More new Letus Extreme footage

[Steven Dempsey]

Some more tests with my lovely daughter

Natural lighting shots and 250w keylight shots (with subtle backlight and fill)...all indoors

50mm f1.8 zoomed to 35mm Academy size
(This mimics the angle of view of 35mm motion picture lenses as opposed to 35mm photography lenses...)

The Nikon was open to f1.8, Canon lens was set to f3.4 for the 250w test...can't remember details of natural light shots.

720 version:
http://www.pinelakefilms.com/XHA1/extremetara.wmv

EDIT: JUST ADDED FULL REZ VERSION -
1080 version:
http://www.pinelakefilms.com/XHA1/extremetara1080.wmv

[Kyle Prohaska]

Never have I seen adapter footage that sharp...thats just as sharp as the stock lens on the A1 would be with nothing on it. Thats incredible. Thumbs up.

- Kyle

[Douglas Villalba]

Originally Posted by Steven Dempsey

Some more tests with my lovely daughter

Natural lighting shots and 250w keylight shots (with subtle backlight and fill)...all indoors

50mm f1.8 zoomed to 35mm Academy size
(This mimics the angle of view of 35mm motion picture lenses as opposed to 35mm photography lenses...)

The Nikon was open to f1.8, Canon lens was set to f3.4 for the 250w test...can't remember details of natural light shots.

http://www.pinelakefilms.com/XHA1/extremetara.wmv

Downrezzed to 720p

That's what I was talking about in that other thread.

On the tight close up you can see the real sharpeness when blown up on a 42" Plasma.

If it looks that good going from compress 720 wmv converted to DVCPROHD 720 I wonder how mush better it looks when raw?

Thanks for the clip Steven

[Steven Dempsey]

Douglas, I uploaded the full rez version also, see the modified first post.

[Douglas Villalba]

Originally Posted by Steven Dempsey

Douglas, I uploaded the full rez version also, see the modified first post.

I am downloading as I type

[Will Schryver]

50mm f1.8 zoomed to 35mm Academy size
(This mimics the angle of view of 35mm motion picture lenses as opposed to 35mm photography lenses...)

Could you elaborate on this a little?

[Steven Dempsey]

Will, I'm going to quote a passage written by Barry Green (hope you don't mind, Barry) from an article we co-authored on DVXUser reviewing the Letus FE:

"Having read many posts by various users about the struggles they have with many different adapters when trying to achieve good edge-to-edge sharpness and minimizing vignetting, I’m becoming convinced that lots of people (users and even some of the manufacturers) may not necessarily know what the proper configuration should be for one of these adapters. The goal should be to mimic the depth of field and field-of-view of a 35mm movie camera – that’s what the mini35 does, and that’s what you want to do to have a constant frame of reference and predictable results. A 35mm movie camera has a frame size of about 22mm x 16mm, not the 36mm x 24mm size of a still camera. What you want to do is zoom in to the ground glass far enough that you set up your field of view to match what a 35mm movie camera would see, using the same focal length lens at the same distance. An easy way to do that (and get pretty darn close) would be to use an 8.5 x 11” sheet of paper, taped to a wall sideways (i.e., “landscape” orientation), and set your camera about two feet away from it. With a 50mm lens, focused at 2’, you should be just cropping off the edges of the paper (ideally you’d have about a 10.5” wide field of view from two feet away when using a 50mm lens). If you configure your zoom such that you’re just cropping off the edges of the paper, you’re basically matching the field of view of a 35mm movie camera at that point."

[Douglas Villalba]

WOW!!!!!!

I just finished converting 1080 WMP file to DVCPRO HD 1080. (My MAC can't handle 1080 WMP files.)
It is as sharp as the camera can handle (provably better, but how can you check without a 2/3" HD camera)

As far as the article I agree with what he says about 35 mm film camera size of frame. I have to disagree or maybe I just see in a different way when it comes to 35 mm still lenses adaptor.

These adaptors use lenses made for Canon or Nikon These lenses are optimized for a 24-36 mm frame. (in the case of pre-digital cameras.) They resolve better at 2 f stops from fully open. They are available in an average range of 17 mm Super wide to 200 mm at affordable prices.

If you were to crop the image to 22-16 mm then a 50 mm still lens becomes a telephoto and a 24 mm a normal lens. This would defeat the purpose of the adaptor since the camera at telephoto has a nice DOF anyway without an adaptor.

The whole idea is to use a wide angle lens that the main subject is sharp and both the fore and background are soft enough to direct the attention to the main subject. I find that using a telephoto with the adaptor creates an image that is so soft that it becomes a distraction.

