Letus35 Mini Problem

[phoric]

Updates Below! LetusDirect Support completely unresponsive!

I recently received my Letus35 Mini and have been doing some testing with it on my Canon HF100. I'm having an issue with a very dark portion of the frame on the right side of the adapter. This is in addition to the normal vignetting. With a lens attached, the entire right side of the image is quite dark compared to the left side, even when zoomed in well past the borders. It seems that almost no matter how much I zoom in, the right portion of the screen remains dark.

Here is an image of what I see through the camera and adapter without a lens attached. You can see the grain of the ground glass, and the dark bluish area in question is on the right side:



Does this look normal? I've tried the setup procedures several times, checking for any possible misalignment etc. It seems like there may be some kind of internal alignment problem. Or is there something I'm doing wrong? The adapter is brand new.

Thanks for your help.

[NathanTaylor]

It's called a unique camera flaw. Use it to your advantage.

[bluegrass]

My setup with the Letus Mini showed a slight alignment offset of where the camcorder lens focuses on the gg. I have read that this is pretty common so I just zoom until the gg frame is out of view. You seem to indicate though that the dark area is not the outer edge (frame) of the gg. If it isn't, I have no idea what you're seeing.

I have been able to improve the alignment of the camera to the adaptor a little by loosening the allen screws on the adaptor and holding the adaptor in a better alignment while tightening the screws again.

Could you show us some shots with the 35mm lens off the adaptor and the camera's zoom all the way out so we can see the alignment of the gg frame within the frame of the video?

[phoric]

Could you show us some shots with the 35mm lens off the adaptor and the camera's zoom all the way out so we can see the alignment of the gg frame within the frame of the video?

There is no lens attached in the photo I show above. It's not zoomed quite all the way out, but you can see the gg in the photo (the pink/white portion of the image). Surrounding that is a black area which is the gg frame. Inside of that frame, and covering a portion of the right side of the ground glass, is a bluish-hazy shadow, which is causing the dark area on the right side of the video.

With a lens attached, I have to zoom in almost the entire extent of my camera's capability before that shadow disappears completely. Obviously that is not acceptable.

I can take more pics tonight after work if necessary.

[Braceface]

I think you should return it and get a new one. There is a problem with it.

[isnsi]

get it replaced. gg is damaged maybe. an oil stripe on it?

[bluegrass]

I see what you mean now. It's almost like there is something between the gg & the front of the adaptor that is casting a shadow on the front of the gg.

Have you contacted Letus to see what they have to say. That would be my next step. I need to contact them myself when I get through a lot of shooting I'm planning next week. The vibrator on my Letus Mini doesn't like to start and I need to tap on the side of the adaptor to get it going. Please let us know what you find and how Letus support is.

I'm a firm believer that commercial products are only as good as their service and support.

[Braceface]

Yeah. That's what I'm thinking. Hopefully they don't take forever. That is one of the disadvantages of the Letus company. They are so busy that everything takes longer. Twoneil or Jag takes much less time to get stuff fixed/ replaced and they are more readily available for questions.

[isnsi]

heres my finger oil damage on the top my ee-a. amber to a blueish tint but only seen with a cpl. dont mind the absurd amount of dust on it.

[phoric]

I have a support ticket opened with Letus. Today I got a reply saying they were forwarding my photo to the engineers to see what they have to say. We'll see what they come back with... It's brand new and I've never even filmed anything with it, so I better be able to get a replacement.

[phoric]

So here is a bit of an update. I'm dealing with Letus Direct. The issue is still not resolved.

I sent the adapter in about a week and a half ago. When they received it the next day, they said they could simply zoom past the dark shadow area and it would no longer be visible. They offered to post video of what they were seeing on their end. After I replied and asked them to do that, and asked if this was normal, I did not hear anything more for 8 or 9 days. Last night I sent another e-mail asking for an update. Now they are just saying that there is nothing wrong, that it's probably a problem with my camera, and will be sending the adapter back to me.

How can a camera cast a definitive shadow onto the ground glass?? I am now asking them to please post video of what they are seeing, as they originally offered, before sending it back to me. I don't want to waste my time and money and just to have them send it back to me if there is still something wrong with it.

