Letus and 24p or 30p?

[Dale Backus]

I've had the HD100 for quite some time now, and really love it, really. We bought the letus a few months ago, and that opened up a whole realm of new looks and feels. We love the Letus.

My question is this: We've always been 30p advocates, basically because we haven't really experienced a camera with decent 24p output. My (mediocre) understanding of the process of digital 24p is through the use of 3:2 pulldown and eliminating frames. This to me sounded really sketchy.

I also read in a post today where Barry (also from NC, woot!) mentioned that the vibrating ground glass mixed with HDV compression was bad for quality because of the method HDV uses in compressing. What he said made sense to me and sparked a question, or a couple of them.

First, how have you all found the 24p looking with the HD100 compared to 30?

Second, when using a vibrating GG as with the Letus, you can't really get much above a 60th shutter speed because you start to notice the grain a great deal more. Although it's not really the same as shutter speed, would the changing of the framerate from 30 to 24 help smooth the grain out at all, therefore helping the HDV compression issue? This may be a dumb question but humor me.

And lastly, i just want some of your guys' opinion. My team and i recently entered in a competition for Doritos called "Crash the Superbowl" (www.crashthesuperbowl.com) Our spot is called "Live the Flavor" and is steadily making it's way through the playoffs. I think the production quality is above average, however i feel it could be improved. I would like to know how the pros of this forum would change the way it looks if they could, to help it achieve a higher production value. We shot using the HD100 and LetusHD100 using either a 1.8 35mm lens, or 2.0 20mm lens. No lighting was used besides natural lighting due to the extremely limited resources and time.

Thanks a lot everybody...

[Jamon Lewis]

Check out this link

http://homepage.mac.com/jimgiberti/FileSharing5.html

This was shot with the same set up you have at 24p it was compressed to H.264 but is full res size and its pretty good looking to me...but want to ask one question.I have a HD100, I was on my way to getting the Letus but then came across the magnification issue... How serious is it? Have you had to shoot in tight spot where you would need a wide angle lense? I would appriciate any info, that is really my deciding factor, Thanks

BTW That commercial is hot! Look great, dope concept!

[John Benton]

Haha,
Dale that's great.

[Dale Backus]

Hah, thanks guys.

Jamon, thanks for the link... i'm about to check it out right now. The letus does have that one small issue, yes. But we haven't really run into any situations where it really hindered us. I'm not saying that it may never be a issue in the future, but so far it hasn't been so bad.

We have a 20mm wide sigma lens that we got for pretty low cost - about 420 bucks, and with magnification it comes out to about a 36mm, which isn't super wide by any stretch but it gets us what we need most of the time.

The catch is this, the letus has DEFINITE upsides and really only one downside, two if you consider the issue with the vibrating vs static ground glass i mentioned earlier. It flips the image, and is one of the only, if not THE only that does that, which is FREAKIN awesome. We only began to realize how much of a benefit that actually was until we started using it. You find yourself in situations in the field saying to yourself, "It would really really suck having to work upside down and backwards right now, or having to lug a field monitor upside down, or whatever." It's other main advantage, which is another very big one, is how it adapts straight onto the camera body, and NOT to the existing fujinon. One of the biggest issues with these 35mm adapters right now is light loss, and they all have them. (I heard about the Brevis not having any or even adding light, but i don't know how this is even possible, and i don't know for sure what it does) But by adapting to the body itself, you gain a stop or two right there. We still invest in quicker lenses, and don't buy anything above 1.8, and found light hasn't ever been an issue thus far. Overall simplicity with the Letus compared to other like the M2 is much better as well. No rails are really necessary or anything, the cost is far less than most, it performs well, and customer service and turnaround is light years ahead of even Red Rock Micro - which is hilarious because Quyen is engineer, builder, and customer service rolled into one and still has a quicker turnaround and customer service than them.

Anywho, that's my two cents on the Letus, and that is why i purchased it.

Just try to think about your history of shooting and what situations you were in most of the time. Was super wide angle a major part of what you did? Unfortunately every 35mm adapter has it's own flaw, and there isn't one perfect one that i know of yet, but the Letus has quite a bang for the buck.

I hope i answered your question, if you need anymore info or want to see some more instances where we used the Letus, let me know. Thanks.

Well actually, go to my site. - www.5pointproductions.com

Go to the portfolio section and look at the Wedding Chapel video - this was with the Letus. The Avcon one was NOT.

Thanks!

[Jamon Lewis]

Dale thanks a bunch man for the informative reply... I was def sold on that Letus until the magnification issue came up (and the lack of the PL mount which really wasn't that big of a deal,well kinda), it was like the thing that made it "Mortal" because like u said the flip, it attaches to the body of the cam directly, the light loss was minimal and Quyen is on point like crazy with the costumer service, i was sold!

As far as application, how i would use it where it may become a problem is for instance im gonna work on this short where a patient is a few feet in front of a window and i would need to shoot back past her (with my back to the window) and have room to have the doctor walk'n in at leaste a lil in the frame... Plus i didn't see too many lenses below 50mm with decent speeds, or decent prices...

But after watch'n the commercial i could see it shouldn't be too much of a problem. The shot where the guy drive'n grabs the bag of Doritos out of the seat, did u actually do it with the door open, what lens did u use and how far away was the camera?

BTW I check your site out, GREAT STUFF MAN!!! Really inspiring, GOD Bless you!

[Dale Backus]

Thanks for the support - glad to hear you like our stuff... still needs work, but each and every time we embark on a project, we come out the other side with somethin cool and a whole lotta learned stuff.

The shot with the guy grabbing the doritos, was in fact shot with the door open. It would've have been impossible to get that shot any other way. The camera itself is a decent length and when you put in the lens with magnification, there's no way. You just have to make other things work.

One thing we have REALLY learned in the past couple weeks alone... and something that is helping us dramatically, is learn how to CHEAT when shooting. Move things around, add things in to make scenes look more interesting, resort to alternative methods any time you can to make the shot better. Like the shot at the end of the Wedding Chapel commercial with the slow dolly of the building. Those flowers you saw were actually stacked up on a pile of foamrubber to get them in the shot... people driving by on the road behind us probably thought we were nuts!

Anywho.. i'm by no means an expert and we're still learning so much, but this is something that just recently clicked for us and has made a huge difference.

If you want to see a few more behind the scenes details on the Doritos shoot, go to www.5pointproductions.com/doritos.html

Hope this helps!

Dale

[Dale Backus]

Oh, and for the shot by the window, try opening the window and getting outside and shooting in, or if it's up on a higher level, have everything, even the objects in the room move back some...

It's worth the money saving to have to cope with the magnification in my opinion. Also, check eBay for wider and faster lenses. We've never spent more than 500 on a lens and have a 20mm, 35mm, and 50mm, all of which are 1.8 or quicker f-stop - which looks GREAT. We use Nikon. Also the Letus has support for Canon and Nikon, which is sweet...

[Jamon Lewis]

No doubt Dale thanks for the info, it really turned the corner for me on this adapter fight that i've been have'n for months now... Letus it is! GOD Bless you and all your projects!

[Miklos Philips]

I’m researching this adapter with intent to buy and have a couple of questions.

How much light is lost in the relay in terms of F-stops?

How do you guys use a follow-focus system if any on the Nikon lenses? Is there some adjustable geared ring one can put on the lenses that you're aware of? (I plan on getting a whole lot of gear from Cavision; Matte-Box, French flags, Follow-focus, rod-system, hand grips, etc. as shown on this page with the HD100, albeit with the stock lens: http://www.cavision.com/matteboxes/4...4x4bellows.htm)

Thanks!