Why buy a Letus Extreme when the 150 has image reversal?

C

chasford

Member
I was all set to order a Letus extreme when it was brought to my attention that the HMC150 will invert the image in the viewfinder. Why pay the extra bucks when you could purchase a 35mm DOF unit that doesn't flip the image and is much less? What are the advantages to the Letus extreme? It wouldn't be that difficult to flip the image in Final Cut? Wouldn't there be even less loss of light if the DOF unit wasn't reflex? Is there something I don't know?
 
You've pointed out several good reasons why... Flipping the image in post and having to render is the only reason why anyone would not go that route. As far as I know the only 35mm adapter that doesn't flip in the letus extreme category is the G35, at least the only one worth buying that is... and from what I've heard it needs a ton of light... Id probably just buy the extreme... Less light loss and the image will be flipped not having to render in post. Oh... and by the way, I've owned the following 35mm adapters so I speak from experience;
Redrock M2, Letus, Letus Flip Enhanced, Letus Extreme, G35...
 
seems to me this 'rendering' issue is something unique to FCP.
flipping/rotating clips has never ever been a problem for me in either Premiere or Edius and never had to be rendered to see immediately.
i'd rather pocket the money i'd save, take an extra 5 seconds to flip the image in post and enjoy shooting with a lighter, smaller, and much less bulky dof adapter.
 
One very good reason, and it depends on your personal preference, but the image flip on the LCD screen flips everything... timecode, f-stop, focus and zoom reading... the entire readout is flipped as well. For some folks that probably won't be an issue, but for some it could be a big annoyance.

Also, I believe (and I could very easily be wrong, since I don't own an adapter yet) that with most flip modules, you can keep the focus if you zoom in all the way. Non-flipped models tend to go soft once you zoom past the "sweet" spot. Thus, a flip module allows you to cheat a little if you're using a prime lens and still have a little zoom. I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure that's the case.

If you haven't already, you probably want to pose this question in the 35mm adapter section. Dennis Wood (Cinevate/Brevis35) and to a lesser degree Wayne Kinney (Shoot35/SGBlade) are pretty frequent posters and tend to be pretty helpful, and would probably answer your question about the pro's/con's of flip modules.
 
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while it does flip the on-screen readings, it doesn't make panning confusing, it makes it NOT confusing; that's the whole point.
 
Oops... you're right. My mistake. I'll delete that from my previous post.

[edit] My excuse was I wasn't quit awake yet :)
 
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chasford,
this is an interesting topic! I agree - no need to use prisms and mirrors to flip the image as long as the HMC does it for you. And for me - my NLE is Sony Vegas and you just right click the footage and select Flip Vertical an/or Flip Horizontal, absolutely no need to prerender anything, you can use the footage as is.
I would go for any adapter that does not flip the image - provided it satisfies these criteria: Supports Panasonic HMC 150. Supports Olympus OM lenses. I have many Olympus lenses collecting dust in my attic, now it is time to get them out in the daylight again!
Any tips on hardware satisfying my criteria are very much appreciated!
Ingvar
 
possibley the blade will meet ur criteria. Email Wayne at sales@shoot35.com and he will tell u if u can use ur olympus lenses or not. But the blade does have a non flipped version and is hmc compatible
 
Thanks,
it looks like they don't support Olympus.. Pity, because this would have been the right choise for me. But I sent an email in any case, we will see!
Ingvar
 
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