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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

Letus Gimbal

Maz Mawlawi said:
I played with one for a quite a while at NAB...I am pretty impressed by it and will be keeping a close eye on it. As of now this is my favorite gimbal of the bunch especially for the price point. The allsteady 8 was also very impressive, very well built and can support 18lbs. $5300 until tomorrow after that it jumps to $9900 (which seems a little crazy and for that price I wouldn't consider it at all...so hopefully they will keep it $5300).... Finally the ghstabi 14 also another great product for about $5900.
Click to expand...

Happy to hear this. Did you have any fatigue holding it for a long time? I saw from the video that one can hold the Letus gimbal closer to the body.

With every other manufacturer now offering a gimbal, it has become very competitive and many of the players who had tasted some amount of success early are going to face the challenges of production, quality control, R&D, customer service etc. Many enthusiasts have jumped into the game, some of them even getting funding through kickstarters, however, when bigger boys are entering the arena the competition is going to be stiff.

I would trust a company like Letus or even a DJI rather than a startup selling a 5k or 10,000 USD model. When a startup goes through funds crunch, either the promoter goes for fishing or filming or playing in the stock market to make money, if not completely ditch the project. Nothing bad about earning money through legal means, however, that means the venture doesn't get full attention of the promoter.

That is why I am keen to see how the gimbal from an established company like Letus pans out. They seem to have a very good concept.
 
Linked video is gone?

Sabyasachi Patra said:
https://vimeo.com/91366669
Not sure how to embed this.
The three axis gimbal is supposed to be priced at 3800 usd but the price is not final. Pricing info at around 6.00 in the video. And the good thing is you can hold it close to your body. Can someone visiting NAB give more updates about this?

Does it have any option to power from V mount batteries?
Click to expand...
 
If the price point on the one axis gimbal is near the $2000 mark i'm getting one for sure.

Perfect compliment to my steadicam. Can't believe no one else has done something similar, the balancing method looks great as well. Well executed.
 
Sabyasachi Patra said:
Happy to hear this. Did you have any fatigue holding it for a long time? I saw from the video that one can hold the Letus gimbal closer to the body.

With every other manufacturer now offering a gimbal, it has become very competitive and many of the players who had tasted some amount of success early are going to face the challenges of production, quality control, R&D, customer service etc. Many enthusiasts have jumped into the game, some of them even getting funding through kickstarters, however, when bigger boys are entering the arena the competition is going to be stiff.

I would trust a company like Letus or even a DJI rather than a startup selling a 5k or 10,000 USD model. When a startup goes through funds crunch, either the promoter goes for fishing or filming or playing in the stock market to make money, if not completely ditch the project. Nothing bad about earning money through legal means, however, that means the venture doesn't get full attention of the promoter.

That is why I am keen to see how the gimbal from an established company like Letus pans out. They seem to have a very good concept.
Click to expand...

The letus one was quite comfortable to hold and incurred less fatigue indeed...very promissing design and well thought of. Power Cables and SDI connection are routed through the L bracket and both motors and Epic are powered by a single v mount.
The DJI ronin was also very well buil built and pretty light (it is one of my favorite now with the Letus...) The ronin can be underslung, over slung and even side slung...it's hard to explain that last position but it's pretty neat and can be quite useful. This is an exciting news for brushless gimbals.... My opinion though is gimbal priced over the $5K is going to have to justify the extra cost as competition is really stiff with lots of good products out there.....the movi (while an awesome product) suddenly seems a bit over priced ;)
 
At least 80% of the reason I decided to attend my first NAB was to look at gimbals in person. Letus wasn't even on my radar when I left home, didn't even know they HAD a brushless motorized stabilizer until I saw this thread Monday night and decided to check it out Tuesday, still not thinking it was going to be in the race. I had been fortunate enough to get informal demos, hands on time, and small group Q & A with owners of both the Movi (Chris) and the H14 (Rory) on Sunday and used my limited available time on Monday outside of an all-day workshop to look exclusively at the Allsteady 7/8. The Movi was never in my legitimate budget range, but it was still great to hold and move around with the unit that is so readily identified with the word "gimbal" and also to see some of the really well thought out advancements that are evident on both the H14 and Allsteady designs. But when I saw the Letus in person, I was blown away by its elegance and refined finish, even at this pre-release phase of development.

