Letus Adapter?
- Thread starter caiofilm
- Start date
maranfilms
Veteran
I don't blame you in the least. Thats a good setup, Although after using both vibrating and spinning adapters, The spinners are night and day compared. I cant deal with the dust issues, the lack of stopping down issues that come with the vibrating models. Not to mention the noise .
I would look in to either a sgblade, handy35, or redrock m2 encore flip. Which are all spinners.
With that said, DSLR'S are amazing in low light. and as long as you have an idea as to what your shooting, it's not all that hard to work around the limitations. There's nothing wrong with having both tools. Not to mention CCD'S are so much better for fast panning, whips. just my two cents.
I would look in to either a sgblade, handy35, or redrock m2 encore flip. Which are all spinners.
With that said, DSLR'S are amazing in low light. and as long as you have an idea as to what your shooting, it's not all that hard to work around the limitations. There's nothing wrong with having both tools. Not to mention CCD'S are so much better for fast panning, whips. just my two cents.
The major question is -- which Letus adapter are you getting for five hundred? An early model Letus may or may not be a bargain at that price. A Letus Ultimate at that price would be a nice bargain.
Regardless of the model -- the most important thing is -- it's all about the lenses you use. It's all about the lenses. Again -- it's all about the lenses. Sometimes these guys with video backgrounds don't understand that, and they stick some zoom on an adapter and then come back to this forum and write about "light loss" and "loss of detail." The problem was the crappy zoom lens -- not the adapter. Stick a Nikkor 85mm f/2 ai-s (the sharpest wide open lens ever made) on your Letus and your images will be as sharp and detailed as any good stuff you've seen.
You will need adequate lighting -- but -- adequate lighting means anything normal from the past decade or two. The whole "HDSLR revolution," has brought us to something different in which a table lamp can light a set, and that's different.
With proper lighting and proper lenses you can produce some great looking stuff. I use the HMC150 with a Letus Ultimate and a range of legendary Nikkors for interviews, and with the HMC150 I can record until the interviewee is exhausted (I think I've got a six hour capacity), rather than to when the P2 card in my 170 is maxed out.
The other major benefit of the Letus is that I've got full frame 35mm lens coverage. Meaning, my legendary Nikkor 85mm is actually an 85mm (like on a 5Dm2), and there's no "crop factor." And, that also means you get full frame 35 shallow focus -- which is both good and sometimes a headache.
So -- the thing to take away from this post is -- it's all about the lenses. It's all about the lenses you use on the adapter. Regardless if you've got a bargain on an Ultimate for five hundred or are being ripped off for five hundred on an early model -- it's all about the lenses you use on it.
As a side note relating to your "rolling shutter issues" comment -- if the 150 is replaced at NAB 2011 with "3MOS" from the HPX370 -- well, your 3 CCD's in your 150 will continue on as an asset in the years ahead.
Regardless of the model -- the most important thing is -- it's all about the lenses you use. It's all about the lenses. Again -- it's all about the lenses. Sometimes these guys with video backgrounds don't understand that, and they stick some zoom on an adapter and then come back to this forum and write about "light loss" and "loss of detail." The problem was the crappy zoom lens -- not the adapter. Stick a Nikkor 85mm f/2 ai-s (the sharpest wide open lens ever made) on your Letus and your images will be as sharp and detailed as any good stuff you've seen.
You will need adequate lighting -- but -- adequate lighting means anything normal from the past decade or two. The whole "HDSLR revolution," has brought us to something different in which a table lamp can light a set, and that's different.
With proper lighting and proper lenses you can produce some great looking stuff. I use the HMC150 with a Letus Ultimate and a range of legendary Nikkors for interviews, and with the HMC150 I can record until the interviewee is exhausted (I think I've got a six hour capacity), rather than to when the P2 card in my 170 is maxed out.
The other major benefit of the Letus is that I've got full frame 35mm lens coverage. Meaning, my legendary Nikkor 85mm is actually an 85mm (like on a 5Dm2), and there's no "crop factor." And, that also means you get full frame 35 shallow focus -- which is both good and sometimes a headache.
So -- the thing to take away from this post is -- it's all about the lenses. It's all about the lenses you use on the adapter. Regardless if you've got a bargain on an Ultimate for five hundred or are being ripped off for five hundred on an early model -- it's all about the lenses you use on it.
As a side note relating to your "rolling shutter issues" comment -- if the 150 is replaced at NAB 2011 with "3MOS" from the HPX370 -- well, your 3 CCD's in your 150 will continue on as an asset in the years ahead.
Thanks AGMedia. I'm absolutely going with good glass (I was a photography major before switching to film) and will start out with Nikon primes. I'm also interested in the Zeiss primes, may rent a set to compare.
I'm getting the Letus Extreme, which I know is not as great without the backfocus or spinning glass, but I've noticed it's still sold on their website. I'm getting the package with rails and get to try it out in person before buying it. So I know $500 seems to be the going rate on Craigslist and various user forums, I guess I'm stoked that it's ready to connect to my camera and start shooting. I do however need a step-up ring since it was previously set up for HVX-200 with 82mm ring.
But anyhow, thanks for the advice. I only will stick the best glass (Nikon & Zeiss) in front of the rig, and light like Storaro.
I'm getting the Letus Extreme, which I know is not as great without the backfocus or spinning glass, but I've noticed it's still sold on their website. I'm getting the package with rails and get to try it out in person before buying it. So I know $500 seems to be the going rate on Craigslist and various user forums, I guess I'm stoked that it's ready to connect to my camera and start shooting. I do however need a step-up ring since it was previously set up for HVX-200 with 82mm ring.
But anyhow, thanks for the advice. I only will stick the best glass (Nikon & Zeiss) in front of the rig, and light like Storaro.
Mike Harvey
Veteran
If you already have good glass, and for $500 you get the adapter and rails so all you need is a step up ring, if it's in good condition I don't know how could pass it up. I mean, $500 or $1,500 for a GH2. I'd go for it.
Letus is a good adapter, but far from the best one IMO. I have had several issues with my letus adapters, I've had both the exterme and the elite. The buildquality is questionable, the prism glass inside the flip part of my elite just fell apart, without dropping it. If you look inside, you'll see that they've used glue to fasten it, same thing with the acrhomat. I dare to state that the vibrating adapters from Letus has a designflaw that makes them useless after a couple of hours of use. The motor will start to vibrate to hard/fast when it gets a bit warmer of use. Letus have admitted this to me a time ago (saying that they have experienced this issue before) and i've read that you can solve it by adding some glue on the motor. Is that what you pay over 1000 dollars for?
Adapters with vibrating glass can create a lot of issues. I would go with a spinner, one of the best and cheapest right now on the bargain market is the SGblade. The buildquality is so much better than the Letus. When holding my blade it feels more like a weapon than an adapter. not to mention the extremely good service that they offer. I've said it so many times on this forum, and I'll say it again: The shoot35 service that Wayne and co offers can not be beaten, they will help you even if you've bought a second hand unit.
Adapters with vibrating glass can create a lot of issues. I would go with a spinner, one of the best and cheapest right now on the bargain market is the SGblade. The buildquality is so much better than the Letus. When holding my blade it feels more like a weapon than an adapter. not to mention the extremely good service that they offer. I've said it so many times on this forum, and I'll say it again: The shoot35 service that Wayne and co offers can not be beaten, they will help you even if you've bought a second hand unit.
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