Buying a letus, what do you recommend???

[Scott Gold]

Hey everyone, I'm buying a Letus for my XH-A1 and I'd like to know what you think.

1. Do you think the Ultimate is worth the extra moola$$$????
2. How about the Elite, is that back focus adjustment worth the $$$ as well?
3. What lenses would you recommend? I current own a Canon SLR and noticed my lenses don't have manual aperture adjustments :( that was a bummer finding out.
4. Feel free to throw in any other suggestions for a 35mm adapter noobie.

Thanks!

[Chuck Wall]

Hi
I have both an extreme and an elite model and I would recommend the elite backfocus addon.
It takes a fair amount of time adjusting the GG element to both the cam and the SLR lens
to begin with. With the elite your backfocus can be set with any lens in seconds.


If you have the cash then the ultimate has the added benefit of the spinning glass and additional edge to edge sharpness.

Chuck

[Scott Gold]

Thanks for the reply, that definitely pushes me towards the Elite.

Anyone else care to add? This input really helps!

[Bruce S. Yarock]

Can I retrofit the Extreme with that elite addition? If so, who does it?
Also, how exactly would I know with Nimon primes if I needed back focus adjustment?
Thanks
bruce yarock
Yarock Video and Photo

[Scott Gold]

Thanks for Hijacking my thread.

[Bruce S. Yarock]

Scott,
Apparently you haven't been around too long, but I didn't "hijack" your thread. I asked a related question, and can't see how that stopped you from getting the info you're looking for.
Bruce S. yarock
Yarock Video and Photo

[Scott Gold]

Didn't mean to offend you by calling Hijack, you are not a forum terrorist.
However, I've been around a long time and know poor forum etiquette when I see it.
Separate questions and conversations should take place in separate threads, that's all.
It keeps the forums and threads in a logical order of conversation.
Ask any moderator, they'll agree.
Great question though, but it should have it's own thread.

[Bob Hart]

Scott.


I tend to stick my nose in where it does not belong so please be gentle with me as I don't want my Christmas shirt all stained down the front. I perhaps should also heed my own advice.

The moderaters also known here as wranglers are vigilent and friendly. It might be more appropriate to let them do their task quietly in the background and not act in their stead.

Multiple postings on essentially the same topic are generally discouraged as cross-posting and confusions can occur.

Obviously if the discourse spurs too far off-topic it should be separated and this does happen, either by request of participants or intervention of the wranglers. They also intervene when things get prickly.

Bruce's enquiry derived from an opening in Chuck's response.


For Bruce.

The Elite add-on I think can be found at letusdirect where Aaron should be able to tell you more. Zacuto may also have it. The "Elite" sub-assembly replaces the Extreme original sub-assembly forward of the flip enclosure at the junction which is fastened by the two pairs of screws where the open tube ends. The lens mount to lens mount orifice is the same fitment.

For Scott.

www.philipbloom.co.uk has forums and a personal blog by Phil Bloom who is an accomplished DP, camera op, and has pushed the Letus Extreme and Ultimate to their limits creatively.

There is also a shootout for the Letus, Brevis and SGPro. However this is now a bit dated as these products have evolved considerably since.

As for the Extreme versus Ultimate, the Ultimate is more expensive. I understand both share a similar optical arrangement from the front of the flip enclosure rearwards. The Ultimate has speed control on the disk rpm whereas the Extreme has none.

Speed control enables the diminishment of artifacts which may occur in hostile lighting conditions. There is a favourable rpm for 60i, 50i 24P and all the permutations of frame rate etc., where the visible movement of the artifact is slowed down so as to be the least apparent.

The bokeh rendition of the Ultimate is apparently superior due to a different groundglass texture on the disk surface.

The Ultimate has fewer actual moving parts and a simpler mechanical operation so should be more reliable mechanically. It should also be quieter in operation.

The vibrating movement in the Extreme can become acoustically coupled to on-board camera mikes through the camcorder structure if the mike mount or padding is inadequate.

It presents as a hum or drumming sound in the ballpark of about -25db maybe louder, maybe softer depending on camera type. Using on-board mikes is not best practice but people do it.

