View Full Version : Lovin' my Letus


Jay Sanchez
April 17th, 2006, 12:10 PM
I'm a new owner of a standard non-flip Letus and must admit I'm very impressed. I got a chance to use it this weekend under a wide variety of outdoor conditions.

Here's a DV still using the mid-range of a cheap Vivitar zoom on a DVX100a in letterbox mode, 24pA.
conditions: heavy overcast, 35mm zoom lense wide @ 4.5 (yikes !)

No CC
http://www.stickypod.com/videos/data/551/janNoCC.mov

With CC
http://www.stickypod.com/videos/data/551/janLS.mov

This a short clip but large clip showing the DOF of a 35mm lense that is not wide open but still shows a range of the DOF. Not everything is video tack sharp. But the plane of focus is apparent and not too shallow.

http://www.stickypod.com/videos/data/551/panleftkidsQTfromAvid.mov

It is a huge 69mb file @ native DV compression using a Tokina 28-200.
Conditions: sunny but under a pavillion, mid range on the zoom @ an f8-f11 split. In this situation, the adapter definitely flattens out the DVX's already factory flat settings.

I have still yet to experiment with boosting sharpening or saturation on the DVX while using the Letus.

I just got the Tokina from adorama for less than $50 to replace the slower and more telephoto vivitar, and use my mint Nikon 50mm 1.4 for portraits and interviews. I like the wideness of the the 28mm Tokina but the MOD is 10 feet ! But, even the lesser glass still looks decent/good especially when shooting in the mids of their apertures.

If anyone's interested, I can post clips/stills of the letus with the better Nikon glass under a tungsten lit interview setting and different outdoor conditions with the zoom. Any recommendations for compression for proof/viewing purposes? The clip is from an export from Avid using the ntscDV codec. The stills are apparently being recompressed upon export through AE.

Jay Sanchez
April 17th, 2006, 03:09 PM
Here's is the same clip compressed via H.264

about 31 mb

http://www.stickypod.com/videos/data/551/panleftkidsh264.mov

Mike Glover
April 18th, 2006, 02:55 PM
Just a suggestion.. don't use extreme color correction so much that it doesn't look realistic.
just my 2 cents.

btw, glad you got your letus!

Rene Hinojosa
April 18th, 2006, 03:21 PM
I was gonna say that as well.

Tony Tibbetts
April 18th, 2006, 05:14 PM
Realistic? Because all movies are realistic. Relax people, it's just someone having fun with their letus and color correction. It's a bit like trying on shoes.

Mike Glover
April 18th, 2006, 05:39 PM
it's not like i meant in to be mean.

Jay Sanchez
April 19th, 2006, 07:06 AM
No offense taken folks, really ! -- thanks for the comments -- and yes it's just me having fun experimenting with Magic Bullet, A/B 'ing, and seeing what I can do with a naked Letus image.

Anyway, right now I'm concerned with the codec that I'm using to export from AE back into Avid -- (see my post in the editing for PC, I wouldn't want to cross post).