Shoot With Or Without Letus Adaptor?

[Mitchell Lewis]

I've been debating all week whether to shoot with our without the Letus adaptor for a shoot this weekend. I'll be capturing highlights from one of our area's premier sporting events, hydroplane racing. Lot's of colorful, high speed boats throwing huge rooster tails running up/down the river. I plan to shoot both video and stills, but I only have one Nikon zoom lens, so if I shoot with the Letus adaptor, I'll be swapping the lens between the EX3/Letus Ultimate and our Nikon D700.

The question is, would the boats look "better" with the adaptor, or is the shallow DOF look not necessary for a sporting event such as this?

Anyone shoot boat racing with their EX1/EX3? Currently, I'm leaning toward not shooting with the adaptor. Although I'd also like to shoot some people shots and the adaptor would be nice for that.

Thoughts? (here's some example photos from a previous event)

[Leonard Levy]

My advice would be to dump the adapter.
I own and love my Letus but there is a time and place for everything.

It will slow you down enormously and in sports speed matters.
It will also limit your ability to use the longer end of your lens which is longer than most 35mm lenses.
If you want low DOF just add an extra ND to the lens and open your Iris, you'll often be at the long end of the lens anyway.

However beware of chromatic aberration at full telephoto on your EX. Shoot some tests first or bring a monitor. This could kill great long shots of boats

[Mitchell Lewis]

Thanks Len! Great advice! (as always) I'll do some tests tomorrow to see how the image looks at full telephoto. I'm guessing that I'll be close enough that I won't have to be zoomed in all the way. We'll see!

Thanks again.