I'm not aware of any other stabilizer (suitable for handheld use anyway) that has this design, probably because Letus did not come from the aerial background that the other gimbal manufacturers are coming from. The modalities or conventions that grew out of needing to hang a camera from a helicopter are not in evidence here. To my understanding, the Letus product grew from a "simple" concept to create a (non-powered?) camera cradle that could roll the camera about its own coincident optical and COG axis to use on steadicams to maintain perfect horizon at all times to a two axis pan and roll platform (or tilt if you orient the camera perpendicular to the platform), employing brushless motors. Then it moved to the seemingly afterthought 3-axis concept displayed at NAB. The president of Letus, Hien Tu Le (a funny guy with very dry sense of humor), told me he was up until 5:30 AM Monday morning literally soldering wires into the third axis motor in his hotel room. A few of the tilts I tried (though not all) introduced some rude vibration in the third axis (tilt), and that speaks to the lack of the product's overall maturity that Chris pointed to. But Hien said the amount of vibration was significantly less on Tuesday, when I tried it, than it had been the day before, simply because he'd been able to spend a few hours Monday night actually tweaking the software/firmware for that motor. He said the issue would completely disappear with additional tweaking time, and I see no reason why it shouldn't, given how smoothly the other two axes performed.

I'm no engineer, but the core differences in the Letus design versus others seem to me to be:

(1) Its coincident location of optical center with center of gravity and the related decision to achieve balance by adding tiny counterweights at close moments rather than deal with adjustments to joints or parts at greater distances from the payload COG, which magnify changes and complicate balancing.

(2) The decision to support the camera from "underneath", i.e., to lose the hanging design that needlessly lowers overall camera height by a good foot or so and that magnifies the torque and fatigue the rig places on your shoulders. This is achieved by making the imaginary line that runs through the center of the handle hubs the same as the horizontal line running through optical and gravity centers. The result is a move from the natural "crotch shot" level of the Movi and similar stabilizers to something around chest height and a significantly less stressful, more comfortable experience holding the camera.

(3) Related to #2, the removal of what I found to be the annoying visual "clutter" and bulky back end of the hanging design by getting rid of all that hardware above the camera and by significantly shrinking the extension of the hardware in back of the camera. The load being that much closer to your body also explains why this rig induced less fatigue.

(4) The decision to support conventional power ports, connectors, and sources. While this may be a negative for those wanting to fly their gimbals on copters, I was quite attracted to the fact that this unit is designed first and foremost to run BOTH the gimbal and your camera off of an AB/V-mount battery belt clip wired to the back of the unit, fed through a slip ring in the center of the rear motor, and distributed to the camera platform via lemo (a 2 to 6 pin lemo adapter would be required for Epic connection). I'm not sure, but I seem to recall there being one accessory port of lower voltage offered inside the camera platform as well (for powering wireless devices). Having HD-SDI distributed through the slip ring is also tremendous.

Not shown but part of the final design is to have 1/4-20 mounting holes on the top of each handle to allow monitor mounting and other accessory mounting. And since the left handle passively rotates about its axis, its orientation can be completely independent of the position of the right handle, which is the one used to control the tilt of the gimbal in single operator mode. So you can keep a monitor in proper orientation for viewing while manipulating gimbal position and while controlling tilt with the right handle.

I have no remote crane head (not counting the heavy Kessler Cinedrive head, with its just-announced joystick module finally providing it some functionality as a "live" tool). So one of the most important aspects of a gimbal for me is its ability to function as a remote crane head. I think the Letus self evidently lends itself better than any other gimbal to that application, and it would appear to be a breeze to quickly set up and take off via a quick release.

