Letus35/Redrock shootout
 

Having both adapters at my studio, I'd like to submit a side by side comparison of the two units. I'll be testing the units on Sony pd170s. Sorry no 24p. If there's no objections, I'll start Monday.

Contact me by email regarding how to obtain upload privs to our online image gallery.

Awesome, this needs done.

when do you plan on having this done? I'd love to see how they compete in imaging.

Ordering, cost and arrival
 

Ok, let's start at the begining. Delivery time. Micro35 is around 12 weeks. The Letus 35 is around 1 week. Cost: Micro35 I spent $ 906.17, Letus $ 300.00. Both took paypal and accepted credit cards. Both companies were very responsive to email inquires. Sometimes Quyen of Letus would answer within minutes of a question! When the Micro35 arrived, packaging was exceptional. There is definately a "wow" factor when unpacking the Micro35. The construction, and the fit and finish are top notch. The packaging for the Letus was sufficient for safe arrival, but offered no "wow" when unpacking. That's OK in my book, efficient and low cost is good. The Letus is made from an extruded aluminum tube, extrusion marks and all. The fit and finish is a bit rougher than the Micro's, but it's 1/3 the cost. My initial gripe with the Letus is that inside the adapter is shiny aluminum! I always thought everything inside an optical pathway should be flat black and non reflective. I've since painted the inside of mine flat black.

Oh no! I see an attack of the black paint particle specks coming!

You might want to try an epoxy paint for an application like that. This is sometimes sold as "appliance paint" in hardware stores as it can be used to paint refrigerators and similar things without chipping.

Hey thanks! I'll keep my eyes open for the flakes

How about black magic marker? That stuff has no real substance to make flakes. Also, I am leary of spraying paint inside my adapter as the achromat is glued in place. What's the best paint for the outside? Has anyone tried a black decal/sticker?

Oooohh, I just had an idea. How about black velcro on the inside, the furry stuff, not the prickly side. That way, you get a flat black inside that will tend to trap particles. Any thoughts?

I hope I didn't hijack the thread. I have the Letus35a and have noted the same shortcomings. They don't bother me since I saved so much by putting up with less polish.

Critical GG Focus
 

The next issue is critical focus on the ground glass. Both units had to be critically focused. The Letus was a fairly straight forward operation. The lens mount and the GG are connected together so it is fairly easy to check focus by using a lupe on the ground glass. The Micro35 on the other hand has the ground glass as a seperate unit from the lens mount. So you unassemble the micro, remove the gg, loosen 2 set screws, move the gg to where you think it might should go, tighten the set screws, place gg back into Micro35 box, hook it up to your camera with a monitor (since I can't place a lupe on the gg.) and see if it's in focus. If not, repeat as necessary. In all fairness, it only took around 4 tries. Once the focus is set, you should be OK to go. I finally have some images to post, as soon as I get image posting privilages I'll do so.

Cool can't wait to see 'em.

Ted,
So I guess the makers of the Letus35 needs to step up with painting the inside of their product at least (stop being cheap man!). I said wow too when I opened my M2, I really liked the packaging but hate the idea that I had to open the box to make adjustments. So if something get messed up, then what? send it back and wait another 12 weeks????.

Could you please post some images of the 2 sets attached to your camcorder???.

I haven't used either of these adapters, but I thought I'd weigh in on the whole rods or no rods debate. Our Optura 60 recently took a nosedive that broke off the focusing ring (Why God? Why?), and once the interior was exposed, I was surprised to see how fragile the filter ring assembly was. I previously thought the weak point was the threads themselves, but the whole thing was revealed to be secured by a four metal screws that are just screwed into plastic. It's secure enough for most things, but if other camcorders are manufactured in a similar way (and I'll bet they are), I think you might be taking a big risk screwing something as long as the Letus35 with external lens on there and letting it just hang. That's a lot of leverage, and one good bump -- crack! Not saying the Letus35 isn't a good product. I just wanted to throw this out there as something for consideration.

If you opt for the black one...it's black on the inside. The black is an upgrade.

Link for images
 

Here's the first of several more tests we have planned. It's a lot more time consuming than I had anticipated. Here's the link:
http://www.digital-west.com/adapter.html