Lloyd Choi
October 23rd, 2005, 12:11 PM
Yes... another Letus35 review... the 35a.
First off, like everyone else has previously uttered, Quyen Le is the best at customer service - the BEST. E-mailing him is almost like instant messaging, and he is very accomodating.
The design itself is where I had my qualms and problems. Very solid yes, but one of the main problems was the screw mount that attaches on to the camera. I own a DVX100a, and I had a 72-58 step down (two actually - 72-67, 67-58). Problem was, the only thing that is holding the screw mount that is on the adapter is only held by one screw, and everytime I tightened it, it slightly popped it out: causing the adapter to have a very slight downward angle. This caused the top of the vibrating thingy in the adapter to be seen in my image.
Another thing is the lens mount. I had a canon lens mount. The problem is that it's PLASTIC. You really have to wedge the lenses in. But I'm sure using the plastic mount is the factor in why the Letus35 is so much cheaper than the M2. If you can Quyen, if the price doesn't go up too much, use metal mounts.
I had a relatively easy time aligning it with my camera, and I recommend putting on the step down rings onto the adapter first, then just screw the whole thing onto the camera.
One other problem I had, probably only applying to DVX users, is that you will always accidentally nudge the sensitive focus ring and sometimes the zoom ring. you have to make sure that it's set on the exact number (mine was Z73 F12)
I couldn't zoom in enough for the bottom and top to be out of the shot. The only way (shooting in fullscreen 4x3) is to zoom in to around z85-90. But you can't focus on the screen when you are zoomed in that much: everything is just blurred. So I had to shoot letterboxed to get rid of the bottom of the vibrating mechanism and out of the shot.
Any way to fix this Quyen? Any other DVX/letus35a users have this problem?
While shooting, the problems I had was the image flip and remembering turn the motor on each time. First, the image flip... I tried the magnet trick on my DVX, and it worked. However, taping it on and having it stay there was a hassle. It kept falling off or moving slightly, and the image would flip back upside down while I was shooting. I eventually found a powerful enough magnet that would just stick to the LCD without any tape - fixed! Yay... Hope it doesn't screw up my camera! Any insight on this?
Second, the motor... I had a tendency to forget to turn the motor on, mainly because I only had the batteries that were in the adapter. I didn't want them to die on me while shooting. Next time I will definately carry spares. But if you don't turn it on, it'll mess everything up. (although, some shots were still usable, as the grain isn't too noticeable)
Quyen: do you know how long rechargeable batteries last on the adapter?
Anyways, this probably shouldn't be a problem for most other people. I'm pretty forgetful...
Another problem people have been having was dust in the adapter. I found a couple specks on the ground glass, and simply just blew it out with compressed air. There are no specks that I can see when the motor is on. I may have just been lucky, as many have had problems with dust appearing on the image.
After this, however... the image is BEAUTIFUL. From what I've seen shooting some footage, this adapter equals the G35 (image wise only, maybe not design wise), and doesn't exhibit the massive amounts of ghosting many of the M2 users have had problems with (also, sans bulkiness of the rod system and big ass box). (Although, don't quote me on this, as I have never used the M2 or G35... only basing this on the footage I've seen online and the footage I shot. From what I hear, the M2 is very solid, but I wasn't impressed with the images)
Everything with the Letus35 is crisp, clean, no colour abberations, the images and colours were sexy. I only noticed a 1 to maybe 1.5 stop light loss, which is not a lot. I was shooting f16 on a cloudy day (in vancouver) with my DVX.
As a final note, this adapter is definately the best out there (in my opinion). I know Quyen is still modifying the adapter to make it better, so I would wait until he is satisfied. But for the price, it is incredible. It's a fun toy and it gives you practice in choosing propers lenses for certain situations and forces you to dolly instead of using zoom, which is good. Prepares the budding filmmaker just a little more for professional scenarios in the future. I also think this adapter increases production value instantly, as it literally looks like film (along with 24p).
Finito.
I will post footage and images today or tomorrow. I'm shooting some more stuff today.
