Will Schryver
April 13th, 2008, 03:32 PM
I took delivery of my LetusExtreme a week ago. I've got an XH-A1 to which I have attached it. While I await the arrival of a 28mm and a 85mm lens, I've been using a Canon FD 200mm f/4 and a Canon FD 50mm f/1.4. I've gotten what I believe to be some great images. However, I'm feeling kind of stupid about a few things:
1. I was never able to actually get my A1 to focus in on the grain in the ground glass -- neither manually or with the auto focus. To me, it just looked like a creamy white blur -- no discernible grain per se. So, rather than "marking" a focus point, I just set my A1 to normal auto focus (not the "instant" auto focus which has a sensor external to the lens). I zoom in as desired on the ground glass. Then I manually focus my 35mm lens. If I deem it necessary, I can make minor focus adjustments with the manual focus ring on the A1. But, I confess I haven't had to do that very much. The auto focus seems to do just fine, unless it's a low-light, low contrast situation.
So, my question: am I missing something here? Why do you suppose I can't seem to see any discernible grain in the ground glass? (btw, yes, the motor is OFF when I'm trying to do it!) And even if I did see the grain and was able to preset a focus point (on the A1 it's easy with its set focus feature), why should I care if the auto focus seems to be working just fine?
2. Here is a link ( http://www.mediafire.com/imageview.php?quickkey=mz2zldfjozz&thumb=4 )to a shot of my ground glass with the A1 zoomed out full. Notice that the glass is offset to the right and also tilted down on the right side. How do I go about adjusting to remedy this problem? Especially the slight angling of the glass.
I'm sure I'll have more questions as I go along. I look forward to being able to pick the brains of the experienced people here.
Also, here is a link to some shaky test footage ( http://www.vimeo.com/895932 ) from my first week of experimentation. One thing I concluded already is that my old tripod head is simply not good enough for smooth pans/tilts with the whole A1/Letus/lens/rails rig sitting on it. I've ordered a new, better tripod head (Bogen 516) which will be delivered next week.
1. I was never able to actually get my A1 to focus in on the grain in the ground glass -- neither manually or with the auto focus. To me, it just looked like a creamy white blur -- no discernible grain per se. So, rather than "marking" a focus point, I just set my A1 to normal auto focus (not the "instant" auto focus which has a sensor external to the lens). I zoom in as desired on the ground glass. Then I manually focus my 35mm lens. If I deem it necessary, I can make minor focus adjustments with the manual focus ring on the A1. But, I confess I haven't had to do that very much. The auto focus seems to do just fine, unless it's a low-light, low contrast situation.
So, my question: am I missing something here? Why do you suppose I can't seem to see any discernible grain in the ground glass? (btw, yes, the motor is OFF when I'm trying to do it!) And even if I did see the grain and was able to preset a focus point (on the A1 it's easy with its set focus feature), why should I care if the auto focus seems to be working just fine?
2. Here is a link ( http://www.mediafire.com/imageview.php?quickkey=mz2zldfjozz&thumb=4 )to a shot of my ground glass with the A1 zoomed out full. Notice that the glass is offset to the right and also tilted down on the right side. How do I go about adjusting to remedy this problem? Especially the slight angling of the glass.
I'm sure I'll have more questions as I go along. I look forward to being able to pick the brains of the experienced people here.
Also, here is a link to some shaky test footage ( http://www.vimeo.com/895932 ) from my first week of experimentation. One thing I concluded already is that my old tripod head is simply not good enough for smooth pans/tilts with the whole A1/Letus/lens/rails rig sitting on it. I've ordered a new, better tripod head (Bogen 516) which will be delivered next week.