In my initial excitement over the many brilliant mechanical aspects of the design, and partly because of my own ignorance of most of the electronic technology and options used in gimbals, I didn't even start inquiring about interfacing with an external joystick unit for two operator wireless control, etc. until my second visit to the booth just before closing Tuesday. If I understood Hien correctly, the unit as shown only offers bluetooth connectivity at present and only WIRED control with a joystick via the joystick port on the back. But by the end of our conversation and my expressed concern about not being able to split operational duties between camera operator and gimbal operator via an affordable wireless joystick integration, he said he would be incorporating RC into the production unit that would then offer wireless compatibility with a variety of analog joystick controllers.

I see why Chris is skeptical. Hearing things like that makes me think there's no way this product could possibly be ready to ship in 4 weeks, as Hien indicated it would be to me and other curious visitors to the booth. I made the point to him that I don't CARE about shipping in four weeks. I would rather it ship in four months with as much care and attention as necessary devoted to making its full functionality and features as spectacular as other aspects of its design.

So we'll see what actually happens. To the extent this is a "gamble," it's one I'm prepared to make. But in addition to my own favorable impressions of Hien, I met several other people who spoke very highly of the company. I knew of them, of course, and mainly associated them with being among the very earliest to offer 35mm lens adapters to DV camera users back in the day. I've not followed their product development, but it's nice to hear good things about their service. If Hien's time estimates are much too "optimistic," he won't be the first. If not, I'm going to have a shiny new gimbal in about a month.
 
Elizabeth Lowrey said:
At least 80% of the reason I decided to attend my first NAB was to look at gimbals in person. Letus wasn't even on my radar when I left home, didn't even know they HAD a brushless motorized stabilizer until I saw this thread Monday night and decided to check it out Tuesday, still not thinking it was going to be in the race. I had been fortunate enough to get informal demos, hands on time, and small group Q & A with owners of both the Movi (Chris) and the H14 (Rory) on Sunday and used my limited available time on Monday outside of an all-day workshop to look exclusively at the Allsteady 7/8. The Movi was never in my legitimate budget range, but it was still great to hold and move around with the unit that is so readily identified with the word "gimbal" and also to see some of the really well thought out advancements that are evident on both the H14 and Allsteady designs. But when I saw the Letus in person, I was blown away by its elegance and refined finish, even at this pre-release phase of development.

I'm not aware of any other stabilizer (suitable for handheld use anyway) that has this design, probably because Letus did not come from the aerial background that the other gimbal manufacturers are coming from. The modalities or conventions that grew out of needing to hang a camera from a helicopter are not in evidence here. To my understanding, the Letus product grew from a "simple" concept to create a (non-powered?) camera cradle that could roll the camera about its own coincident optical and COG axis to use on steadicams to maintain perfect horizon at all times to a two axis pan and roll platform (or tilt if you orient the camera perpendicular to the platform), employing brushless motors. Then it moved to the seemingly afterthought 3-axis concept displayed at NAB. The president of Letus, Hien Tu Le (a funny guy with very dry sense of humor), told me he was up until 5:30 AM Monday morning literally soldering wires into the third axis motor in his hotel room. A few of the tilts I tried (though not all) introduced some rude vibration in the third axis (tilt), and that speaks to the lack of the product's overall maturity that Chris pointed to. But Hien said the amount of vibration was significantly less on Tuesday, when I tried it, than it had been the day before, simply because he'd been able to spend a few hours Monday night actually tweaking the software/firmware for that motor. He said the issue would completely disappear with additional tweaking time, and I see no reason why it shouldn't, given how smoothly the other two axes performed.

I'm no engineer, but the core differences in the Letus design versus others seem to me to be:

(1) Its coincident location of optical center with center of gravity and the related decision to achieve balance by adding tiny counterweights at close moments rather than deal with adjustments to joints or parts at greater distances from the payload COG, which magnify changes and complicate balancing.

