[Huy Vu]

I'm sorry, but where exactly was it that Letus "took advantage" of you? Seems like it's a case of the product not being what you expected. As a buyer you own it to yourself to do some research on what you're buying.

What it comes down to is this: when you're an early adopters of a technology, you're taking the risk of things going wrong. It's the price of being "first." At the time of release Letus was not aware of the issue with the HVX, and once they've decided to fix it they've also decided to discontinue the Economy, so it seems to me that they've made a sound business decision to not spend the resources on a discontinued product. This isn't a case of them lying to you or misrepresenting their product. When I was trying to decide between the Economy and the Extreme back in the day, I remembered that the Letus comparison chart for both adapters CLEARLY states that the Economy uses a different, lower quality condenser and achromat. I agonized over the decision for weeks because I knew coming in that I won't be getting the same performance. It's ridiculous to suggest that there was some sort of plot to push the Economy on to the consumer when back then people were lining up for an Extreme, paying UP FRONT for it.


Besides, what stopped you from selling the Economy two years ago when you could have gotten nearly full price for it? Letus products were so hot back then that used adapters were selling for almost the same price as new ones.

 

[MagicCat]

I think I may have mis-represented my assertation that I was conciously taken advantage of. I admit that I was also new to the 35mm field at the time as well. All I am pointing out here is that, IMHO, when a company with an established track record, like letus has now (and had at the time) releases a product and makes a statement that it is Identical to the Extreme, they need to be able to back that up before making a statement like that. It isnt even that they said anything false, per-se, it is more what they did not say that is a problem.

When you Tell a customer the only difference is the metal housing versus plastic, the client assumes all support options in the future will be the same for the two. For me, money was not the issue at the time. I felt all things being equal between the Ex and Ec, why should I pay more if there is no benefit to having metal? If they had taken a couple seconds and explained the potential of Metal over Plastic, I, and many others would have waited. I assure you, Im not the only one who feels slightly misguided on the Economy.

Can you Imagine Toyota Saying" Yeah, as soon as we found out those cars were a death trap, we didn't want to spend the money fixing the ones that were out there, we felt it was better not to say anything and just quit selling em all together"

When I called letus, that is pretty much the answer I got. No empathy for my situation, no solutions offered, no remorse, and almost a sense of arrogance or "right of passage" on their part. That is mainly what annoyed me the most.