Can't wait!!! :)

I want one...now!!!

Maybe this is a silly question, but can someone explain the advantage of having the Letus in a relay configuration? How is it superior to the standard fixed lens + Letus configuration? Does it let in more light? I use a PD170 + Letus35a, and I'm starting to feel vaguely jealous of the XL... ;)

Excellent work, Quyen!

The adapter looks great. But my opinion is that it won't be superior in anything. Maybe less light loss. But sharpness and resolution will most likely be not as good as the Canon 20x. Neither will be level of distortion or chroma. Just think, Canon is a big company with years of experience in optics. If anybody could go out and make a better lens for much less than them for a XL2, everybody would be doing it. Not even Optex, which also had years of experience in optics and actually made lenses adventured in making a lens for the XL series. They knew that to make something good would cost a lot and people would most likely not pay for it. What they did was convert an existing Fujinon lens. A relay lens needs more than just focus the GG image in the CCD. I don't mean to rain on Quyen's parade here. I really hope I'm proved wrong and the relay is awesome and sharp, so I can buy the HD100 version when it comes. But I'm realistic and know of the difficulties of making a lens. Besides if it was easy and cheap, we would have dozens of different companies like Optex (I know they went under), Cavision, Tiffen, Century and even Fujinon or Canon, making a set of primes for the XL series and for the HD100. Because the demand for it is sure there, specially for that cheap. Why do you think we don't have it?
If the flip version was $600 and the XL version will be $800, the relay is $200. For $200 a pop, XL and HD100 primes would sell like hot cakes. You can barely buy some Nikons for this price and a lens for 35mm is much, much easier to make than a lens for 1/3”, specially if you are talking 1/3” HD in the case of the HD100. A lens for the HD100 would have to resolve over 120 lp/mm. That's a though spec to meet. A relay is basically a prime lens designed to focus on a flat plan.
Not really a simple thing.

Oh god Quyen, you are a genius!!! :D
PLEASE make sure you film something to show it off, I can't wait!! I am biting my tongue till it bleeds over here =)

I have faith in you Quyen. :)

Excellent job, looks awesome. The thing that bothered me about a lot of these prosumer D.O.F. adapters is the fact that they added glass on top of glass. Not so with this Xl X2/H1 option.

I would think that since the distance between the ground glass and the CCDs is set and does not change, the lens would be a lot easier to make, i.e. no complex moving parts. All you need really is an achromatic triplet, right?

My thoughts exactly. I would think once you have the proper distances figured out a relay lens is a fairly simple design. Whenever Quyen is ready he has my money.

Glass quality, coatings, resolution and sharpness doesn't really matter then?

How can you say one way or the other. No one has one in their posession to say. Did you read the 24 article? It appears that the Redrock ground glass is better than the PS in the eyes of those distinguished shooters. P+S were in a niche market Mike which only they occupied for quite awhile, but now there are other players on the field...scoring big no less. Hell maybe it is as easy as putting it together, once you get some experience under your belt. Quyen disappears for months at a time working on his projects, and I don't even want to guess what he spends in R&D. I guess my point is that you've been so derogatory of late that appears the old "Michael" has returned, who criticizes everything other people do. Just chill out man if you don't want to play with Quyens toys fine, but note you are always...and I mean always the voice of unreason, and if you think i'm being extreme ask yourself where your post in the brevis thread went.

Yes it does, but you have no idea how well Quyens relay lens will work. A relay lens for all intents and purposes is essentially less complex than an XL series lens. It's less complex than a fixed length SLR lens.

Are you just assuming Quyen is haphazardly designing cr@p, with cr@p materials? That's a bit insulting. I'm willing to bet he isn't and I'll be first in line to get a LetusXL.

It seems to me (and I could be wrong)that Quyen doesn't make much profit from his Letus line of adapters. I think he does because he has a passion for it. I think alot of the cost of the adapters goes into the materials.

The guy works hard (you think these adapters are manufactured in a factory of some sort?) and is constantly improving upon his designs. For you to come in here and denounce it as cr@p before you've even used the adapter yourself, and before you've seen any footage, is downright rude and a little petty.

Please stop arguing until I post some footage. I will try to get my computer working so I can get some frame grabs or footage. I also wait to use my final product to get footage, so you will have an idea how your adapter will perform when you place an order. Please be patience, thanks.

Quyen

Thats wonderful news Quyen =)

I am certain I speak for all of us when I say you have our profound and deepest respect, and we are all looking forward to see the outcome of your hard work =)

Cheers!

Andreas Rylander

I've just purchased the 35xl, yesterday, that you see on Quyen's homepage at adapterplace.com.

I haven't had time to play with it yet but what I've seen in the dof was pretty good.

The adapter mount for my Nikon lense was a little lose but a quick fix with some electricians tape gave it a nice snug fit.

The vibration for the gg seems undetectable during recording, although the vibration is pretty strong for two AA batteries. You can see the difference in picture quality when the unit is on.

The screw on thread to the camera is nice. Fit's perfectly. You can pull the unit out and realign the unit for the camera. This only needs to be done once. After that, screwing the unit in and out of your camera is not a worry.