(2) The decision to support the camera from "underneath", i.e., to lose the hanging design that needlessly lowers overall camera height by a good foot or so and that magnifies the torque and fatigue the rig places on your shoulders. This is achieved by making the imaginary line that runs through the center of the handle hubs the same as the horizontal line running through optical and gravity centers. The result is a move from the natural "crotch shot" level of the Movi and similar stabilizers to something around chest height and a significantly less stressful, more comfortable experience holding the camera.

(3) Related to #2, the removal of what I found to be the annoying visual "clutter" and bulky back end of the hanging design by getting rid of all that hardware above the camera and by significantly shrinking the extension of the hardware in back of the camera. The load being that much closer to your body also explains why this rig induced less fatigue.

(4) The decision to support conventional power ports, connectors, and sources. While this may be a negative for those wanting to fly their gimbals on copters, I was quite attracted to the fact that this unit is designed first and foremost to run BOTH the gimbal and your camera off of an AB/V-mount battery belt clip wired to the back of the unit, fed through a slip ring in the center of the rear motor, and distributed to the camera platform via lemo (a 2 to 6 pin lemo adapter would be required for Epic connection). I'm not sure, but I seem to recall there being one accessory port of lower voltage offered inside the camera platform as well (for powering wireless devices). Having HD-SDI distributed through the slip ring is also tremendous.

Not shown but part of the final design is to have 1/4-20 mounting holes on the top of each handle to allow monitor mounting and other accessory mounting. And since the left handle passively rotates about its axis, its orientation can be completely independent of the position of the right handle, which is the one used to control the tilt of the gimbal in single operator mode. So you can keep a monitor in proper orientation for viewing while manipulating gimbal position and while controlling tilt with the right handle.

I have no remote crane head (not counting the heavy Kessler Cinedrive head, with its just-announced joystick module finally providing it some functionality as a "live" tool). So one of the most important aspects of a gimbal for me is its ability to function as a remote crane head. I think the Letus self evidently lends itself better than any other gimbal to that application, and it would appear to be a breeze to quickly set up and take off via a quick release.

In my initial excitement over the many brilliant mechanical aspects of the design, and partly because of my own ignorance of most of the electronic technology and options used in gimbals, I didn't even start inquiring about interfacing with an external joystick unit for two operator wireless control, etc. until my second visit to the booth just before closing Tuesday. If I understood Hien correctly, the unit as shown only offers bluetooth connectivity at present and only WIRED control with a joystick via the joystick port on the back. But by the end of our conversation and my expressed concern about not being able to split operational duties between camera operator and gimbal operator via an affordable wireless joystick integration, he said he would be incorporating RC into the production unit that would then offer wireless compatibility with a variety of analog joystick controllers.

I see why Chris is skeptical. Hearing things like that makes me think there's no way this product could possibly be ready to ship in 4 weeks, as Hien indicated it would be to me and other curious visitors to the booth. I made the point to him that I don't CARE about shipping in four weeks. I would rather it ship in four months with as much care and attention as necessary devoted to making its full functionality and features as spectacular as other aspects of its design.

So we'll see what actually happens. To the extent this is a "gamble," it's one I'm prepared to make. But in addition to my own favorable impressions of Hien, I met several other people who spoke very highly of the company. I knew of them, of course, and mainly associated them with being among the very earliest to offer 35mm lens adapters to DV camera users back in the day. I've not followed their product development, but it's nice to hear good things about their service. If Hien's time estimates are much too "optimistic," he won't be the first. If not, I'm going to have a shiny new gimbal in about a month.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the awesome write up. Much appreciated.
 
