Welcome to our community

Be a part of something great, join today!

Log in
  • 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

Sabyasachi Patra said:
Hi Elizabeth,
There are complete papers about consumer behaviour in marketing and this is not the forum to talk about it. Nevertheless I am pretty confident that if Letus talks about 15K list price with 10K discount or 10K with 5K discount or whatever, it won’t get many people to buy.

MoVI was a special case. The unprecedented hype created by Vincent Laforet can’t be matched. MoVI was the first to offer such a value proposition. So there was no benchmark about pricing. So there were people who bought at 15K. MoVI still continues with its Premium Pricing strategy and occupies premium positioning in the minds of people. So it will remain successful for sometime, unless it stops innovating and differentiating its products from others.

Many corporates employ a Market Skimming strategy. So they launch a product at one price point and when at that price point they have got all the consumers, they lower the price either by lowering list price or giving discounts and reach the next level of customers.

Some follow cost plus pricing. However, this pricing is not cast in stone. For example, if there is huge demand and the company has to set up new lines ie incur capital investments, then it has to recoup from its sales. So often the companies try to sell some new variants at a different price level and calculating actual product variantwise profits become difficult.

Some companies want to penetrate the market and employ an attractive pricing to attract new customers. A company like Letus entering the market after a year of MoVI and many other gimbals, has to find customers who have not already bought would benefit from using the market penetration pricing strategy. With each passing day the overall market size becomes smaller as they are competing with many gimbals in the market. The price will fall rather than go up till there is the next level of disruptive innovation.

If you would have looked at the Kickstarter of the gimbals at 5K + USD did you see many people buying it at that price? Do you think Letus wants to sell only a handful of gimbals? Ofcourse Letus brand is more well known than those Allsteady, Ultimate7 etc.
However, is Letus a premium brand like OConnor, Arri etc that it can go for premium pricing? The perception already associated with a brand matters a lot. So anyone who is talking about pricing at the level of MoVI and offering 10K discount is not aware about consumer behaviour. Even if companies like Arri and OConnor are to enter this market, they won't have that euphoria generated like MoVI. The market, or major parts of the market has moved.

The gimbal wars will intensify. Any company which doesn’t grab consumers in the immediate term will face a big challenge. Redusers form a good and vocal group who will serve as good ambassadors. So special pricing for redusers is important to lock them into Letus ecosystem. I am using the word ecosystem because someone can now buy one axis or three axis and lateron buy other stuff to make it 4axis.

Also many people who would have not bought a gimbal now, would get attracted to buy one immediately if there is a special discount. That is the attraction of group buys in reduser and it also gives the company a lot of tailwind.

If some of you vocal folks believe that this meagre 105 usd discount will ensure very good initial adoption from redusers then lets wait and watch. I believe it could have been a phenomenal group buy. Anyway, it is upto Letus to decide what is best for them.

Cheers,
Sabyasachi
Click to expand...

Sabyasachi,

We hear you. As we said, we are looking at ways to make RU's happy. First, you are first in line to get it, the $100 is just a token, not the token. I hope you can see our honest way of pricing. Functionality wise, we beat the crap out of anybody and to say that we have to price it under them with our long standing on the market is just......
We chose to price it at that range not because we couldn't match other's functionality or reputation, we chose to price it there simply because we think we could get it done around that price point and we rather make it affordable to the whole community than just a few rich kids. Please don't punish us for doing that.
The current pricing, please remember is introductory pricing, it may go up as we may incur some unforeseeable manufacturing costs.
We planned to release our Letus Extreme at $1500 and we had introductory price at $1200. We was able to keep it at that price because the demand was so high, tens of thousands of users supported us. $4k is our introductory price. We try to set it as low as possible, assuming the same support level as our Letus Extreme. You know with the cost of R&D, we cannot afford to sell only few hundred rigs and call it good at this price.

Hope this clears the air a little bit.
 
