These shots are with and without the Letus35 Flip Enhanced adaptor on my Canon XH-A1 HDV camera. Subject was standing 6 feet in front of camera. Everything was shot at 1080p 24fps at 1/48 shutter.
There are notations on the bottom right corner of the pictures as to what lens was used and if the adapter was on or not. Overall I'm impressed with the results. BTW, these stills are directly from the raw footage - no color correction or color grading has been done whatsoever...
You can really see the shallow depth-of-field (DOF) in the shots with the adapter. This give the footage a much more cinematic feel. We found that with the adapter and SLR lens on it is rated at approximately 50 ASA - very slow (2 1/2 stops of light loss). And with the adapter off it was rated around 300 ASA.
I will be posting more information and video from this test soon.
-Blake
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10 comments to "Letus 35mm Adapter Test"
Anonymous says:
Cool results. That's a lot of light loss. If you use it outside that's not so much of a problem, but inside becomes challenging!
Russ says:
It looks like the footage with the Letus adaptor is a bit desaturated as well. The reds are down a bit.
Anonymous says:
Apparently depth of field tests hurt the test subject...a lot.
Blake Calhoun says:
LOL. She had her sunglasses on but we had her take them off and it was bright, so... yeah, she didn't look happy. :)
Lucas says:
i don;t quite understand, if there is light loss how come both the images with and wthout the adaptor looks as bright?
thanks for the test.
yowsiang
Blake Calhoun says:
We compensated for the exposure with the Letus by turning off the ND and setting the iris more open. All the Letus shots were no ND and all the non Letus shots had ND on and a slightly different exposure reading to make them match. It was figured out with a light meter to be roughly 2 1/2 stops difference.
Anonymous says:
Wow... great results!!! thanks for sharing.
What rods, matte box, etc. did you use with the XH-A1?
thanks
Blake Calhoun says:
Thanks for checking out the footage. I actually used no rods or mattebox for the main shooting. On the grad shots we did use an inexpensive Cokin mattebox system with plastic filters - really designed for DV, no HD, but they looks descent. I think it added noise in the grad area though. But again, for the main shoot with the Letus 35mm adapter we used no rails or matte box system. Just the adapter (which is pretty cool).
Anonymous says:
whats your opinion about the different adapters out there like Redrock,sgpro and letus?which one do you find the most prefferable out of these and why?
Blake Calhoun says:
I personally like the Letus adapter the best. I've explored other options and found it to be the easiest to work with (it flips the image), the sharpest, and the most "real" looking DOF. Other adapters often seem soft (on the subject) even when in focus, also the DOF is so shallow that it can look somehow fake. The new Letus Extreme is what I'd recommend now. It only loses 1/2 stop of light and of course flips the image and has excellent glass.