Elizabeth Lowrey said:
At least 80% of the reason I decided to attend my first NAB was to look at gimbals in person. Letus wasn't even on my radar when I left home, didn't even know they HAD a brushless motorized stabilizer until I saw this thread Monday night and decided to check it out Tuesday, still not thinking it was going to be in the race. I had been fortunate enough to get informal demos, hands on time, and small group Q & A with owners of both the Movi (Chris) and the H14 (Rory) on Sunday and used my limited available time on Monday outside of an all-day workshop to look exclusively at the Allsteady 7/8. The Movi was never in my legitimate budget range, but it was still great to hold and move around with the unit that is so readily identified with the word "gimbal" and also to see some of the really well thought out advancements that are evident on both the H14 and Allsteady designs. But when I saw the Letus in person, I was blown away by its elegance and refined finish, even at this pre-release phase of development.

I'm not aware of any other stabilizer (suitable for handheld use anyway) that has this design, probably because Letus did not come from the aerial background that the other gimbal manufacturers are coming from. The modalities or conventions that grew out of needing to hang a camera from a helicopter are not in evidence here. To my understanding, the Letus product grew from a "simple" concept to create a (non-powered?) camera cradle that could roll the camera about its own coincident optical and COG axis to use on steadicams to maintain perfect horizon at all times to a two axis pan and roll platform (or tilt if you orient the camera perpendicular to the platform), employing brushless motors. Then it moved to the seemingly afterthought 3-axis concept displayed at NAB. The president of Letus, Hien Tu Le (a funny guy with very dry sense of humor), told me he was up until 5:30 AM Monday morning literally soldering wires into the third axis motor in his hotel room. A few of the tilts I tried (though not all) introduced some rude vibration in the third axis (tilt), and that speaks to the lack of the product's overall maturity that Chris pointed to. But Hien said the amount of vibration was significantly less on Tuesday, when I tried it, than it had been the day before, simply because he'd been able to spend a few hours Monday night actually tweaking the software/firmware for that motor. He said the issue would completely disappear with additional tweaking time, and I see no reason why it shouldn't, given how smoothly the other two axes performed.

I'm no engineer, but the core differences in the Letus design versus others seem to me to be:

(1) Its coincident location of optical center with center of gravity and the related decision to achieve balance by adding tiny counterweights at close moments rather than deal with adjustments to joints or parts at greater distances from the payload COG, which magnify changes and complicate balancing.

(2) The decision to support the camera from "underneath", i.e., to lose the hanging design that needlessly lowers overall camera height by a good foot or so and that magnifies the torque and fatigue the rig places on your shoulders. This is achieved by making the imaginary line that runs through the center of the handle hubs the same as the horizontal line running through optical and gravity centers. The result is a move from the natural "crotch shot" level of the Movi and similar stabilizers to something around chest height and a significantly less stressful, more comfortable experience holding the camera.

(3) Related to #2, the removal of what I found to be the annoying visual "clutter" and bulky back end of the hanging design by getting rid of all that hardware above the camera and by significantly shrinking the extension of the hardware in back of the camera. The load being that much closer to your body also explains why this rig induced less fatigue.

(4) The decision to support conventional power ports, connectors, and sources. While this may be a negative for those wanting to fly their gimbals on copters, I was quite attracted to the fact that this unit is designed first and foremost to run BOTH the gimbal and your camera off of an AB/V-mount battery belt clip wired to the back of the unit, fed through a slip ring in the center of the rear motor, and distributed to the camera platform via lemo (a 2 to 6 pin lemo adapter would be required for Epic connection). I'm not sure, but I seem to recall there being one accessory port of lower voltage offered inside the camera platform as well (for powering wireless devices). Having HD-SDI distributed through the slip ring is also tremendous.

Not shown but part of the final design is to have 1/4-20 mounting holes on the top of each handle to allow monitor mounting and other accessory mounting. And since the left handle passively rotates about its axis, its orientation can be completely independent of the position of the right handle, which is the one used to control the tilt of the gimbal in single operator mode. So you can keep a monitor in proper orientation for viewing while manipulating gimbal position and while controlling tilt with the right handle.