Marketing aside, can anyone tell me if there's an accommodation to power the camera from the frame and not the camera? I was hoping to have this flexibility to be able to rig both short(Epic) and longer cameras (F55). Ideally, I'd like to see Letus offer a centralized power solution where you could mount any lightweight V or AB mount to the back for camera, monitor, FI control and wireless transmitter.

My other concern is being able rig the monitor directly behind the camera on the frame or post. Current design shows a hotshoe on the center post. Personally, I'd rather see both a 3/8" and 1/4 20 tap option instead.

Another design / accessory I'd like to see is some sort of cross piece that facilitates hand offs as well as under slinging to a dolly, crane, straps, etc.

Last bit, can anyone tell me what is the RC situation? What is the solution for second op. Can't seem to find it on site.

Eitherway, despite these concerns, I've put my money down as I've dealt with Letus in the past and their QC and customer service is excellent.
 
Last edited:
Ned Wilson said:
Marketing aside, can anyone tell me if there's an accommodation to power the camera from the frame and not the camera? I was hoping to have this flexibility to be able to rig both short(Epic) and longer cameras (F55). Ideally, I'd like to see Letus offer a centralized power solution where you could mount any lightweight V or AB mount to the back for camera, monitor, FI control and wireless transmitter.

My other concern is being able rig the monitor directly behind the camera on the frame or post. Current design shows a hotshoe on the center post. Personally, I'd rather see both a 3/8" and 1/4 20 tap option instead.

Another design / accessory I'd like to see is some sort of cross piece that facilitates hand offs as well as under slinging to a dolly, crane, straps, etc.

Last bit, can anyone tell me what is the RC situation? What is the solution for second op. Can't seem to find it on site.

Eitherway, despite these concerns, I've put my money down as I've dealt with Letus in the past and their QC and customer service is excellent.
Click to expand...

From what I know:
There is a Lemo on the camera side, that passes the power from the AB / Vmount from the backside. So you could use any cable regulated or unregulated appropriate for your camera.

+1 on the losing the Hotshoe and some tapped holes!
+1 on the accessory... So a locked 'bracket' instead of the 4th axis for steady cam use.

RC situation should be no problem since it is basecam, if you want to do it yourself, how Letus handles this ... Hien or Aaron should step in to explain. I guess there will be an option
 
Dimitri Boschma said:
I am going to use this also... (I have one). For a 'one man band shoots' this would be a good option.
Rtmotion has also a nice one. (Both brands have steep delivery times at this moment)
Click to expand...

I'm sorry but I don't see the thumb control for the RTmotion on their website. Just the bigger controller. Is this what you are talking about? Since the Letus largely needs two hands to operate, we need a focus control that can attach to the grip.
 
We have been discussing internally on what else we can offer the RU community as a token of appreciation. Rather than making some grand announcement, we have decided to offer it to you as a thank you once we close out the pre-orders. We are not trying to bait people to order so we won't say what it is. We want it to be a "thank you" not a marketing gimmick.
 
Scott Pultz said:
I'm sorry but I don't see the thumb control for the RTmotion on their website. Just the bigger controller. Is this what you are talking about? Since the Letus largely needs two hands to operate, we need a focus control that can attach to the grip.
Click to expand...

I have this one. It's F#cking awesome. I use the run stop on it too.

http://www.rtmotion.com/product/3501

rtmotion-slave-thumbwheel-controller-mk1-2.jpg
 
How easy is it to break down this unit into flat pieces and put it back together? Thinking about travelling with it.

Also is the 4th axis in production or is only the 3 axis going to be available initially? We would love to know the total price :)
 
Aaron Pinto said:
We have been discussing internally on what else we can offer the RU community as a token of appreciation. Rather than making some grand announcement, we have decided to offer it to you as a thank you once we close out the pre-orders. We are not trying to bait people to order so we won't say what it is. We want it to be a "thank you" not a marketing gimmick.
Click to expand...

Classy. Very classy!! Thank you.
 
