Updating my Brevis or go for the Blade?

Krummi

Well-known member
Hey Kids

It's that time again!

I've been a brevis user since the VERY beginning (was one of the original beta group) and have been a happy camper for that whole time. Dennis has provided great service throughout my entire time as a customer.

I got a PMW-EX1 a while back and since then I haven't really used the brevis much at all, mostly due to the fact that my imaging elements are not optimized for the EX1s optics resulting in fallow and lack of edge sharpness on most my lenses.

recently I have found myself missing shooting with an adapter and thus have a conundrum on my hands.

#1 I can update my Brevis imaging element to the Cinefuse XL which is optimized for the EX1, but then I would also like to upgrade the WHOLE brevis to the MP.2 version since the core of my unit is still the same old beta unit I've had since the very beginning. This whole procedure would require a whole lot of shipping and an unspecified amount of money in adding to the unit.

#2 I sell my Brevis and head for untested waters, i.e. the Blade which I am hearing GREAT things about and looks brilliant.

my questions are these:

How is the Blade (RR2) working with the EX1 compared to the optimized Brevis? Any opinions?

Could I, in theory, use my existing Cinevate Flip adapter with the Blade?

Anything else that should concern my decision?
 
I can't tell you many specifics about the the Blade with Sony's EX1 because I don't own an EX1 and I've certainly never shot with one using the Blade. But I can tell you that the image quality I get with the Blade's RR2 and a Canon XH-A1 is phenomenal. I'm consistenly astounded by bokeh and clarity of image. The service that Wayne at Shoot35 provides is exceptional, and the adapter itself is a fine piece of machinery.

I am pretty sure that the Blade is a good choice for whatever camera you're currently using. But like I said, I've never shot an EX1 with it so I can't tell you for sure. As far as using your Cinevate flip adapter, I'm not sure - you'd have to double check with Wayne the size of the back part of the Blade and make sure it matches the threads on the front of the flip adapter from Cinevate.
 
The Brevis is a great product, but I did not find that the Brevis XL screen made a big difference in the corner to corner sharpness with the EX-1 at least at wide open apertures which matter to me. The Blade seems to now be working well with EX-1 as does the Letus EX.
Don't know about using the Cinevate flip with the Blade. As I recall, I had tested the old SGPro with the Cinevate flip and with some screwing around with spacers it wasn't a bad combination but it was tricky.

Lenny Levy
 
the brevis flip doesn't mate directly with the blade, I tried. You'd need some sort of coupler or tube to go in between. I don't like the rr2 because you can see concentric rings at almost all stops(at least with my rr2). The rr1 is pretty nice as it is with great bokeh so it's no big deal to me. I like the brevis over the old sgpro, but at this current generation of adapters, I'd go for the blade.
 
We do have phase 2 of the EX1 optical treatment in field testing and the feedback we're getting so far has been excellent. This is good as it correlates with what we saw in our internal testing. More news in about 1 week. For now, I'll leave you with this :-)


STEW.0
Open Your Aperture
(F8 to F1 in Two Weeks)​
 
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