I have no remote crane head (not counting the heavy Kessler Cinedrive head, with its just-announced joystick module finally providing it some functionality as a "live" tool). So one of the most important aspects of a gimbal for me is its ability to function as a remote crane head. I think the Letus self evidently lends itself better than any other gimbal to that application, and it would appear to be a breeze to quickly set up and take off via a quick release.

In my initial excitement over the many brilliant mechanical aspects of the design, and partly because of my own ignorance of most of the electronic technology and options used in gimbals, I didn't even start inquiring about interfacing with an external joystick unit for two operator wireless control, etc. until my second visit to the booth just before closing Tuesday. If I understood Hien correctly, the unit as shown only offers bluetooth connectivity at present and only WIRED control with a joystick via the joystick port on the back. But by the end of our conversation and my expressed concern about not being able to split operational duties between camera operator and gimbal operator via an affordable wireless joystick integration, he said he would be incorporating RC into the production unit that would then offer wireless compatibility with a variety of analog joystick controllers.

I see why Chris is skeptical. Hearing things like that makes me think there's no way this product could possibly be ready to ship in 4 weeks, as Hien indicated it would be to me and other curious visitors to the booth. I made the point to him that I don't CARE about shipping in four weeks. I would rather it ship in four months with as much care and attention as necessary devoted to making its full functionality and features as spectacular as other aspects of its design.

So we'll see what actually happens. To the extent this is a "gamble," it's one I'm prepared to make. But in addition to my own favorable impressions of Hien, I met several other people who spoke very highly of the company. I knew of them, of course, and mainly associated them with being among the very earliest to offer 35mm lens adapters to DV camera users back in the day. I've not followed their product development, but it's nice to hear good things about their service. If Hien's time estimates are much too "optimistic," he won't be the first. If not, I'm going to have a shiny new gimbal in about a month.
Click to expand...

Well Done!!!

I feel that, while interesting, the Letus 3ax is a bit fussy for the real world. For me watching the DJI Ronin flip upside down and sideways without crapping the bed was that "there ya go" moment
 
Looks interesting. Does anyone know if it's going to have a top handle or if there's a way to attach one? I like the ability of the Movi type rigs to get really low. And the top handle may facilitate certain hand off situations. But I love the versatility of having the lens axis roll in this Letus unit. Especially if it's mounted on a crane. It's like a mini Power pod. Nearly unlimited movement options.

It seems that it needs something like bar that arches over the top. Almost like a fig-rig. Even as an accessory. Which would allow for a top handle and also a crane or helicopter mount. I'm probably not thinking this through fully... But that's my first thought.
 
Elizabeth Lowrey said:
At least 80% of the reason I decided to attend my first NAB was to look at gimbals in person. Letus wasn't even on my radar when I left home, didn't even know they HAD a brushless motorized stabilizer until I saw this thread Monday night and decided to check it out Tuesday, still not thinking it was going to be in the race. I had been fortunate enough to get informal demos, hands on time, and small group Q & A with owners of both the Movi (Chris) and the H14 (Rory) on Sunday and used my limited available time on Monday outside of an all-day workshop to look exclusively at the Allsteady 7/8. The Movi was never in my legitimate budget range, but it was still great to hold and move around with the unit that is so readily identified with the word "gimbal" and also to see some of the really well thought out advancements that are evident on both the H14 and Allsteady designs. But when I saw the Letus in person, I was blown away by its elegance and refined finish, even at this pre-release phase of development.

