Letus Extreme rig photos

dxmetal,

Honestly, I'm not sure how I'm going to do it at this point. I'm taking a hard look at all of the FF units to see which one will be able to work with this setup. Some of the FF units I'm interested in are not yet available so I'll have to wait until they are. The Cinevate model looks very promising; I saw some pictures of an elevated HV20 with a pre-release FF unit and mattebox installed.

I'll also be using a few other cameras and I need to see how they sit on this system before finalizing the solution.

At some point, it may become necessary to use a two-level rail system in order be low enough to accommodate the mattebox and FF unit. Hopefully not...
 

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Yeah, dual rails on VariCam and CineAlta rigs are pretty common once you start mounting the Preston for iris and zoom. If you're using a direct drive or Preston follow-focus and then the mattebox, well, then you're even more likely to have dual rods 19mm and 15mm.

Consider that these HVX DOF rigs are usually as long as or longer than either the VariCam or CineAlta system and you'll start to see the need for dual rods systems.

e
 
has anyone succeeded in rigging a camera, either A1 or HVX200, to rails, follow focus, and mattebox without going dual rails?
 
yes, easily on my HVX200. Redrock rails, m2, redrock follow focus and cavision matte box with enough spare to hang my laundry to dry on.

Not done it for a while since I switched to a JVC HD201
 
I think he's talking about the Letus EX, not just any Adapter.

Bloom, have you done it with the EX?
 
yes, sorry, i am talking about the extreme,
so extreme, rails, mattebox, FF.
anyone?
 
taormina said:
Yes, done it with the EX. Trust me people - dual rails not necessary!
Click to expand...

do you mind giving us a reference to what pieces you used? Or some photos as well?
i guess my second concern is, how does one assemble this to have the quick release plate approximately under where the canon lens threads are to balance the ewight.
 
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Here is a photo of my old FE rig. I've posted this not less than 100 times on this board - my apologies to those that have already seen it. The extreme is the same thing. Cavision baseplate, redrock 18" rods, cavision FF and matte box, marshall monitor, bogen 516 head, manfrotto legs. Andy yes, you can use ND grads just fine in any position you can imagine.
 

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Couldn't you use the Z-Riser from ZACUTO to do something similar to all of these setups but with the Letus flipped the other way? I know I'd feel a lot more comfortable with a letus and lens in the air versus my camera and other items. I think that's a lot safer option.
 
Interesting way of looking at mounting options. You could essentially do the same thing with the other vendor's solutions as well by flipping the Letus upside down. I may try that with my Cinevate rail system but the only problem I see is that the threaded mount support from Letus is only on one side. It looks like Zacuto includes some sort of rod which the adapter rests on for support but isn't attached directly.

Also, I like Zacuto's products (as well as a few other vendors) but they tend to end up front heavy without adding extra weight on the rear to counter-balance most setups.

Only the rail system from Cinevate has a separate tripod mounting plate which literally makes it a snap to balance setups front to rear without moving anything else on the rails.

The new Zacuto stuff looks great though...
 
taormina said:
Here is a photo of my old FE rig. I've posted this not less than 100 times on this board - my apologies to those that have already seen it. The extreme is the same thing. Cavision baseplate, redrock 18" rods, cavision FF and matte box, marshall monitor, bogen 516 head, manfrotto legs. Andy yes, you can use ND grads just fine in any position you can imagine.
Click to expand...

nice, your setup is brilliant, but too expensive for me.

i wonder, can the letus extreme be similarly setup with the new indirails, indifollow focus ? has anyone been successful with these?
 
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Yes... taormina's and Zacuto's setups appear expensive... However, for stability, quality, and usability they go unmatched. My Zacuto gear is the best investment I've ever made. I'm a HUGE fan of Zacuto and you can tell by my posts on here and Reduser and other sites. I promise you if you buy Zacuto gear, you'll love it as much as I do. Matt and Kendal love it from FreshDV. Numerous filmmakers love it as well! BEST INVESTMENT you could make I say.

In terms of price, call Steve at Zacuto and negotiate. He'll get you a great deal like I got!
 
You can do the snorkel up setup if you don't need a matte box or follow focus. Otherwise, it has to be snorkel down.
 
taormina said:
You can do the snorkel up setup if you don't need a matte box or follow focus. Otherwise, it has to be snorkel down.
Click to expand...

The thing with the Z-riser ( I swear there's something like this already out there...) is that you CAN use a FF and Mattebox with the snorkel up position, hence the linked photos to the Zacuto site. For stability and use with more traditional rail supports, this is a pretty cool option.

cheno
 
Basic LetusEX rig

Basic LetusEX rig

I'm posting some pictures of my rig I set up this weekend with what I had on hand so I could get out and start shooting with my LetusEX.

I have purposely not bought a matte box, hoping that a decent solution will come about (or that Red Rock will release a production version soon). Of course, a shoulder rig would be necessary to carry this for any length of time. For now, I tried to keep it as light as possible, even removing the follow focus. I found that it was easiest to manual focus with the lens while carrying it. I was only using the onboard LCD screen for focus while holding the camera against my body (I can seen a Marshall, etc... is in my future). On the tripod w FF it was rock solid, and I normally use my laptop and DvRack HD for focus and setup.

The pics show a Red Rock rail support system with 18" rails, a RR Follow Focus, and a Nikon F1.4 50MM that I received as a gift for High School graduation in 1977. After collecting dust in the closet for the last fifteen years, I never expected this is where it would end up. I've also attached my 28mm wide angle and a 70-210mm zoom (not shown). I can see where cine primes would be the way to go, but for now I'm happy to shoot with what I have and have been blown away by the shots. I hope to post something today.

To adapt the RR rail support, I cut and drilled a 4" piece of aluminum stock about 1 1/2" wide and 1/8" thick and attached it between the stock RR base and riser. It leveled off the system and enabled me to use the Letus Adapter attachment that was included and the RR Follow Focus. The aluminum is available in the hardware section of Lowe's. See pencil tip in photo pointing to aluminum space.

Mark
www.newmediadevcorp.com
 

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