Review of Quyen Le's Letus35

[Ben Winter]

EDIT: For those of you who don't know, this is the Letus35 adapter from
www.adapterplace.com

First off, I must say that Quyen Le is the master in shipping. It came well-packed (Shink-wrapped, wow!) in a box marked fragile with the little chippies. Yum. And within a week of ordering it I believe, too!

The adapter looked exactly like the picture. Although he doesn't provide many pictures, here's some for you all:

http://img385.imageshack.us/img385/2593/letus1a7ua.jpg
http://img385.imageshack.us/img385/1576/letus22co.jpg
http://img385.imageshack.us/img385/7761/letus39pe.jpg
http://img398.imageshack.us/img398/1193/letus46tp.jpg
http://img398.imageshack.us/img398/889/letus56pl.jpg
EDIT: they should work now.

Right out of the package it was ready to go, batteries installed. Since I saw no instructions I simply assumed I was good to go, and tried focusing my camera on the screen. Almost immediately I was dissappointed--the screen was out of alignment with the center of my frame! I figured my camera was out of whack when, suddenly, I realized I had forgotten a step: I had to adjust the distance of the macro lens from the focusing screen and tighten the screw. Silly me. After carefully fitting it properly and turning the screw a few good times, I had a good adapter.

it's not noticable, but I think I see a condenser between the macro lens and the focusing screen. I was getting distortion for a bit but then after adjusting the macro lens distance the image was coming out perfectly.

From the mechanical point of view, the adapter is very solid. I'm a tinkerer; I had no problem buying this adapter because I knew if it broke down I'd be able to fix it myself. Along these same lines, I know when something is built solidly or sloppily. And this is solidly built. I think the motor will burn out before anything else fails. I do have a question for Quyen though: how is the focusing screen being held in the frame? It's barely touching the edges of whatever's holding it in there and I don't see any evidence of glue anywhere.

The only other gripe I have is that on this condenser/PCXL is one or two small specks of dirt. They're not too noticable in the video, but they're there all the same, and you can't get rid of them unless you take out the macro lens (which doesn't look like a pretty process) and wipe them off yourself. It's...just...irking me...

Besides that small factor the rest of the optics are refreshingly clean and free of specks.

I'll have more video tests comparing it to my static adapter soon.

[Leo Mandy]

The links do not work.

[Ben Winter]

Try now. I changed servers.

[Quyen Le]

Hi Ben,

First, I would like to thank you for unbias review of my Letus35 adapter.

Second, I have to thank the post office that delivered the product to you that quick. I sent it out just before midnight Saturday and you received it today, Wow!

I shrinkwraped your unit before I realize that the batteries are still in there. My wife said, just give the lucky customer 2 extra batteries. I consider you are lucky. I don't ship batteries with the units, so anybody order the Letus35, please keep this in mind, for you who received the Letus35 without batteries, please don't complain :)

Thank you for pointing out that my unit got dust in there. I just bought the air compressor now (should have bought it earlier huh) and hope this will solve the dust problem from now on. Sorry about that.

As you take a closer look to my unit, I don't use a lot of glue. The GG just snugly fit on the rectangle window and won't fall off by any chance. The motor also fit tightly in place. As you all notice in the new Letus35 design, it's slightly different than the Free info Letus35 with different kind of motor, size and shape.

For instructions, I thought people understand my design, just silly me. Thank you for pointing this out. I will post instructions on my website later.

I received a lot of email giving me a word of support, I do need that. Some also gave me a free offer to build my website to make it looks better. Wow, what a world we have here at DVinfo.

Thank you Ben, thank you all that support me to deliver better products everyday, Thanks again.

Quyen

[Donnie Wagner]

Any still frames or video yet?

[Sarena Valilis]

Quyen....

just wondering how you got 1.23 and if you still considered thaT to be accurate or if you had been able to refine the accuracy??


thanks,
sarena

[Ben Winter]

I just took apart and reassembled Quyen's Letus35. The design is very simple, yet extremely clever.

The screen is suspended from three small plastic "sticks" that are mounted to the front end inside with rubber grommets. Think of a three-legged table with wobbly legs mounted sideways, with the top of the table being the screen. The motor is a self-contained vibrator about the size and shape of a dime, but obviously a bit thicker, that is mounted directly below the screen. When the motor is turned on, the screen shakes and because plastic and rubber is slightly bendable, the screen vibrates. Think of it as a diving board and a person jumping up and down really really fast on it. Holding a screen, lol. It was extremely easy to take apart and put back together for cleaning, which was why I did it in the first place--those little specks of dust got the best of me. All in all, even more solid than I expected. And because everything's mounted so firmly within rubber or plastic (even the lenses) I suspect it could easily hold up to a few drops from 4-5 feet onto solid ground, although I won't be testing that, lol.

Should either the macro lens or glass fitting at either end of the unit break, they can easily be popped out and replaced with similar items. The macro lens is a 58mm +10 and the glass is a 49mm UV filter. Simply unscrew, pop out, pop in, and screw in. You'll have to ask Quyen what rectangular PCXL is in there, since I can't recognize it...but should you find a replacement, that can easily be popped out if it's frame and replaced also. Very nice Quyen :). Me very happy.

[Dmitry Yun]

hi, very intersting adapter but from the test footage, I hear a hissing noise in the background. Is this the motor? Also how is this compared to the new micro35 and the not yet released guerilla35 in terms of light loss and other qualities?

Thanks.

[Leo Mandy]

Ben,

There is also some grain noise where the light is shining. Do you have some other brighter footage to look at. Besides that, it looks good (the interview movie that is).

[Quyen Le]

Dmitry Yun

The video is the very first one taken without any improvement. The motor noise now is much quieter.

Ben

The rectangle lens is at
http://www.surplusshed.com/pages/item/l3385.html
I would like to see the test footage from the GL2 too. Wuld you please post some that we all can see?

Thanks.

Quyen

[Bill Porter]

Ain't none of 'em as quiet as the G35. ;-)

[Ben Winter]

And sorry guys, but I won't have test footage up for a while. This whole school thing's got me occupied a lot. If I find time though I'll see what I can do.

[Douglas Akers]

Just recieved my letus 35.
I'd just like to echo Bens observations on this item.
It looks to be a well thought out and produced design and Quyen is a master of shipping!
Great job Quyen!
I'm just waiting on a couple of lenses to get started!

[Quyen Le]

Thanks Douglas. I am expecting some negative feedbacks to come some day. I heard today, one man from New York saying he heard a lot of negative things about this product, I asked him to send me a link or some info and he didn't. If you find something like that, please let me and all the people here know. I personally want to find out what is really really bad about my product that I've never heard of. If things indeed go wrong, I will take an extra step to correct them. Thanks.

Quyen.

[Douglas Akers]

Quyen,
I'll keep a lookout for you.
When I get my lens next week I'll post a more in depth review.
Unless there is some MAJOR flaw, I don't see how I can be dissapointed.
Again, great work!