From what I gathered from them at first, from you guys, and from other Letus users, this is not normal. Especially in low light situations, the vignetting caused by this shadow on the GG is massive. From my several days of testing, I can't simply "zoom past it" to make it go away. It still causes vignetting. It seems to me they are just trying to place blame somewhere else and don't want to deal with it.

Now I am sending an e-mail to the manufacturer in Beaverton OR, also asking if this is normal performance for a $1,100 adapter. This represents more than a month's rent for me, so I want to make sure I'm getting what I paid for.

[bluegrass]

I noticed in your first post you posted what appears to be a still camera shot of the lcd display on your camcorder. When you get the adapter back and get it all setup, could you please grab a few stills from some footage you shoot through the adaptor so we can better see what you are talking about. What I see in your initial photo looks very much like what I see when I'm zoomed out all the way. My dark area is on the left though and not on the right like yours is. The reason for that is the camcorder simply doesn't focus dead center on the GG screen. That I consider a normal varience.

If I were you I would think that you could mount a lens on your adapter before you mount it to the camcorder and just see if you see a dark area. Something that you've said really bothers me. It appears evident that Letus has very poor support and service. I'm afraid if this is the case, I won't puchase an adapter for my second camcoder from them even if they do have a slightly superior adaptor versus others. It angers me very much to hear what you said. My little experience with them about some support I needed right after I purchased mine was similiar. No response or a long time in responding. That just doesn't cut it with me. If anyone here has any suggestions on how to let them know that their support is not cutting it and we won't be recommending them to anyone, please post your suggestion here. To me, they are bordering on just a few steps from going out of business. Your post is definitely a sign of their weakness in the field of adapters no matter how good of an adapter they make.

ps - after hearing your story about their support, I believe I may continue to wack on the side of my adapter to get the vibrator vibrating rather than ship it back to them for repair. Since it happens about 50 percent of the time, it would be my luck they power it on and it works, than get an email telling me that nothing is wrong with it.

[phoric]

Bluegrass, I will definitely keep you up to date. I haven't received a reply to my latest e-mails yet, so we'll see what they do. I also asked to be sent a replacement unit. Since this one is brand new, and there is supposedly nothing wrong with it, then what do they have to lose?

If they are really just that busy, I can understand that. And it's a good thing I don't have project deadlines or something. But surely they should be interested in having good relationships with customers, most of whom are amateur hobbyists and therefore are spending big chunks of their own paycheck on their products.

If this indeed turns out to be entirely normal for all Letus Mini adapters, and it's a learning curve issue on my part (or something), then fine, they can send it back... But even they originally said that this problem was "strange", and that the images I sent do not look normal. That's what is scaring me. Even if I could "zoom past it" to get around the problem, like they are suggesting, why should I be expected to settle for a new unit that is possibly defective out of the box?

[phoric]

Still no response from LetusDirect. Also no response from the manufacturer. Almost another week gone by, and nada. I have a feeling they ignored all my support requests and have mailed the adapter back. What a waste of time and money! All I'm asking is that they hold themselves to their product and their promises to post comparison videos. Unbelievable.

[bluegrass]

It's ashame when the manufacturer of a pretty good product falls down because of poor support. A company should make good support be part of their business plan. I guess the only thing to do is mount a campaign asking them for quality support of their products. I will write them a letter and perhaps others here, who have purchased one of their products would do the same. Please keep us informed. They are definitely off my list for recommended dof adapters unless they can show me a reason not to.

[patrykrebisz]

I'm experiencing the same "issue" but just assumed that it was part of the rig -- on mine the camera doesn't even centers on the glass and is way off to the bottom left, so when i zoom in i still have to deal with the black edges of the adapter on bottom and left long after the dark discoloration disappears.

Crappy manufacturing. Definitely wouldn't recommen Letus to anyone out there - i bough it for a dramatic production when we'll never go for perfect crisp images (so vignetting is something desirable, but still it shouldn't be there).

[jehugarcia]

Guys Guys, i found what your problem is, I'm looking at a Letus Mini i have here and looking trough it with my eye, if i center my eye on the achromat lens the image looks evenly lit the entire frame, But once i start rotating or viewing it at an angle that mysterious dark line appears.
So it is very clear that the problem is that the cameras cmos censor is not aligned with the threads, and that is what is causing your problem.

