More Letus Extreme + XH-A1 footage

Dang, Trudd, really nice footage! I love the guy ridin' the bike, the library, and the trees lining the road shots.

Man, maybe the Letus was really optimized on the A1. I can't see any signs of edge-softness here.
 
Thanks Kholi!

I ran into a few problems with my LEX here: http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?t=120186

I sent it off for repair, but that didn't seem to fix anything. I bailed on my Bogen 501 (I know, I know. Blame it on tuition, right?) and borrowed a Sachtler something or other. That fixed the vibrations (and made me want to drop 5 G's on a tripod).

I'm still eager to use this for the narrative work it is intended for, and that should be happening later this semester.


Edit:
Settings on A1: Z80 (most of the time), focus at 4.9 feet, disjecta's VIVIDRGB preset
Minor color correction within Final Cut Pro (I didn't have the patience to work in Color for this one)
 
I really liked it.

Man the footage looks razor sharp... possibly the sharpest 720p i've ever seen, and the edges hold up great.
 
Awesome stuff. I have to agree with Kholi, it's like the lex was custom made for the Xh-A1.
 
Looks great, but a coupla comments:

Many of the shots were very long DOF. Edge sharpness was excellent, but I wonder if long DOF helps that. It might not of course, in which case we might well have reason to believe that the LEX is particularly well matched to (or initially optimized for) the XHA1.

Otherwise I found myself questioning the reason to use a lens adapter at all for long DOF shots. Other than matching the color/contrast space of the other shallow DOF shots with different lenses/apertures, it would seem to be all downside sharpness and light-loss wise. I'm sure others will disagree so I'm all ears...

And speaking of ears...about the music - forgive me, but I've made my living for a long time as a recording engineer - the acoustic guitars in this song have a lot of *really* nasty squeaks and quite a few loud breaths by the player. It's a problem we run into often recording acoustics, but task ourselves with minimizing it *way* below this amount. Who was the artist?
 
Ted Spencer said:
Looks great, but a coupla comments:

Many of the shots were very long DOF. Edge sharpness was excellent, but I wonder if long DOF helps that. It might not of course, in which case we might well have reason to believe that the LEX is particularly well matched to (or initially optimized for) the XHA1.

Otherwise I found myself questioning the reason to use a lens adapter at all for long DOF shots. Other than matching the color/contrast space of the other shallow DOF shots with different lenses/apertures, it would seem to be all downside sharpness and light-loss wise. I'm sure others will disagree so I'm all ears...

And speaking of ears...about the music - forgive me, but I've made my living for a long time as a recording engineer - the acoustic guitars in this song have a lot of *really* nasty squeaks and quite a few loud breaths by the player. It's a problem we run into often recording acoustics, but task ourselves with minimizing it *way* below this amount. Who was the artist?
Click to expand...

Artist - Sigur Ros = Awesome. The music is that way on purpose, a lot of music is that way on purpose in fact. =P

You have to remember that those were wide shots, as well. To get that wide without an adapter you'd have to get a wide-angle lens adapter. The DOF of wider lenses tends to be a lot deeper than telephotos.

Which means what you're looking at are wides and the edge softness is minimal. Nothing like what Tim Naylor's unit is doing.

IanD's unit exhibits the same thing if not better. I need to get my Letus back and test out some LOMOS, but I just watched a host of footage from my camera and I swear I'm not gettin' that edge softness with most of my Nikon lenses.

I did get it with the Zeiss T2.1's but I'm readin' all over that they're notorious for this issue with 35mm adapters. The P+S Technik included.

Again, great footage T:Rudd! I watched it on my iPhone and it was just as great.
 
Thanks again Kholi! It's great to be hearing from guys whose work I respect and find inspiring.

Ted, as Kholi said wide angle lenses don't seem to offer much in having much bokeh (background blur), but one thing we are not considering is at what distance the subject is.

Some of the telephoto shots have deep depths of field as well (shot of guy eating apple/looking shady) because I was focused near infinity. Same goes for the 28mm.

If I were to put an object 0.45 feet from the 28mm lens that filled the frame and had a background that was 50+ feet away, the object would basically pop out against a very blurry background. Since I was focused near infinity on most of the WA shots and my subjects were far away, of course it's going to look like it's in focus. But we all know this, so I'll stop there :)

Why use the adapter if my shots would look sharper/crisper using the in-camera lens? Practice, really. Most students in my program never take the camera off auto focus. Every project is run and gun and the "fix it in post" mentality is a contagious plague.

If you're asking me why I personally use the adapter, I'll be happy to give a list of reason.
1) I'm a gearhead.
2) I started in photography and missed the ability to direct attention to an area via focus
3) I like the resolution of HD, but I like the slight diffusion/grain/analogue muddiness that the GG provides
4) I live in a digital world and I want something mechanical to hold onto.
5) I have a killer Swahili translation to tend to, so I'll stop typing now.

Thanks again for all the comments and critiques! I don't mean to sound cliché, but thanks to all DVXUsers for educating me...at times I feel like I learn more here than I do in school.
 
Ted Spencer said:
And speaking of ears...about the music - forgive me, but I've made my living for a long time as a recording engineer - the acoustic guitars in this song have a lot of *really* nasty squeaks and quite a few loud breaths by the player. It's a problem we run into often recording acoustics, but task ourselves with minimizing it *way* below this amount. Who was the artist?
Click to expand...

Call me old fashioned or idealistic, but I don't mind the squeaks. It gives the music life.
 
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