I'm not aware of any other stabilizer (suitable for handheld use anyway) that has this design, probably because Letus did not come from the aerial background that the other gimbal manufacturers are coming from. The modalities or conventions that grew out of needing to hang a camera from a helicopter are not in evidence here. To my understanding, the Letus product grew from a "simple" concept to create a (non-powered?) camera cradle that could roll the camera about its own coincident optical and COG axis to use on steadicams to maintain perfect horizon at all times to a two axis pan and roll platform (or tilt if you orient the camera perpendicular to the platform), employing brushless motors. Then it moved to the seemingly afterthought 3-axis concept displayed at NAB. The president of Letus, Hien Tu Le (a funny guy with very dry sense of humor), told me he was up until 5:30 AM Monday morning literally soldering wires into the third axis motor in his hotel room. A few of the tilts I tried (though not all) introduced some rude vibration in the third axis (tilt), and that speaks to the lack of the product's overall maturity that Chris pointed to. But Hien said the amount of vibration was significantly less on Tuesday, when I tried it, than it had been the day before, simply because he'd been able to spend a few hours Monday night actually tweaking the software/firmware for that motor. He said the issue would completely disappear with additional tweaking time, and I see no reason why it shouldn't, given how smoothly the other two axes performed.

I'm no engineer, but the core differences in the Letus design versus others seem to me to be:

(1) Its coincident location of optical center with center of gravity and the related decision to achieve balance by adding tiny counterweights at close moments rather than deal with adjustments to joints or parts at greater distances from the payload COG, which magnify changes and complicate balancing.

(2) The decision to support the camera from "underneath", i.e., to lose the hanging design that needlessly lowers overall camera height by a good foot or so and that magnifies the torque and fatigue the rig places on your shoulders. This is achieved by making the imaginary line that runs through the center of the handle hubs the same as the horizontal line running through optical and gravity centers. The result is a move from the natural "crotch shot" level of the Movi and similar stabilizers to something around chest height and a significantly less stressful, more comfortable experience holding the camera.

(3) Related to #2, the removal of what I found to be the annoying visual "clutter" and bulky back end of the hanging design by getting rid of all that hardware above the camera and by significantly shrinking the extension of the hardware in back of the camera. The load being that much closer to your body also explains why this rig induced less fatigue.

(4) The decision to support conventional power ports, connectors, and sources. While this may be a negative for those wanting to fly their gimbals on copters, I was quite attracted to the fact that this unit is designed first and foremost to run BOTH the gimbal and your camera off of an AB/V-mount battery belt clip wired to the back of the unit, fed through a slip ring in the center of the rear motor, and distributed to the camera platform via lemo (a 2 to 6 pin lemo adapter would be required for Epic connection). I'm not sure, but I seem to recall there being one accessory port of lower voltage offered inside the camera platform as well (for powering wireless devices). Having HD-SDI distributed through the slip ring is also tremendous.

Not shown but part of the final design is to have 1/4-20 mounting holes on the top of each handle to allow monitor mounting and other accessory mounting. And since the left handle passively rotates about its axis, its orientation can be completely independent of the position of the right handle, which is the one used to control the tilt of the gimbal in single operator mode. So you can keep a monitor in proper orientation for viewing while manipulating gimbal position and while controlling tilt with the right handle.

I have no remote crane head (not counting the heavy Kessler Cinedrive head, with its just-announced joystick module finally providing it some functionality as a "live" tool). So one of the most important aspects of a gimbal for me is its ability to function as a remote crane head. I think the Letus self evidently lends itself better than any other gimbal to that application, and it would appear to be a breeze to quickly set up and take off via a quick release.

In my initial excitement over the many brilliant mechanical aspects of the design, and partly because of my own ignorance of most of the electronic technology and options used in gimbals, I didn't even start inquiring about interfacing with an external joystick unit for two operator wireless control, etc. until my second visit to the booth just before closing Tuesday. If I understood Hien correctly, the unit as shown only offers bluetooth connectivity at present and only WIRED control with a joystick via the joystick port on the back. But by the end of our conversation and my expressed concern about not being able to split operational duties between camera operator and gimbal operator via an affordable wireless joystick integration, he said he would be incorporating RC into the production unit that would then offer wireless compatibility with a variety of analog joystick controllers.

I see why Chris is skeptical. Hearing things like that makes me think there's no way this product could possibly be ready to ship in 4 weeks, as Hien indicated it would be to me and other curious visitors to the booth. I made the point to him that I don't CARE about shipping in four weeks. I would rather it ship in four months with as much care and attention as necessary devoted to making its full functionality and features as spectacular as other aspects of its design.

