Letus Ultimate - RELEASED!

The advantages of leaving it at the default 60 is that this is good enough for most situations and it's not as taxing on your batteries. Slight noise is also introduced as you go to faster speeds. Not a huge deal but those are valid reasons.
 
Steve did you get any footage yet from the Ultimate?

Great footage from both Steve's!(The Prague piece is lovely, Steve C.) Thanks very much, makes me even more excited about the impending arrival of my Ultimate. Now if the B4 Relay would also become available sooner rather than later.....

Jeff Regan
Shooting Star Video
www.ssv.com
 
Hey Jeff,

Did you decide to purchase an Ultimate? Hope the info I gave you was good enough!

Hi Kholi,

Yes, between your feedback and the rave reviews from Philip B, and the two Steve's, and of course the wonderful imagery, I ordered it. I can't use it with my HDX900 and DSR-450 cameras until the B4 Relay is available to order and delivers, however. But I will test it with an HVX200 and if I'm happy with it, I'll put it in my rental inventory.

I had a great chat with Hien yesterday and look forward to putting this whole
setup together. I have 8 Nikkor lenses waiting, but now I see that you and
a few others are Zeiss believers. I read a review of a Zeiss Planar 50 1.4 on
Ken Rockwell's site and he didn't make it sound like he thought it was better
than Nikkor.

I'm used to using Zeiss Super Speed T1.3 sets with the Pro35, but the C/Y and ZF
lenses aren't built by Zeiss in Germany, according to the review site. I need to
put some ZF's side by side with my Nikkors.

Thank you to all who give your time on this forum, I've learned a lot.

Jeff Regan
Shooting Star Video
www.ssv.com
 
I will always say to each his own on Nikon lenses. I can see a very apparent difference between the two 50/1.4 lenses, but some can't and thats fine! Its just proof that theyre both fit to get the job done, right?

In definitely happy to have switched from Nikon to Zeiss and won't look back. Even the worst zoom of the CY performs quite well to me, add the mechanics and solid build. Well, ya know.

Also. Some of the cy lenses were made on Germany. Weixiang here on DVXuset and IanD have or had the Getman branded glass. They just cost a LOL more with no apparent gain in optical performance. I believe the housing was made of different materials between Japanese aand German.

Congrats on the purchase and look forward to reading your experience.
 
Hmm, I'm going to have to disagree. My C/Y set are all made in Germany except for the 50mm f/1.4.

It seems that the Zeiss C/Y lenses were built in both Germany by Zeiss and Japan
by Kyocera. The Nikon Z/F lenses are made in Japan by Cosina.
 
It seems that the Zeiss C/Y lenses were built in both Germany by Zeiss and Japan
by Kyocera. The Nikon Z/F lenses are made in Japan by Cosina.

according to people, they are optically similar, some Germany-made ones weren't produced in Japan. i.e. 135mm f/2, also the 28mm f/2. I believe the 16mm f/2.8, and 25mm f/2.8 were also only German made. I don't know, there are lots. Anybody got a 16mm I can rent in like a month?
 
Correct. There are some primes only available as German models, the rest are available as Japan, MM, and German versions. They are all optically the same from what I have tested. I actually separated my sets into MM and German made now so that I can quickly use the MM features on our Contax RTS cameras. MM stands for "multimode" if I remember correctly and demands a higher price than Japan lenses because they allow the camera to select the aperture as part of its autoexposure system. German however still draw the highest price (even though they don't support the MM features) because their build quality is believed to be better since they didn't come from the Yashica plants. The German models are also designated by AE and IMO are overpriced. I think some of the price jump comes from "Zeiss" tax and the German collectors.

I've done side by sides and haven't noticed anything worth noting between the models. Theres some German built lenses that I like, some Japan and some MM. It all depends on the quality you find them in since everything is used these days. The only significant physical difference comes from the MM which has a different feel to the iris clicks and typically weigh slightly less than the other two versions. Some are also slightly different in appearance. The 85mm MM vs AE/Japan has a slightly shorter focus ring for example. Like I've said, none of it affects performance. Of the German only models (to my knowledge): 16mm, 28 F2, 135 F2, 85 F1.2, and 300 F2.8. I used to think the 35 F1.4 only came in AE version but I own an MM model now too and its just as nice.

Sorry to deviate from the subject but thought I'd add to the C/Y questions.
 
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C/Y Zeiss is probably your cheapest solution for best quality on a 35mm adapter system. Quality supposedly is up to par with Arri-Zeiss Superspeeds.
 
s'what I'm sayin. The less sharpness you have to add in camera or post the cleaner the image. This is what makes the EX1 so appealing to me.
 
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