SGblade Beta Tester Reviews & Feedback’

Wayne Kinney

Wayne Kinney

DVXUser Sponsor
Hi Guys,

I have started this thread to allow the 5 SGblade Beta Testers to post their reviews and feedback on the Beta SGblade. The 5 testers are:

Leonard Levy
SGblade with non flip & flip module
GG1 glass disk element installed
PM link http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/member.php?u=10994

Anders Nettli
SGblade with non flip
GG2 'SGpro bokeh' disk element installed
PM link http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/private.php?do=newpm&u=5820

Timur Civan
SGblade with flip module
GG1 glass disk element installed
PM link http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/private.php?do=newpm&u=2750

REMOVED

Matt Garrett
SGblade with flip module
GG1 glass disk element installed
PM link http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/private.php?do=newpm&u=16116

Jonathan Dubsky
SGblade with flip module
GG1 glass disk element installed
PM link http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/private.php?do=newpm&u=10018

Footage posted:
Unpacking the Beta Blade: http://www.vimeo.com/2311189 pass: dvxuser ( for safety)
F stop vs Shutter speed: http://www.vimeo.com/2335231
Internal Bokeh Test: http://www.vimeo.com/2336587
Exterior Bokeh Test: http://www.vimeo.com/2367581
Dialogue Test: http://www.vimeo.com/2381631


Please feel free to ask the Beta testers or myself any questions you have regarding the SGblade.
 
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Well it used to be private hahaha

Nice video, the keys are actually for the clockwork GG spinning device (available seperatly)
 
Good point, for that reason i will password protect it

Password is : Dvxuser
 
damn youre a dork...... ;) Vid was funny. it took me about minute to figure out why a strap was in there too....

I get my camera back in 2 hours.... Then the testing will commence.

I did a quick preliminary test last night. This thing is pretty fast.... VERY similar to the Extreme and ultimate.
 
Yep, i read it at about a quarter stop difference. And that light loss goes towards the slightly improved bokeh rendition compared to the letus extreme.
 
Day 01

- First Impressions -


PROS:

The package was beautifully sealed. Bubble wrapped and on top of that, came in a wonderful silver case with custom fitted padding that supported the Blade + Flip, the charger, the rail mount support, and tools bag. Love the lens cloth too.

Construction is solid. Looks like a more customizable version of the LEX. Similar structure but a little less flimsy looking.

Love the X+ Y Adjustment. Took some time to figure out how to do it properly, but got the hang of it and it was quite simple to set up within minutes.

The Back focus adjustment ring is brilliant. This took me again, minutes to setup with a large HD TV. Put on my longest lens, widest aperture, zoomed into the GG, magnification on the XH A1 and got very sharp infinity focus.

The Nikon mount is very strong. I had a little bit of trouble at first figuring out how to remove the lens after i put it on, cause the button wouldn't go back, but i figured it out. Requires a bit more force than i had previously been used to, but am getting 0 play, which is the more important issue.

Weight is basically identical to the LEX.

Setup was very easy using my existing rails and LEX configuration.

Unit came charged and ready to go.

IT IS SOOO QUIET. It's ridiculous. I wasn't even sure it was turned on as the LED light indicated. I had to put my ear soooo close to even hear it. Finally i resorted to looking inside the unit to be sure it was spinning. And it was. Super duper.

Don't know about you guys, but my LED is working fine so far. Have had about 2 hours of use out of it and its not going off on me.

What i need to figure out now are all these extra cables for the charger. Anyone have any clue what these are for? I have a Samsonite universal converter/adapter kit. Will this not suffice?

I set the dial on the charger to 300, i hope this, along with the samsonite kit is enough to charge it. I just fear that these extra cables are somewhat important and may need to be used to not damage anything. Anyone have any info to clear this up?


--------------------------------------------------------------------------


CONS:

The casing size doesn't accomodate my indi focus spunge wheel :p

It appears as though i am getting slight CA on my images. (images below)

My camera focuses on the GG between .8 and .9m to get sharp focus. My zoom range on my camera is from Z 75- 81 (academy). If i zoom in any further, my camera can no longer focus on the GG.

Aparently both of these issues will be covered with the new achromat


Here is my initial e-mail back to Wayne after Day 1 of small testing:

________________________-

So a few quick update

Here is the link to the unpacking of the new unit:


http://www.vimeo.com/2311189 pass: dvxuser

And here is some slightly unfortunate news: Looks like i'm getting a bit of CA on the blade unit. I guess this will be one of the improvements on the new achromat, as well as adjusting the focal distance between the camera and GG. (If tests show the same issue, ill definitely jump on that bandwagon when it's out )


DO NOT USE ANY OF THESE IMAGES TO JUDGE SHARPNESS AS BOTH ADAPTERS WERE NOT FOCUSED ON THE SAME PLANE.

catestez0.jpg


Here is a screen grab from the editor comparing two same frames from the LEX and Blade ( the blade looks to be about possibly 1/5th to 1/4 of a stop slower than then LEX. But basically nothing noteworthy. I prefer the better bokeh personally. The 1/4 to 1/5th of a stop difference is negligible. The Blade looks slightly warmer than the LEX.

lexblade02pk0.jpg


Once I'm outside in the real world, we'll get a better idea.
 
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Bokeh comparison Stills and footage:

*** I accidentally kept F8.0 on the Blade images text. Ignore that as they are at the same fstop as the LEX images )

Notice the blade disperses the bokeh slightly better than the LEX ( More of a hot spot in the middle )

lexint14copyis7.jpg

bladeint14copyqg3.jpg



lexint20copymj5.jpg

bladeint20bcopyeu1.jpg


lexint28copyzs2.jpg

bladeint28copymi5.jpg


lexint40copylz4.jpg

bladeint40copywx1.jpg
 
Shutter speed versus F stop

http://www.vimeo.com/2335231

The compression makes it rather hard to judge when you see the pulsing and visible GG. But i was able to incorporate text to let you know when i saw it visible in the editor at full Resolution.



An exterior bokeh test: Again, slightly better dispersion of light in the bokeh. Very subtle, but it's there, which is also the reason it loses .25 stops more light. ( haven't actually calculated, but it appears to be anywhere from 1/5th to 1/4 a stop difference )

http://www.vimeo.com/2335654
 
** If you see some Chromatic Aberration, it is because the beta units were sent out with a version of the Achromat that is of lesser quality than the one which will be released with the Production units.

This will improve over all sharpness. CA, and the zoom range from camera to GG.
 
Now I`m confused.....tell us.....which camera did you use here ( being a xha1 owner and recalling your offer of testing for us xha1 owners on the "other sg blade thread" I`m a-just-about-ready to see some of it! Good work! We`re rootin`for ya!
 
You know...for a while now I`ve noticed that some people (like myself) can only get down to ohhh, f4 (max) and get anything like a good controllable shot...others like you get down like cool and the gang.....I naturally assumed you were using the ex1....so how you doing that? Fast glass? Gain (OWCH)? ( I use the xha1 with a letus economy, but the image/light loss is pretty much precisely the same (as they pretty much precisely say on the letus website)
 
I did not use ambient light in the kitchen. I had two floods from my local hardware store blasting side.back light on all the shiny objects to get specular hilights.

Otherwise i'm not soo sure what you're asking. I never go step down further than F4 on my LEX. I just did it in this test for the purpose of comparing bokeh. I generally stay between 2.8 and F4 on my LEX. But now with my Blade, i'll probably open it up from F2 to F11 and more closed depending on the desired effect.
 
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