More Letus Footage

[Glenn Thomas]

I was a bit late downloading this.. Brilliant as always Steven. The music works really well too.

[DJ Lewis]

Wow.... really, Wow.

Steven, you mentioned what lenses you used. Is it fair to assume that the order you listed them is the same order you shot with for this piece?

[Steven Dempsey]

Not really DJ. You can judge the extreme closeups with the very narrow depth of field were shot with the 100mm, the long shots were shot with the 28mm and the medium and medium/close shots were with the 50mm (for the most part, there maybe some variations, I just don't remember)

[Yow Siang]

Hi Steven,
Just curious what kind of support do you use for the letus. If there is no support wouldn;t it damage the thread on your A1?

thanks ys

Originally Posted by Steven Dempsey

Thanks for the comments.

I do not use rails and no follow focus. It doesn't make sense for me because I got the Letus based on how easy it is to just screw on and you are good to go.

Using an external monitor for critical focus, however, is a must for me. I use this Marshall monitor: http://www.lcdracks.com/monitors/vr70phda.html

[Steven Dempsey]

I don't use any support because the lenses I use are small and relatively light. I think the whole thing, including the lens is about 1.25lbs. With a bigger lens, I would definitely use support.

[Nathan Troutman]

Hey Steve, outstanding work. I've enjoyed watching all of your films.

I've also shot with the Letus Flip enhanced on my FX1. The biggest thing I notice in your footage is the same thing I saw in mine - the texture of the ground glass always seems to be there. It isn't terrible and is almost a stylistic thing but I sold my letus and bought a Brevis. I think you should try and check out a Brevis if you get the chance. The Brevis is MUCH BETTER. The ground glass in the Brevis completely disappears, no grain, no texture of the ground glass. And it loses a whole lot less light. And it's constructed much better (not plastic). And it runs off a rechargeable battery. I could keep adding Ands.

[Douglas Villalba]

Originally Posted by Nathan Troutman

Hey Steve, outstanding work. I've enjoyed watching all of your films.

I've also shot with the Letus Flip enhanced on my FX1. The biggest thing I notice in your footage is the same thing I saw in mine - the texture of the ground glass always seems to be there. It isn't terrible and is almost a stylistic thing but I sold my letus and bought a Brevis. I think you should try and check out a Brevis if you get the chance. The Brevis is MUCH BETTER. The ground glass in the Brevis completely disappears, no grain, no texture of the ground glass. And it loses a whole lot less light. And it's constructed much better (not plastic). And it runs off a rechargeable battery. I could keep adding Ands.

...and it costs twice as much and it need to be flipped in post.

Seriously the all have their plus and minus.

[Chris Barcellos]

Originally Posted by Douglas Villalba

...and it costs twice as much and it need to be flipped in post.

Seriously the all have their plus and minus.

Agree with Douglas here.. I am, frankly surprised how now nice the Letus does for the price. In my case, I am not using flip version. My understanding though, is that Cinevate is working on a flip version....

I had wanted to go with the Brevis, just because it looked more, hmmm, classy, but buying the Letus handyman special at $375 with the combo Nikon/Canon mount was just too tempting, and my first months fun with it made it worth the risk....I am shooting it with the HV20 and FX1, and it is working well with both.... With HV20 flip the whole camera with a device I made that is mountable on a tripod, and that works out flip issues, mostly....

[Douglas Villalba]

By the way I don't know if you heard that the M2 is coming out with a flip.

I saw it at NAB in the Panasonic booth and it looked really good.

[Nathan Troutman]

I've owned both. Paying more for Brevis is the difference between home-made and professional. Brevis is much better in every respect but most importantly Brevis produces a better image. The Flip enhanced is brutal with light loss (and $700 vs. $1000 isn't a huge difference in price). With Letus I had to shoot everything wide open and I was still stretching my lighting package. Flipping the image in post is super easy and options to flip during capture are more common. Flipping is just not a meaningful feature to me. Plus you can always shoot with the camera upside down and then your image will correct if it's such a big deal to you. Losing a whole stop more of light is a huge price to pay for such a simple convience. But the texture of the ground glass on the image is the deal breaker for me. With Brevis there is no texture and hardly any light loss - less than a stop. The letus flip enhanced loses at least two stops and I'd rate it 2.5 stops of light. Losing less light makes Brevis so much easier to shoot with.
Everything is a trade off, but there is no question that Brevis produces a better image.

