another letus35 review

[Glenn Gipson]

A.J., did you use a magnet on the LCD to shoot?

[A.J. Briones]

hi glenn, no i did not. the whole day i shot with the image upside-down. my impression is that the magnet trick does not work with the sony vx-2100. as i'm not willing to open it up to physically modify it, i'm thinking of getting an external tft or lcd and mounting it upside down. any recommendations?

[Glenn Gipson]

Originally Posted by A.J. Briones

hi glenn, no i did not. the whole day i shot with the image upside-down. my impression is that the magnet trick does not work with the sony vx-2100. as i'm not willing to open it up to physically modify it, i'm thinking of getting an external tft or lcd and mounting it upside down. any recommendations?

No, I don't have any recommendations, this is all new to me.

[Ben Winter]

i'm thinking of getting an external tft or lcd and mounting it upside down. any recommendations?

What's your price range A.J.?

[A.J. Briones]

Originally Posted by Ben Winter

What's your price range A.J.?

if i can get a great solution that is flippable (because i don't always shoot with the letus35), that would be ideal. how much would i pay for that? around $500 maybe.

[A.J. Briones]

Originally Posted by A.J. Briones

i have to clear something up about this.

- the first letus35 that i bought did have one spec of dirt inside, between the square lens (is that the achromat?) and the outside lens.

- the 2 newer letus35's i purchased afterward did not have dirt on the inside.

- the latest footage (using one of the 2 new adapters) has dirt on the outside tokina lens due to a waterfall scene i shot prior. this is my bad. user error indeed. i have footage prior to the waterfall shot that does not have any dirt on it.

so basically, there was dirt inside 1 of the 3 letus adapters i bought.

hold the phone. i just took apart the letus from my vx2100 last night to clean the lenses for a test shoot today. the 35mm lens had some water marks from the waterfall (as predicted), and there was no dust or smudge marks on the outside lenses of the vx2100 or the letus35 adapter.

however, there were a few small dust particles inside the letus35, between the macro and the achromat. there were also small bits on the GG, which i removed using compressed air. i checked the second letus35 unit that i purchased and i saw the same thing. these appear to be from the housing (possibly shards leftover from the machine work that were loose but not fully detached until after i received the units.

any detailed advice on how to clean this without breaking the units?

[A.J. Briones]

also, note that i have the black anodized versions of the letus35. is this issue exclusive to these units?

[Ben Winter]

FUNNY! How'd you do the girl getting hit by the car? That was awesome!

We filmed the girl skipping across the street, then a separate shot of the car rolling across the screen. Then we took photos as plates for the girl getting hit by the car--about 5 photos of her in different positions as if she was getting hit. Then, frame by frame, we put her cutout body in front of the car and tracked it so she remained in the front, and composited it all together.

[Erik Rangel]

Originally Posted by Ben Winter

We filmed the girl skipping across the street, then a separate shot of the car rolling across the screen. Then we took photos as plates for the girl getting hit by the car--about 5 photos of her in different positions as if she was getting hit. Then, frame by frame, we put her cutout body in front of the car and tracked it so she remained in the front, and composited it all together.

ha. I never wouldv'e thought that. That was great.

[Graham Bernard]

Regarding the Monitor thing - I have a cheapo 12 volt LCD tv/monitor. It comes with an astounding bunch of features, here being a "flip" option left<>right and the all important up<>down . . PLUS I get to "frame" that which I want to see when the video is cut! It sits bolted to my DV-RigPro and I just love it.

Grazie

[Michael Maier]

Hey Graham, what's the model number? Thanks.