letus35 owners... need cleaning advice

[Michael Maier]

It seems like most Letus35 buyers have had this issue with dirt. You have it in all 3 units you bought. That should clearly point there's a QC problem there. Can't it be troubleshooted and solved? I may be buying one in the near future, but this dirt problem is not a really big turn on. It's not really a nice thing to have to open a brand new unit to clean when you get it. I hope it gets solved.

[Tony Tibbetts]

Okay...I completely forgot that you can take off the front part of the adapter..D'oh!!!

After doing that I wiped off both the surface of the focusing screen and the condenser. Used some compressed air on both and put the adapter back together.

Results? Good and bad.

Good: At first glance some of the specks have disappeared.

Bad: It appears some have just moved elsewhere.

Is there a cleaning solution I can use on the cloth while cleaning off the focusing screen?

Michael,

Yes there are few minor specks of dirt that can be cleaned off, it doesn't make it a bad adapter. You can still get dirt in an M2. Quyen is always helpful when it comes to solving any problems one might have with the adapter. For the price you can't beat it. IMHO I prefer this adapter over the M2. I'll take a few specks of dirt I can clean off over the M2's ghosting issues any day.

[Michael Maier]

Not bashing it really. But this issue is being going on for a little while now. You would think it could have been tracked and solved. But I AM impressed by the latest clips with the Letus35.

[Quyen Le]

Tony Tibbetts

Use dry Q-tip to clean the smooth side, use water to clean the other side and dry it with cotton rich T-shirt. Thanks.

Quyen

[Tony Tibbetts]

Thanks Quyen,

I'll give that a shot.

*update:

Okay, after doing what Quyen said, I was able to remove most of the specks.

Then I took a bit of a risk and used a small amount of windex on the focusing screen.(yes I know you shouldn't use chemicals). but the results turned out quite good. I was only able to spot one small speck in the center of the screen which wasn't nearly as dark as the spots before it. So I think with one more cleaning, the specks will be gone.

[A.J. Briones]

i still have not had time for a cleaning, but it appears that in low light conditions the specks are not as visible. for some reason, they really show up in outdoor shots.

here is some rehearsal test shots for a music video that we plan to shoot for real (with better lighting, multiple locations, audio source to sync to and a few cg shots!) on the 2nd and 6th of november:

http://www.infinite-studios.com/movies/Emily_test.mov

the speck shows up in some places, an example is at 0:13 (to the left of the microphone just over the lead singer's shoulder).

you can also see the unedited, unfiltered clip here:

http://www.infinite-studios.com/movi...y_test_RAW.mov

upon examination, you will see a few specks come in and out of focus.

i'm going to try to take these apart and clean them thoroughly. if i am still getting these issues, i will take you up on your generous offer, quyen. thanks again for the amazing customer support!

[Michael Maier]

What camera? I kind of like better the unfiltered version.

[A.J. Briones]

Originally Posted by Michael Maier

What camera? I kind of like better the unfiltered version.

this was shot with a vx2100. the unfiltered shot looks great, but blown up to full screen on my nle, it was grainy due to lack of light. the filtered version tells us that we need to use a 1k and a fill when it comes time to shoot for real at this location.

[Leo Mandy]

I wrote a small cleaning how-to and gave it to Quyen, don't know if it is up on his site yet, you might check there for info.

The plastic pieces are a product of the Plastic Moulding that Quyen is making. Nothing major, just compressed air to get rid of it.

[Tony Tibbetts]

Tragedy strikes...sorta

Cleaning the focusing screen, contrary to what Mandy says, is not as easy as using compressesed air.

Quyen's method works for the most part. As I stated in my previous post I felt it need another once over, as there was still one speck left. Well my tenacity and sausage fingers got the better of me, I accidentally popped out the focusing screen glass. Not a big deal, but when I tried to put it back in it got chipped and cracked.

Oops...well I was flustered for a few hours and then I remembered a how-to 35mm adapter intsructional that was online. Wherein the person used the frosted dummy CD that comes in some CD spindles as the focusing screen.

Ah HAH!!! After tearing my house apart (I knew I had one somewhere) I found it. Cut it to fit in the space where the original focusing screen went and voila!!!

To my surprise it works exceptionally well. To my eye I can't tell the difference on my 46 inch widescreen Sony TV

Nice and easy way to fix the adapter if something happens to the focusing screen.

[Ben Winter]

Ironically I just opened up my Letus35 because there was (you guessed it) dirt on the ground glass. As I was in there, the ground glass popped out of the frame. When I was trying to put it back in it cracked into two pieces.

Sigh....


So I had to take my Nikon D screen and glue it in where the ground glass once was. I get amazingly good results, and because of the Nikon D's built-in lens I no longer have a need for the PCXL lens that was in there, which takes down the heft a bit and the complications should I drop the unit. However, it's--you guessed it--dirty, so I have to go back in there again. The D screen is a good bit heavier than the GG that was in there is, so the vibration motor is going to need a power boost.

Yuck.

[A.J. Briones]

that's funny, because that's exactly what happened to me the very first time i opened it up to clean it. i put it back with the chipped part that was, thankfully, on the outer perimeter of the gg and out of the field of view.

question: are these just held in via friction or should they be glued on?

[Quyen Le]

On the recent units, I glued them on. You can put glue on if you want it to hold on tight. If anybody need replacement for GGs, please let me know, thanks.

Quyen

[Chad Schultz]

I'm suprised I didn't break my GG. It fell out when I was cleaning the unit and I could not figure out how to get it to sit back in it's hole. I was pushing on it pretty hard for awhile until i noticed a tiny slit on the backside of the hole it sits in.

Also, a WARNING to everyone who is taking their adapters apart, DO NOT remove the white plastic legs from the little rubber boots that hold them in place. I thought it would fun to take everything apart, but it took me about 30mins to force one of them back in. I had alot of blisters and almost destroyed the rubber piece but I got it back in there.

[Ben Winter]

I echo that statement. I actually broke one of the legs--thank goodness for hot glue.