On the other hand a 35 mm film lens is usually sharper than a still lens when fully open. So by the film camera having a smaller frame but using the lens fully open you achieve a comparable DOF to a Still lens at 2 f stops closed.

If these adaptors were made to use film lenses I would agree with Barry Green 100%.

I hope that this makes sense.

[Will Schryver]

The footage is great. Beyond great. It's simply fabulous for a video camera.

But I still have to admit that I'm a little unclear on how the two lenses interact when the Letus is attached. Do you set the A1 at full wide or somewhere in between wide and full telephoto? Do you establish a static setting with the zoom, then set your film lens to the desired zoom/f-stop, then go back and set your exposure on the A1? Are you pretty much able to get a feel for the DOF you've established by looking through the A1's viewfinder/LCD?

I'm just trying to get a feel for what goes on when setting up a shot using the Letus, so bear with me if these questions seem to arise from abject ignorance. Trust me, they do.

[Shiv Kumar]

Will,

I'll attempt to answer your questions as best as I can. I'm just finished my first shoot using a Letus35 FE.

Once you've mounted the Letus on the Camera and Lens on the Letus you can see the view using the Camera's built in Monitor. You then zoom (using Camera's zoom) in till the edges of the Letus' view match up to the edges of your monitor. In other words, all you see in the camera's monitor is what you should be seeing (no parts of the Letus' internals visible). You may need to turn the Letus (on the mount) such that the framing (since it's a rectangle) is correct as well.

The above is not as scientific a method as Steven/Barry mention.

You also want to focus the camera onto the GG of the Letus. In the vibrator of the Letus is off, you should be able to use the Camera's focus to focus onto the GG of the Letus.

After this, you use the focus of the Lens on the Letus to achieve focus. And the aperture on both the camera and/or the Letus lens to the desired exposure. The DOF is primarily controlled by the aperture setting on the lens on the Letus.

Does that answer your questions?

Shiv.

[Will Schryver]

Originally Posted by Shiv Kumar

Will,

I'll attempt to answer your questions as best as I can. I'm just finished my first shoot using a Letus35 FE.

Once you've mounted the Letus on the Camera and Lens on the Letus you can see the view using the Camera's built in Monitor. You then zoom (using Camera's zoom) in till the edges of the Letus' view match up to the edges of your monitor. In other words, all you see in the camera's monitor is what you should be seeing (no parts of the Letus' internals visible). You may need to turn the Letus (on the mount) such that the framing (since it's a rectangle) is correct as well.

The above is not as scientific a method as Steven/Barry mention.

You also want to focus the camera onto the GG of the Letus. In the vibrator of the Letus is off, you should be able to use the Camera's focus to focus onto the GG of the Letus.

After this, you use the focus of the Lens on the Letus to achieve focus. And the aperture on both the camera and/or the Letus lens to the desired exposure. The DOF is primarily controlled by the aperture setting on the lens on the Letus.

Does that answer your questions?

Shiv.

Thanks, Shiv. You've taken me a few steps further on the road to full understanding. I think I'm beginning to see that what one needs most is to actually get the thing and start experimenting with it. Practice makes perfect, and all that.

The bottom line is that I know about 500% more today than I knew a week ago -- so I guess that's progress.

I ordered my Merlin today. By Christmas I should be ready to pop for a Letus Extreme.

[Shiv Kumar]

Will,

The setup for the Letus is really quite simple. Once you see what you see in the camera's monitor you'll know exactly what to do. Pretty logical/intuitive really. I do need to remember to turn on the GG vibrator most times :).

I'll be posting my first footage using the Letus35 FE in a few minutes.

720p/207MB
http://thehomefront.dynamicarchitect...etus35FE_1.wmv

720p/210MB
http://thehomefront.dynamicarchitect...etus35FE_2.wmv

Just got back from a week long shoot for a customer where in I used the Letus for 90% of the footage including B roll stuff.

I'm upgrading to the Letus Extreme. The 1/2 stop loss versus 1.5 - ~2 stops (FE) of loss would have made using the Letus on two ocassions possible. Plus the other improvements they've made are quite compelling too.

Shiv.

[Steven Dempsey]

Hey Shiv, would you start a new thread with your footage? It will get lost in a thread that's about the Extreme.

Thanks

[Shiv Kumar]

Sorry Steven. I didn't mean to muddle things up. I did create anoter thread for my post.

[Steven Dempsey]

Hey, no problem, I figure you will benefit more if you put it in a new thread and it also keeps everything simple :)