Rods for Letus Extreme

[Sean Sanczel]

Hi,

I am patiently waiting for my LetusExtreme to arrive. I noticed on the LetusDirect site that they now sell rods.

Does anyone recommend them? Or would a cheaper set of rods be fine for the A1 and Letus setup?

Thanks for your time. Any comments would be appreciated.

Sean

[Dennis Murphy]

I can't comment on the other rod manufacturers, but I have the Letus rods for my Extreme and Canon A1.
I was impressed by the quality and can set them so that the setup is balanced on the tripod. I've read that some of the other rod systems don't allow this.
I can't imagine realistically using the LEX on the Canon (or any other camera) as it is heavy enough to substantially stress the mounting threads.
My biggest lens is a FD 200mm f2.8 - that combined with the LEX is way too heavy for use without rods imo.

[Sean Sanczel]

Thanks Dennis...

Yea, I'm going to look more in to those rods from Letus. It's just.. y'know... pricy.

Do people ever use the extreme with no tripod? Or are you saying no hand-held at all? I would like to do some hand-held stuff... Can you hold the rods and all?

So far, I only have a Nikon 50mm, 1.8 (bought in eager anticiption of the forthcoming Letus...)

Thanks again for your advice...

[Dennis Murphy]

Originally Posted by Sean Sanczel

Do people ever use the extreme with no tripod? Or are you saying no hand-held at all? I would like to do some hand-held stuff... Can you hold the rods and all?

Yep, you can do hand held with the rods. There are shoulder mount kits and handles etc. It's being comfortable enough to manually focus while moving around.
A monopod can kind of give you a 50/50 handheld/tripod look.
I was initially suprised bu how heavy the letus setup was.

[Paul Mailath]

I use the A1 & LEX with Indifocus carbon fibre rods - it is front heavy (they're sending another piece of kit to fix that) but it doesn't present a problem - I've had a 210mm lens on the front and it's been fine. With a longer lens I'd like another support block at the front but I have the 18" rails so there's plenty of room

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/attachmen...5&d=1197100448

[Sean Sanczel]

Thanks Paul and Dennis...

This is a tough one. $129 for the Indifocus or cloe to $400 for the Letus rods. I guess I have some thinking to do. (Better check the ol' bank balance, too...)

And thanks for the photo, Paul. Is that an Indifocus follow-focus you have on there? How do you like it? And also, if you don't mind me asking... what kind of monitor do you use? And what's the general price of that?

I guess I just neeed to spend more money, heh heh.... (I'm trying to prepare for shooting my own film. All set here in Florida...)

Thanks for all the advice, it helps a lot.
Sean

[Paul Mailath]

Originally Posted by Sean Sanczel

Thanks Paul and Dennis...

Is that an Indifocus follow-focus you have on there? How do you like it? And also, if you don't mind me asking... what kind of monitor do you use? And what's the general price of that?
Sean

sure is and I'm very happy with it so far - the monitor is a touchscreen car unit I stole from my son - okay for framing - one of my other posts talks about it, can't remember which