Screen grab: test with HD110 and Letus Extreme

[Giuseppe Pugliese]

Our Letus Extreme arrived today, and there was a few issues to be worked out, but this is a screen grab, of a test with a subject in a dark room. The light was a 75w pin light. The HD110 was set to True Color v3 but with the detail set to normal.

The color was done in post, added brown to the low levels and added some contrast and brightness.

the picture is slightly compressed via jpeg, but you get the overall look of what I was trying to achieve.

The Extreme is very hard to use with the HD110, only because you have to mount it to the front of the stock lens (until the relay comes out next month). This was problematic due to there being so many lens elements that needed to be adjusted and set just right for everything to be in focus. I will post the sharpness tests and footage on this thread when they are done.

EDIT UPDATE VIDEO FILES ARE NOW AVAILABLE <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

RIGHT CLICK LINK AND SELECT (SAVE AS)T O DOWNLOAD M2T FILES

http://www.newyorkfilmstudios.com/letusextremetests.m2t




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[David Michnowicz]

Hey Giuseppe,

I am really starting to lean toward a 35mm set up myself, did you do some comparison tests before settling on the Letus? I hear pros and cons of all 4 setups and was wondering if you chose the Letus based on comparison. The DOF in that shot is fantastic.

[Ted Ramasola]

Giuseppe,

Im impressed with the low grain. What mode did you use, 24p?

what is the zoom setting on your fujinon, are you at around 30, between 20 and 40 mark?

What is the 35mm lens that you used?

Ted

[Charles Barreto]

Giuseppe:

how about th screen...I've heard others say that the screen usually does not come totally clean and it is kind of laborious to go in there and clean it with a cotton swab...which in turn brings the possibility of more dust entering the adapter. It seems like a time demanding process...any comments?

I do hear the the Letus guys are fantastic when it comes to customer service...but did you find easy to deal with this problems or a nuisance after paying $1200?

Also, do you know if the relay will be an add on to your adapter or will you have to purchase another specific LetUs HD100 extreme model?

thanks...great grab by the way!

[Giuseppe Pugliese]

Originally Posted by David Michnowicz

Hey Giuseppe,

I am really starting to lean toward a 35mm set up myself, did you do some comparison tests before settling on the Letus? I hear pros and cons of all 4 setups and was wondering if you chose the Letus based on comparison. The DOF in that shot is fantastic.

Yes I did check out the pros and cons of all adapters including the older mini 35 model. The reason why I went with the Letus Extreme is because they will have a relay coming out that will attach the Letus right to the camera body with the JVC mount eliminating the use of the stock lens.

The other reason I went for the Letus is that the device already flips the image upright, I cant bare trying to shoot with all kinds of gimmicks and tricks and large LCD panels right on the camera just to get the image upright.

The 3rd reason I went for the Letus is the fact that they use a VERY large ground glass. This alows you to get the 35mm photography equivalent in your shots instead of the smaller Academy size of the mini35's.

All in all there was tons of factors that came into buying this, the price its also perfect for the device for the overall quality.

Originally Posted by Ted Ramasola

Giuseppe,

Im impressed with the low grain. What mode did you use, 24p?

what is the zoom setting on your fujinon, are you at around 30, between 20 and 40 mark?

What is the 35mm lens that you used?Ted

I was on 24p wide open on both the stock lens and the nikon lens.

The zoom settings are as.....
Focus = 5.5 - 5.8
Zoom = 20 (the marker on the end of the zero in 20)
HD110 F Stop = 1.4
Nikon F Stop =1.4

The Lens was an old Nikkor 50mm 1.4

Originally Posted by Charles Barreto

Giuseppe:

how about th screen...I've heard others say that the screen usually does not come totally clean and it is kind of laborious to go in there and clean it with a cotton swab...which in turn brings the possibility of more dust entering the adapter. It seems like a time demanding process...any comments?

I do hear the the Letus guys are fantastic when it comes to customer service...but did you find easy to deal with this problems or a nuisance after paying $1200?

Also, do you know if the relay will be an add on to your adapter or will you have to purchase another specific LetUs HD100 extreme model?

thanks...great grab by the way!

The ground glass is clean, and there is no lube on it as far as I can tell. You should only clean it by using compressed air.

The Letus is precision milled all of the parts have very little give, but I have this to say...

When I did my tests with my 50mm outside, I could not focus to infinity, in fact couldn't focus past 40 yards, it was all soft when the prime was at infinity. I contacted Letus Direct via email, and the next day, they sent me instructions on how to align the GG inside for the proper back focus. After taking the Letus apart, I moved the screen as they said, and that pretty much fixed the problem.

There is also much more to setup on the HD110 than other cameras, because there are more things to set like back focus on the stock lens. This is the part where you will take your fine tuning to focus on the GG.

The quality is very good, on slower lenses you will still notice light loss, I have an odd nikon 28mm 3.3 and its pretty much unusable indoors unless you have 2-3 500w lights going. So all fast lenses are still a must, they are better anyway.