Now... back to midterms and essays! :(
First off, like everyone else has previously uttered, Quyen Le is the best at customer service - the BEST. E-mailing him is almost like instant messaging, and he is very accomodating.
The design itself is where I had my qualms and problems. Very solid yes, but one of the main problems was the screw mount that attaches on to the camera. I own a DVX100a, and I had a 72-58 step down (two actually - 72-67, 67-58). Problem was, the only thing that is holding the screw mount that is on the adapter is only held by one screw, and everytime I tightened it, it slightly popped it out: causing the adapter to have a very slight downward angle. This caused the top of the vibrating thingy in the adapter to be seen in my image.
Another thing is the lens mount. I had a canon lens mount. The problem is that it's PLASTIC. You really have to wedge the lenses in. But I'm sure using the plastic mount is the factor in why the Letus35 is so much cheaper than the M2. If you can Quyen, if the price doesn't go up too much, use metal mounts.
I had a relatively easy time aligning it with my camera, and I recommend putting on the step down rings onto the adapter first, then just screw the whole thing onto the camera.
One other problem I had, probably only applying to DVX users, is that you will always accidentally nudge the sensitive focus ring and sometimes the zoom ring. you have to make sure that it's set on the exact number (mine was Z73 F12)
I couldn't zoom in enough for the bottom and top to be out of the shot. The only way (shooting in fullscreen 4x3) is to zoom in to around z85-90. But you can't focus on the screen when you are zoomed in that much: everything is just blurred. So I had to shoot letterboxed to get rid of the bottom of the vibrating mechanism and out of the shot.
Any way to fix this Quyen? Any other DVX/letus35a users have this problem?
While shooting, the problems I had was the image flip and remembering turn the motor on each time. First, the image flip... I tried the magnet trick on my DVX, and it worked. However, taping it on and having it stay there was a hassle. It kept falling off or moving slightly, and the image would flip back upside down while I was shooting. I eventually found a powerful enough magnet that would just stick to the LCD without any tape - fixed! Yay... Hope it doesn't screw up my camera! Any insight on this?
Second, the motor... I had a tendency to forget to turn the motor on, mainly because I only had the batteries that were in the adapter. I didn't want them to die on me while shooting. Next time I will definately carry spares. But if you don't turn it on, it'll mess everything up. (although, some shots were still usable, as the grain isn't too noticeable)
Quyen: do you know how long rechargeable batteries last on the adapter?
Anyways, this probably shouldn't be a problem for most other people. I'm pretty forgetful...
Another problem people have been having was dust in the adapter. I found a couple specks on the ground glass, and simply just blew it out with compressed air. There are no specks that I can see when the motor is on. I may have just been lucky, as many have had problems with dust appearing on the image.
After this, however... the image is BEAUTIFUL. From what I've seen shooting some footage, this adapter equals the G35 (image wise only, maybe not design wise), and doesn't exhibit the massive amounts of ghosting many of the M2 users have had problems with (also, sans bulkiness of the rod system and big ass box). (Although, don't quote me on this, as I have never used the M2 or G35... only basing this on the footage I've seen online and the footage I shot. From what I hear, the M2 is very solid, but I wasn't impressed with the images)
Everything with the Letus35 is crisp, clean, no colour abberations, the images and colours were sexy. I only noticed a 1 to maybe 1.5 stop light loss, which is not a lot. I was shooting f16 on a cloudy day (in vancouver) with my DVX.
As a final note, this adapter is definately the best out there (in my opinion). I know Quyen is still modifying the adapter to make it better, so I would wait until he is satisfied. But for the price, it is incredible. It's a fun toy and it gives you practice in choosing propers lenses for certain situations and forces you to dolly instead of using zoom, which is good. Prepares the budding filmmaker just a little more for professional scenarios in the future. I also think this adapter increases production value instantly, as it literally looks like film (along with 24p).
Finito.
I will post footage and images today or tomorrow. I'm shooting some more stuff today.
Now... back to midterms and essays! :(