The look of my FX-1 with my RMC Tokina 35-105mm lense makes it look more like some experimental military rifle. The weight of my letus 35 and lense weighs more than my FX-1.

I've tried attaching my camera with the adapter and lense onto my Velbon tripod and it held nicely. I was suprised and pleased at how well the Letus35xl held up. I was afraid I would need some sort of rod system to use this system. If I had a heavier lense, I probably might need a rod system but it seems perfect up to the mid-prof/consumer lenses.

The construction was a little lose when I brought it home last night, from Quyen but by screwing in the screws a little bit more tightly, it's now perfect. Keep in mind that I purchased his beta unit.

Quyen, thank you for responding back so promptly to my questions and I also want to thank Andrew who has always defended the Letus. Between the two of you, it was an easy sell to me. I felt I could trust the product and the man behind the system. And a...Quyen probably has another supporter/defender of the Letus system.

I can't wait to try the system out this weekend!

you must have the letus35 flip i'm guessing?? the letus35xl is only for the canon xl series cams... i got real envious for about 20 seconds though thinking that you already got it :) or maybe you do and i misread


post some footage when you get a chance


and take note of what he said quyen.. and send me a free letus for my cheerleading efforts!!! just joking.

-andrew

Hi Andrew,

Sorry, you're right. It's the flip. I don't have a XL. :)

I'm excited about this. I'm about to head on out to the tv station to show the camera man and get his opinion on it.

hi there,

i bought the letus35 flip.
does anybody know, if it´s possible to "update" it to the xl version?
can i mount only the relay lens, to let the 20x xl lens away?

if i had know that the xl version will come, i would have been waiting for it!
i bought my letus a month ago.
would it be possible to do the update myself?

anybody knows? quyen?

thanks,
alex.jenny

any news yet?

Just checking, but does this work with the XL2 in widescreen mode?

I just went to the shop this morning and they said the parts will be ready tomorrow night. Hopefully everything goes OK. I will start assemble them and will capture some frame grabs and footages. I don't see if any possible problem with widescreen mode, thanks.

Quyen

I would like to see HD footage with the Unit, maybe Canon HDV OR Hd-SDI?

even one jpg frame of HDV or HD-SDI would be all I need

Hi Quyen,


Will your relay-lens offer an nd-filter? Any idea when we'll see some footage?

My adapter uses IRIS instead of ND filter. I am in class today, will try to get some short footage around my house when I have time, thanks.

Quyen

when do you plan on making them available?

It's done and ready, just post some footage and will take order. Keep in mind that it will take a week or 2 to send it out, thanks.

Quyen

awesome .. congrats..cant wait

footage
 

The weather is not that nice for footage but I decide to take some so you can have some idea. only 17 seconds. The part of the piano where I open it to the widest aparture.
http://www.letus35.com/35XLtest1.mpv
I try to keep the frame size, it's mpeg2 compressed, thanks.

Quyen

nice footage.. looks like your relay lens is quite the accomplishment. if anyone else has probs playing the mpv file (it took me a second to get it up) rename it to a .mpg file and play it in win media player.

Thanks Andrew. It's not smart to show off the relay lens adapter in low light but I did anyway. The quality is better in good lighting, thanks.

Quyen

"Not smart?" There's a few other keywords which might be relevent to posting under-lit footage "real world conditions" + "honest".

Bob Hart,

Thanks for correcting me. People, especially people that have played with mini35, may laugh at me saying stupid guy, show footage at low light. This sample footage might turn away some people that interested in Letus35XL. It's better I show this footage here than people later find out that they don't receive what they think it will deliver. I will post some footage with good lighting when the sun is up and shines. We don't have that many days here in Oregon. Most of the time when the sun is there, the camera is out of reach, thanks.

Quyen

Footage looks really good. Quick question is there a flip built into the XL adapter or does it get flipped in post? Also am going to be emailing you in a second with a couple other questions.

its a flip as well.

In my opinion, this looks mighty sweet =)

And I would assume it works perfectly with XL2 in Pal, 16:9, 25p aswell? Cause then my only question would be whether or not to buy this Letus35XL or the flip version for my Canon XL2 Pal... hmm... any thoughts and/or hints people? o_O Cause I am not sure which route would be the best for me?

regards,

Andreas Rylander

For me things are clear : if this Letus35XL is well built I'm gonna buy it. I'm only waiting for Quyen to post some images of his finished product, either on his website or here.
Of course I would like to see some other footage before ordering (post some footage I can open Quyen) but his reputation regarding build- and image-quality is ok.

I think having a relay lens with iris control is such an important improvement. Adding glass on top of glass never seemed a good idea to me : I'm sure Quyen's solution will be more lightsensitive (less lightloss), and less bulkier.

Can't wait to order!

Right, my thoughts exactly :D

I am fairly certain I will make an order =) It appears amazing.

pictures
 

http://letus35.com/35XLpic1.JPG
http://letus35.com/35XLpic2.JPG
http://letus35.com/35XLpic3.JPG
http://letus35.com/35XLpic4.JPG
http://letus35.com/35XLpic5.JPG
http://letus35.com/35XLpic6.JPG
http://letus35.com/35XLpic7.JPG
Thanks.

Quyen

Beautiful! Enough said.