New Letus Xl?

[Shane Goodman]

So there is a new xl coming? I was planning on buying one in the next month or two, what's the lead time?

Next issue is lenses, i have a full 35mm nikon set already, purchased an older 50 1.2; but do a fair amount of work where this focal length could be a pain. What are the recs for a wider (maybe 16 or 20?) lens?

Thx and happy holidays...

[Bob Hart]

Shane.


A gold standard lens and associated gold standard price is the Nikon f1.4 28mm, if you want the better fine textural detail you need in the wider shots.

Sigma do a 28mm f1.8 for Nikon which is quite good but a little plasticky and tends to shake when you pull focus.

The 35mm f1.4 is a good one to have but I have also read that it is no better than the newer Nikon f2 35mm at f2.

On the existing Letus35 direct relay models, the 35 and 28 present a closer to the "normal" human field-of-view.

A Nikon 85mm f1.8 auto is a sweet sharp lens, the older manual 85mm f1.4 is also desirable. Some go for the Nikon f1.8 105mm. There is a rare Sigma 135mm f1.8 also the Spiratone which may be earlier build of the same product according to web talk on another forum.

The Sigma for Nikon f1.8 20mm is a handy lens, best at about f4. Now discontinued, there is a 14mm f2.8 Sigma for Nikon. It is a bit soft on wide aperture and tends toward brightness fall-off in the corners with narrower apertures on groundglass work. Nikon also make their own.

The 8mm f3,5 Peleng fisheye for Nikon or Canon is handy for confined locations like limo interiors.

There is contention with some validity, that suggests one should shoot the wide views direct-to-camera to preserve fine textural detail and that there is little advantage to be had using groundglass for ultrawide imaging due to the inherent deep depths of field associated with these lenses.

Others advocate using the wides and ultrawides on groundglass work to preserve the continuity of the look and enable a shallow depth-of-field option for the extreme close-ups.

It really becomes a matter of personal preference.

Your basic set should be 28mm/35mm, 50mm, 85mm, all f1.8 or wider.

Options would be 8mm fisheye, 14mm, 20mm, 105mm, 135mm.

These are my personal preferences. Others may think differently so pay heed to the comments of others especially if they are produced originators and qualified DPs.