And I bought my Brevis used. I got the Brevis, the Red Rock Macro, the Cinevate rails, & 2 lenses for $800.

[Yow Siang]

Hi Nathan,
Just wondering will we be able to handhold the camera plus brevis setup during filming? say i am using a small 50mm lens? if i do not use rail support will i risk damaging the camera's thread?

thanks
ys

Originally Posted by Nathan Troutman

I've owned both. Paying more for Brevis is the difference between home-made and professional. Brevis is much better in every respect but most importantly Brevis produces a better image. The Flip enhanced is brutal with light loss (and $700 vs. $1000 isn't a huge difference in price). With Letus I had to shoot everything wide open and I was still stretching my lighting package. Flipping the image in post is super easy and options to flip during capture are more common. Flipping is just not a meaningful feature to me. Plus you can always shoot with the camera upside down and then your image will correct if it's such a big deal to you. Losing a whole stop more of light is a huge price to pay for such a simple convience. But the texture of the ground glass on the image is the deal breaker for me. With Brevis there is no texture and hardly any light loss - less than a stop. The letus flip enhanced loses at least two stops and I'd rate it 2.5 stops of light. Losing less light makes Brevis so much easier to shoot with.
Everything is a trade off, but there is no question that Brevis produces a better image.

And I bought my Brevis used. I got the Brevis, the Red Rock Macro, the Cinevate rails, & 2 lenses for $800.

[Nathan Troutman]

Originally Posted by Yow Siang

Hi Nathan,
Just wondering will we be able to handhold the camera plus brevis setup during filming? say i am using a small 50mm lens? if i do not use rail support will i risk damaging the camera's thread?

thanks
ys

No you won't damage the threads. You don't need rails with the Brevis. It's very run and gun friendly especially with small lenses like a 50mm.

[Yow Siang]

wow that means with the brevis HD bundle i am ready to start filming?

One last question which may sound silly... that is can i still use the zoom in my camera when i have such adapters attached? Or i must follow some rules like it should always be set to the widest?

Thanks
yslee

Originally Posted by Nathan Troutman

No you won't damage the threads. You don't need rails with the Brevis. It's very run and gun friendly especially with small lenses like a 50mm.

[Nathan Troutman]

Originally Posted by Yow Siang

wow that means with the brevis HD bundle i am ready to start filming?

One last question which may sound silly... that is can i still use the zoom in my camera when i have such adapters attached? Or i must follow some rules like it should always be set to the widest?

Thanks
yslee

It does sound as though you need some expereince using these adapters. Here's a short explanation and this goes for all of them, M2, Brevis, Letus, SG Pro, Mini-35. The adapter is basically a film frame size piece of ground glass. The ground glass spins (sg pro, M2) or vibrates (Brevis, Letus). All of these units attach to the front of your camera (M2 and SG Pro require rails). You use the zoom on your cameras lens to fill you frame with the ground glass focusing your cameras lens on the grain of the glass. Then you won't change your focus or the zoom of your camera. It stays locked in. You attach a lens on the front of the adapter and you use that for zoomin(if you have a 35mm zoom lens) and focusing. You turn your adapter on and it vibrates the glass or spins the glass making the grain dissappear. The lens in your camera is now kind of out of the picture (pardon the pun). Because you are now recording the 35mm frame from your 35mm lens projected onto the ground glass you record it upside down. Some adapters have a flip option, or you can just flip it in post.

While the image is not as sharp as your camera's stock lens, as you can see from Steven's fine example video in this thread, the image is nothing like video anymore. If you want the film look - this is it.

[Chris Barcellos]

Originally Posted by Yow Siang

wow that means with the brevis HD bundle i am ready to start filming?

One last question which may sound silly... that is can i still use the zoom in my camera when i have such adapters attached? Or i must follow some rules like it should always be set to the widest?

Thanks
yslee

Before I got the Letus, I used a self built. While I had a an achromat for the necessary close focus, I added a 5 inch extension tube which gave me a zoom range on the ground glass image. However, remember, that ground glass image will deteriorate as you zoom on it...so using as much of the ground glass as possible seem prudent to me.