So we'll see what actually happens. To the extent this is a "gamble," it's one I'm prepared to make. But in addition to my own favorable impressions of Hien, I met several other people who spoke very highly of the company. I knew of them, of course, and mainly associated them with being among the very earliest to offer 35mm lens adapters to DV camera users back in the day. I've not followed their product development, but it's nice to hear good things about their service. If Hien's time estimates are much too "optimistic," he won't be the first. If not, I'm going to have a shiny new gimbal in about a month.
Click to expand...

Awesome write up! Thanks for sharing your thoughts in such a detailed and meticulous manner.

This design looks original and different from all other gimbals. I also found this video from cinema5d: https://vimeo.com/91576190
 
Just when I thought lighter cameras were going to be the new norm, Aja and BMD release ~10lbs+ "monsters". I'm starting to question the viability of gimbals... No budget productions will use DSLRs and the 2.5k or BM4k -- as in cameras prime for gimbals -- while low-budget projects will use the heavier "mid-range" cameras (like the Cion and Ursa), which can NOT be flown on gimbals...

Kind of makes the Epic the only viable "high-end" digital cinema camera that can be rigged on a gimbal...
 
The camera landscape is getting interesting thats for sure. The Sony A7s could be an interesting unit for gimbal work depending on the video that comes out of it or the GH4 as well... lots of options. I for one am looking at rigging options for my scarlet to minimize weight. I hope its compatible with one of these 1 axis gimbals. I also hope the price-point for the thing is closer to $2k than $3k .
 
Quyen and Hien Le. Masters of ideas out of the left field.

I wish you guys good luck with this one and hope it propers for you.
 
Seems like a good fit for Steady-Cam. Very well built and unique
 
Elizabeth Lowrey said:
ETA another piece from Teradek with Hien and Aaron, of Letus:

https://vimeo.com/91758075
Click to expand...
I have been watching these videos multiple times. I am highly impressed. The ability to strip the three axis Letus to one axis and put it in a monopod is amazing. Wish I had this with me for a feature film that I am shooting early next month.

In the above video they say that they have been working on this concept for the past three years. That is why it is the only original design apart from the MoVI. Finally made up my mind that I will definitely buy this one once it is released.
 
What is the build quality of the unit like and what is the camera weight capability please.
 
Dave Blackham said:
What is the build quality of the unit like and what is the camera weight capability please.
Click to expand...

The build quality overall is VERY impressive. They are very confident to say it will carry 16 lbs, although for a really well balanced unit, it would be higher since, when the care is taken to completely balance all three axes about the COG, the amount of torque needed to move the camera on any axis becomes tiny, literally one finger can spin it. My own impression is that the aluminum bridge forming the undercarriage for the camera platform and the handles would be the "weak" point, and only because it is relatively wide (no problem using an Epic with side handle) and not all that thick or deep, plus lots of material removed to keep weight down. But it never flexed at all or felt like it wasn't adequate, so this is just my lay supposition.

Going above 16 pounds might be relevant for other uses, as on a crane, perhaps, but, as a practical matter, it shouldn't be an issue with handheld use as no one is going to want to carry that much weight plus the gimbal for very long.:-) Still, this unit was far and away the "lightest" to carry that I tried at NAB, and all because it was more compact, the COG was in line with the axis of the handles, and the bulky back end that you see on the aerial units was eliminated to allow you to hold it closer to your body.
 
Sabyasachi Patra said:
I have been watching these videos multiple times. I am highly impressed. The ability to strip the three axis Letus to one axis and put it in a monopod is amazing. Wish I had this with me for a feature film that I am shooting early next month.

In the above video they say that they have been working on this concept for the past three years. That is why it is the only original design apart from the MoVI. Finally made up my mind that I will definitely buy this one once it is released.
Click to expand...

Ditto. The modularity is a major plus.
 
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