Aaron Pinto said:
We have been discussing internally on what else we can offer the RU community as a token of appreciation. Rather than making some grand announcement, we have decided to offer it to you as a thank you once we close out the pre-orders. We are not trying to bait people to order so we won't say what it is. We want it to be a "thank you" not a marketing gimmick.
Click to expand...

I think people forget that you are still running a business here. There are so many fly-by-night guys making gimbals its not even funny. Your price IMHO is very aggressive and I would rather see you guys make a superior product that cut corners to save a few bucks. Heaven forbid you guys make some money :wink: The fact these guys are here listening to the community carries some serious weight. Call it free tech support if you will.

Best of luck guys.
 
Aaron Pinto said:
We have been discussing internally on what else we can offer the RU community as a token of appreciation. Rather than making some grand announcement, we have decided to offer it to you as a thank you once we close out the pre-orders. We are not trying to bait people to order so we won't say what it is. We want it to be a "thank you" not a marketing gimmick.
Click to expand...

Thank YOU...
 
Scott Pultz said:
Sweet thanks. So does this plug into the bigger controller? Run/Stop would be fantastic but right now I have a BMPC and it's probably not compatible. Starting and stopping will actually be a huge pain with this camera...
Click to expand...

Yes into the small receiver that has the motors connected. Not into the hand focus wheel.
 
Bob Gundu said:
Yes into the small receiver that has the motors connected. Not into the hand focus wheel.
Click to expand...

Cool. If I could buy the setup without the hand focus wheel that would save a lot of money. Unless of course the bigger controller is required to configure everything.
 
Scott Pultz said:
...Thinking about travelling with it. Also is the 4th axis in production or is only the 3 axis going to be available initially? We would love to know the total price :)
Click to expand...

Yes..to the above and will the units be able to be shipped with the custom case. This is an unusual shaped item so it needs a custom cut case.
Plus everytime someone packs up their 1 or 3 axis system the empty slots are a constant reminder to acquire those missing pieces...hehe..sublimal marketing.
 
Scott Pultz said:
Cool. If I could buy the setup without the hand focus wheel that would save a lot of money. Unless of course the bigger controller is required to configure everything.
Click to expand...

Thats a good question. But the larger controller does control settings for torque, direction, etc. Plus those times you want someone else to focus requires the hand controller.
 
I didn't want to trash the hotshoe for those who mount monitors or other accessories that way, but I have little use for it either. What I'd most like to see is swat rail functionality somewhere on the non-moving back end, but as long as there's a flat surface 70mm wide somewhere with tapped holes, I can just attach a rail myself. I use the RED Sliding Top Handle and also have my RED Touch LCD on a swat rail clamp for quick mounting, and I know a lot of other RED users use handles with swat rail dovetail clamps built in. So maybe a show of hands for anyone who'd like to be able to repurpose their existing sliding handles onto a swat rail on the Helix, either for a centered handle on the three axis version that attaches to the stationary parts of the skeleton and/or for the U frame that is part of the 4th axis. Also would love to hear what ideas Letus and others may have for a quick release solution to interface the 4th axis with a crane.
 
Elizabeth Lowrey said:
I didn't want to trash the hotshoe for those who mount monitors or other accessories that way, but I have little use for it either. What I'd most like to see is swat rail functionality somewhere on the non-moving back end, but as long as there's a flat surface 70mm wide somewhere with tapped holes, I can just attach a rail myself. I use the RED Sliding Top Handle and also have my RED Touch LCD on a swat rail clamp for quick mounting, and I know a lot of other RED users use handles with swat rail dovetail clamps built in. So maybe a show of hands for anyone who'd like to be able to repurpose their existing sliding handles onto a swat rail on the Helix, either for a centered handle on the three axis version that attaches to the stationary parts of the skeleton and/or for the U frame that is part of the 4th axis. Also would love to hear what ideas Letus and others may have for a quick release solution to interface the 4th axis with a crane.
Click to expand...

Hotshoe was mounted to the back by 1/4-20, so if you don't want to use it, just remove it and underneath is the 1/4-20.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top