Brevis vs. Letus35A

[Greg Bates]

The Letus flip was great until I got my HVX, at 720p you can see every bit of grain on the gg as it just does not vibrate enough to disperse the grain. The Brevis is very well put together and polished as a product. I'm waiting on the filp module now...Dennis:) I wish Quyen would upgrade the glass as my Letus Flip is collecting dust.

[Frank Hool]

Originally Posted by David Delaney

The problem is that PS will never come down in price. It will always be overpriced and the first out there. We just need to concentrate on making lower prices unit that match that quality.

Yeah, and same time having exactly same quality issuses than cheaper ones.

[Paul Nordin]

I've not used the Brevis, but have used the PS many times & the Red Rock adapter several times on features and music videos. Firstly, I can totally agree with the statement that quality matters. I was shocked at the lack of control and adjustability and repeatabilty in the Red Rock unit. The PS has far fewer of those limitations, and is much more bullet proof. And more importantly, the PL mount adapter on the PS is -great- compared to the Red Rock. At least that's my findings. I'm very interested in the Brevis as it seems to have better build quality and a positive and repeatable connection chain between camera body and lens. I just wish they too had a PL mount adapter so I could use good Zeiss superspeeds without the slr lens breathing.

[Dennis Wood]

Ben, thanks for posting that review. I'm always looking for ways to improve the adapter, and feedback like this is very important. The noticeable threshold of vibration is pretty much directly correlated with dampening mass...meaning heavy cams like the HVX will "feel" a great deal less than cams like my GS400. You can increase dampening mass by just using the rails and rails adapter, which works very well with my setup. Having said that, we are working on bringing down oscillation amplitude, with a corresponding increase in frequency...

We'll be stocking the first of the interchangeable diffuser kits in about 2 weeks which I'm guessing will inspire a flurry of creativity :-)

We do have a PL mount by the way. I just haven't posted it on the catalogue yet. It's not cheap :-(

[Soeren Mueller]

Sorry for "hijacking" this thread ;) .. but what about the Go-35 Pro? What kind of achromat does it use? The only thing I know is that it's using a pure static GG... but does anyone know the quality of the achromat used? Is the bokeh ok/good? How much light loss?

Jeez it's really getting harder and harder to follow all those different 35mm adapters currently out there especially since every one of them seems to be improved/changed/replaced by a new revision every week! *sigh* :-/
Although the M2 is really one of the weaker ones in terms of quality it has one "advantage" (really, I'm not kidding ;o) : it's design was not changed since they started selling it!
Of course this means: hey bad, it's not being improved.. but from a consumer/user point of view it's sort of an up side too... you know what you get and that it's not totally "worthless" and outdated 2 weeks later....... :(

[Dennis Wood]

Soeren, the Brevis basically went from the beta design, to the Rev2. Every change was motivated by user feedback and field testing to make it extremely durable, (go ahead and drop it if you like!), as user friendly as possible, completely portable, and still offer uncompromised image quality. It will not be changed as far as design goes anytime soon. We'll just be adding mounts, diffuser options, and the flip module. These are all designed to be modular...meaning they will work with all of the Rev2 adapters. For that matter, a DVX100 user who purchases the adapter, then upgrades to an 82mm HD cam, will need to change nothing except for an 82-72 step ring. We already have 2 diffuser options in production, and likely one more in short order.

[Soeren Mueller]

Dennis, I know.. I already wanted to explicitely exclude your adapter from my rant. :-D
The Brevis is currently the only really promising adapter (besides the Digi35 - especially for european users - but it's still sort of vaporware) ... so if I currently was to buy one I would certainly get the Brevis. Nevertheless the Go-35 Pro sounds interesting too.. but I haven't seen or heard much (tech specs/info) about it yet.. so that's why I was asking. The newly posted test shot looked good... but I need more info. :)

Btw Dennis do you still ship with the RR (HD) achro or any news about your own achromat?

[Dennis Wood]

Ah, the achromats. Stay tuned.