The light loss will most likely get better once they introduce the HD110 Relay for the Letus. This is an add-on relay lens that will attach to the back of your already bought Letus Extreme. This relay will attach directly to the JVC 1/3 mount on the camera body. The stock lens will not be needed anymore in the mix, thus brightening up your shots a little.

I have shot some more test footage and will post it here shortly. Till then heres some more pictures that might be helpful to you...

EDIT UPDATE VIDEO FILES ARE NOW AVAILABLE <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

RIGHT CLICK LINK AND SELECT (SAVE AS)T O DOWNLOAD M2T FILES

http://www.newyorkfilmstudios.com/letusextremetests.m2t




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[Alan Ortiz]

Looks great Giuseppe! Very sharp, and with a pleasing bokeh. I feel you on that relay. I wonder if it will work with the brevis35...

[Stuart Campbell]

Hi Giuseppe,

You said you went for the Letus because they have a direct relay for the GYHD coming out. Where did you learn of this? I've not been able to find any news of this.

We are keen to purchase a 35mm converter and the Letus Extreme has it's nose in front so far. Should it have a relay for the GYHD200 then it's a done deal.

Thanks
Stuart

[Giuseppe Pugliese]

Originally Posted by Stuart Campbell

Hi Giuseppe,

You said you went for the Letus because they have a direct relay for the GYHD coming out. Where did you learn of this? I've not been able to find any news of this.

We are keen to purchase a 35mm converter and the Letus Extreme has it's nose in front so far. Should it have a relay for the GYHD200 then it's a done deal.

Thanks
Stuart

I have been in phone contact with the developers of the device for some time now and it should be coming out within the next 2 months. On the letus35 website in their "FAQ" section they talk about all the relay lenses they are in production with.

The Relay lens will fit the 100 and 200 series cameras as well as B4 mount, sony 1/2 and others.

hope this info helped.

[Stuart Campbell]

Hi Giuseppe

Cheers for that. Whilst that's good news that they are bringing a relay out, 2 months is a bugger! We were going to use this on an upcoming project we start shooting in May through to December. Maybe if I pester them they can send me a prototype!

It makes you wonder why the likes of Letus have not produced a relay before. The impracticalities of using existing glass behind any converter don't tempt me in the slightest and just seem to attract problems from what I've read. (although many guys here do get some great results with the stock lens)

I've not used any 35mm converters as yet so being able to use one without lenses either side is much more appealing!

Thanks for the info!
Stuart

[Giuseppe Pugliese]

Originally Posted by Stuart Campbell

Hi Giuseppe

Cheers for that. Whilst that's good news that they are bringing a relay out, 2 months is a bugger! We were going to use this on an upcoming project we start shooting in May through to December. Maybe if I pester them they can send me a prototype!

It makes you wonder why the likes of Letus have not produced a relay before. The impracticalities of using existing glass behind any converter don't tempt me in the slightest and just seem to attract problems from what I've read. (although many guys here do get some great results with the stock lens)

I've not used any 35mm converters as yet so being able to use one without lenses either side is much more appealing!

Thanks for the info!
Stuart

Yes the wait is a long one, I have already spoken with them and they only have one prototype that they will not part with under any circumstances ( I tried hard, with money!)

They did have an HD100 relay before, it had a horrible light sensitivity and a zoom factor as well. The new one will be 1 :1 and much faster. The stock lens is a pain in the ass if you are using any 35mm adapter, but I have found you can still get great images through it. Its just uncomfortably long and awkward to deal with that way.

Don't underestimate the stock lenses ability to capture some great shots you can do amazing things when you shoot the right subjects.

[Marc Colemont]

Giuseppe,

You wrote: 'The Extreme is very hard to use with the HD110, only because you have to mount it to the front of the stock lens'
Does this mean you can use this Letus adapter in combination with the Stock lens to create the needed DOF?

[Chris Leong]

yes.
but with the new relay lens the whole affair will become much shorter and therefore, IMO, manageable for practical operations.
The Letus setup adds around 24" to the total length of the kit, when you include a matte box, etc, and seriously unbalances the camera with its standard lens on.

[Marc Colemont]

Sorry, I'm not familiar with the 'relay lens' abbreviation. Is that the short lens I see on some photo's which is located in between the camera body and the Letus?

[Chris Leong]

yes, that's it.
It's a short lens that relays the image from the Letus's GG to the camera. Available in "a few weeks".

[Giuseppe Pugliese]

Originally Posted by Chris Leong

yes, that's it.
It's a short lens that relays the image from the Letus's GG to the camera. Available in "a few weeks".

Hey chris, did you hear " a few weeks" from the guys? i keep hearing different dates every week lol. It's got to be hard for them, so many people nag them everyday.

So yes the camera does get a bit long, I dont use a matte box with the letus only because its so long and front heavy theres no way to handle it properly.

I have a film shoot this weekend with the setup, Ill post the footage as soon as its getting edited. Ill also post photos and video from on set and behind the scenes stuff.