If you can afford it, get the Ultimate. It is the latest evolution of the product. If you cannot, then the Extreme with Elite front sub-assembly added separately or the Elite itself from Zacuto should satisfy you.

I seem to vaguely recall there having been some optical issues with the XH camera family across several adaptor brands so enquire with Aaron first before buying as there may be a special achromat you need to order. My memory also could be very wrong on this.

[Scott Gold]

Thanks for all that info Bob, Philip Bloom's website looks like a great place to get learned up!

Thanks again!

[Chuck Wall]

Scott, Bruce

The elite "add on" can be found on either Zacuto's site or letus direct. The cost is 600.00 and while nearly half the cost of the extreme it will save you many hours of time.

Chuck

[Don Miller]

At the risk of sounding like both a hijacker and a troll, the best letus like device is the 5DII. The IQ is considerably higher and you don't need to walk around with a Frankencorder (caminstein?).

Uses the same popular Zeiss ZF lens. Keeps your main camera available. Much smaller. Has user control issues, but its not like Letus Brevis are simple automatic devices. Prices will be discounted under $2500 in the first quarter 2009.

35mm adapter resale prices may collapse as these new big cmos cameras come out.

I'm not so much responding to the OP, as to others how are looking for DOF control and a more filmic image. Think hard before you buy into technology that is at the end of its lifecycle. Canon, Sony, Red and probably Panasonic and Nikon will make up this next phase.

This isn't about Letus being "bad". It's a creative tech solution to a real need. But it was always going to be a product with a limited lifecycle.

[Shaun Roemich]

I like grilled cheese sandwiches.

THAT was a thread hijack.

[Bob Hart]

Don.


I agree up to a point.

While there are small 1/3" or 1/4" handycams there will be a groundglass relay device to suit them however. They may become much smaller and cheaper consumer level end-user products

Adaptors may be even become permanently integrated with small CCD or CMOS imager cameras as a single product, maybe mass-produced in Dongguan out of moulded plastic and revert to surface coated mirrors in flip enclosures or more likely eliminate the fhip stage entirely and flip the chip instead, a cross between a consumer camera and a kid's toy.

They may likely use disk based groundglasses as there will be a huge obsolete inventory of DVD spindle motors out there when either solid state memory for movie distribution takes off or subscriber on-line rentals do instead and DVD/Blu-Ray goes to heaven.

Likewise, if large format consumer cams take off, there will be a lot of obsolete small-format imagers to be used up. The security camera industry may not absorb them all.

I thought groundglass adaptors would have been over already by now however this has not happened.

[David W. Jones]

This may be a which Letus thread, but I tend to agree with Don.
A DSLR that shoots video like the EOS 5D mkII would be a much smarter buy.
Especially since you already own nice Canon EOS lenses that will work perfectly with the camera.

While I have used a number of DOF adapters, and currently own a Brevis Flip,
I can honestly say that I hate using them. Any of them! They add weight & length and throw off the balance of the camera, even the best of them loose too much light, they all exhibit some sort of unnatural grain structure, the ground glass seems to collect crap no matter which unit you own, they are just plain inconvenient.

With the advent of the Red cameras, as well as the likes of the new Canon 5D mk II this changes things.

The bottom line is... these are all just tools.
All you have to decide is, which tool is right for you!

[Dennis Murphy]

Originally Posted by Shaun Roemich

I like grilled cheese sandwiches.
THAT was a thread hijack.

I found that the Letus cheese griller added a whole new dimension to my cheese sandwich making and eating experiences.
Although, instead of just whacking a sandwich in the machine and whipping it out quickly for a quick munch, with the Letus sandwich maker, so much controll had be engaged with whole cheese grilling process.
The lack of an auto temperature control meant that quite a few sandwiches have come out either burnt or undercooked, but with perseverence, I've got some beautiful sandwiches out of it with a shallow depth of sandwich that other 1/3 inch toasters just couldn't achieve.

My main problem with it is how much cheese it eats, and that I can't close the lid faster than 100th of a second without horrible patterns appearing on the bread.

I've built up a nice little collection of teflon surfaces that give a range of different thicknesses to the sandwich.

Although the sandwiches I make seem so beautiful, I still haven't got laid from any of them, but that's just probably because I'm butt-ugly.