[Michael Maier]

Originally Posted by Soeren Mueller

Sorry for "hijacking" this thread ;) .. but what about the Go-35 Pro? What kind of achromat does it use? The only thing I know is that it's using a pure static GG... but does anyone know the quality of the achromat used? Is the bokeh ok/good? How much light loss?

Jeez it's really getting harder and harder to follow all those different 35mm adapters currently out there especially since every one of them seems to be improved/changed/replaced by a new revision every week! *sigh* :-/
Although the M2 is really one of the weaker ones in terms of quality it has one "advantage" (really, I'm not kidding ;o) : it's design was not changed since they started selling it!
Of course this means: hey bad, it's not being improved.. but from a consumer/user point of view it's sort of an up side too... you know what you get and that it's not totally "worthless" and outdated 2 weeks later....... :(

I’m not sure the M2 is one of the weaker ones in terms of quality. You say this based on what? Image quality? Build quality? The build quality seems to be one of the best, certainly better than the Letus line and some of the new stuff popping up every week on the “whatever35 let’s make a penny” bandwagon. The only ones to compare to the M2 in build quality are the Brevis and SGpro.
Image quality same thing. Besides the SGpro and Brevis not much else to compare.
But I know what you mean about losing track with so many options coming out every week. What was a frustrating lack of option situation back when the P+S was the only way became an annoying race for making a buck over desperate young “independent filmmakers”. It seems there’s now even a 100 bucks adapter option out there. Jeez, might as well just buy a broken SLR for $5 off ebay and shoot through the viewfinder.
The thing about M2, Letus and SGpro is that they have been here from the beginning, they have helped to develop the whole affordable market and the products and not just jumped in when it has proved to be profitable offering more of the same.

[Phil Bloom]

I could really do with some help.

I want a 35mm adaptor for my z1/ a1.

I am torn between them all. I want quality/affordability

I like the idea that the Brevis will have a flip module coming out for it. Will it be soon and will it just be on new models or will it work on one I buy now. Also how long do they take to arrive generally. The sgpro lead time is almost 2 months.

Thanks

[Wayne Kinney]

Phil,

The SGpro lead time is currently 1 month (ship Beginning of November).

[Dennis Wood]

Phil, the upcoming flip module will work with existing units.

[Alex Chong]

Originally Posted by Greg Bates

The Letus flip was great until I got my HVX, at 720p you can see every bit of grain on the gg as it just does not vibrate enough to disperse the grain. The Brevis is very well put together and polished as a product. I'm waiting on the filp module now...Dennis:) I wish Quyen would upgrade the glass as my Letus Flip is collecting dust.

Hi Greg, Any latest news on your HVX seeing grains with the Letus flip? Is this still a problem and do you think this is a problem inherent with all HDcam when used with vibrating GG like the Letus or other Adaptors? Thanks.

[Victor Burdiladze]

Where do I order any of these later version adapters?
I mean, Letuse35 website doesn't even show LetusXL and go-35 hopefully will be running soon.
some of the adapter websites need apdates as well...

[Jim Lafferty]

If anyone's interested in learning about the Go35, just email me. My girlfriend leaves for Japan in a week, and with the time alone I've got coming to me, I intend to update the site with a ton of info.

Meanwhile, if you're interested in asking anything: info@go-35.com

I'm currently accepting pre-orders for October 6th release date of a new revision of the adapter -- features a diffuser with even less grain than the beta and early release units. The pre-orders come with a 10% discount, incidentally, provided you reserve yours by October 1st.

For Soeren and others -- the Go35Pro uses a high quality coated achromat. Light loss is just under two stops, maybe close to 1.5. Grain is, with good exposure, pretty much non-existent up to f/4.0 for first gen. HDV cams (e.g. FX1); for DV cams like the DVX, I've shot up to f/11 on a sunny day and looking over the footage haven't noticed much difference between that and f/2.0 footage from the same shoot.

Bokeh, while subjective, I would say is as close to film as you can possibly get with the Go35Pro. I have a series of shooters who confirm this, having had a lot of film shooting under their belt.