Now if i can figure that out with my super super busy escuedule, Letus should too.
Letus is a good product, nicely built, precision optics, nice sharp picture for what i've seen so far, Its really a supprise why they cant recreate this same problem on their shop and find a solution.

If it was me I would just get Another camera, as i would not be wanting to get rid of an awesome adapter, but thats just me.

[DSvideo]

if jehu is right then you're better off with a brevis because theirs adjusts that problem

[bluegrass]

There is no way I'm getting rid of my Letus because the cmos in my camera is not perfectly centered to camera's lens. I just zoom past the problem. I'm just saying I can't recomend Letus anymore becuase of their lack of and poor quality support after the sale. I'm sure there sales will fall off drastically as people find out they don't support their products very well. Hopefully they will eventually put 2 & 2 and correct their support flaws.

[phoric]

Well apparently my adapter is in the mail on the way back to me.

Has anyone attempted to shim the unit so that it aligns with the sensor correctly?

[steve]

I don't know anything about the HF100. But I thought the Letus mini was designed for cams like the HV30 or does it matter?

[phoric]

I don't know anything about the HF100. But I thought the Letus mini was designed for cams like the HV30 or does it matter?

It's supposed to be designed for all small cameras with a 37mm or 43mm filter thread.

[Igor Babic]

Letus is probably ok as I have seen in my tests. I have marked center of frame and left/right 35mm gg size, and this goes thru letus wright where it should be. It is very well made like Jehu says and is shame that you wanna throw it away. Its your camera that causing problems, and it is very hard to make universal adapter. But...

I have spend last week solving same problem with EX1 and LEX. I have made some tests and this blue and darker right side come from some part of prisms. Because sensor is off center it looks to a gg in some weird angle and sees some edge of optical image system. I have made adapter ring to allow better xy positioning of EX1 to LEX. When I was trying to position camera against LEX to compensate for off center, blue and darker right side first slightly disapear then comes back again. Camera is still off center. (better then before but still not good enough, it has to be moved 2mm more to the left to be on the spot, and I have moved already about 7mm!)

Here is some very radical aproach to the same problem:
http://exposureroom.com/members/DARA...b07bb39e69a48/
this not for regular DIY as Bob Hart says but probably solves those problems better.

Letus support:
I have contacted them about this problem and they respond after few days saying that they have some problems with ticket system, but now is solved and they will respond faster. They provide me links to solving/explaining those issues.
http://support.letusdirect.com/?linkact=kb&i=6&c=C1
http://support.letusdirect.com/?linkact=kb&i=45&c=C1
and if I need more control over adapter capabilities I need to upgrade it to elite or ultimate, or zoom more in to the picture, because a lot of their users have same issues and use their adapter with just more zooming in.

[phoric]

It is very well made like Jehu says and is shame that you wanna throw it away. Its your camera that causing problems, and it is very hard to make universal adapter.

I never suggested that I want to throw it away. Nor has it been established that my brand new camera is the problem. I don't care if it's "very hard to make universal adapter", that is why I paid $1,100+ for a supposedly professional company to do it for me. My main concern at this point was that even Letus support said that the issue was "strange". Then they change the story and say it's perfectly normal, and then simply use delay tactics and avoid the issue, week after week, until I give in. They have also refused to post example video clips as they had promised, because they "haven't gotten around to it yet". They said they have footage on a DV tape. But they still won't post it. Sounds fishy to me. If I have a defective product, then it needs to be fixed, replaced, or refunded, and that's all there is to it. Not "oh sorry theres an issue, theres nothing we can do, we're busy, just zoom past it and it will go away". That's not the attitude of a company who cares about their product and customers.

In any case, it looks like I'll be getting the adapter back today, so I'll be doing more testing with it. I'm also a still photographer and am getting a Canon 5D Mark II by the end of the year, and am looking forward to playing with the video mode. The low light capabilities look pretty impressive.

[bluegrass]

Keep us posted on what happens with your Letus. I'm also anxious for you to give us a review on the Canon 5D Mark II. At $2700 it is definitely out of my price range right now. I wonder how long of HD video you can shoot with it. Please post some video you shoot with it. I guess with the size of CMOS that is in it, you can have some nice control over depth of field with the right lenes. It also sounds like it will have an extremely good low light capture ability.