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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 has started taking the preorder for their follow focus.

Al lot of complaints about the moving arm for models NF2-NF4 in the 5D forum.It seems that they have not perfect it yet.
 
Has anyone received one of these new Letus FF's yet? I'm thinking of replacing my Redrock V2 and would prefer something reversible since a set of de-clicked Nikons is in my future. I'm definitely in the sub-$1k market. Also considering the Shoot35 FF, almost sounds too good to be true for the $ :) tho not reversible of course. Thanks in advance.


letus-ff-1.jpg
 
Well I own both of them .

Shoot 35 is an excellent from any point of view FF. I really don't want to sell it now that I finally received the long awaited Letus FF.

Letus is more usefall after all as it can be mounted on the rods without taking out matte box and other gear. That clamp that Hien (designer of Letus) build is really genius and stable.

The moving arm is much usefall too. You can "approach" lens gear from every possible side. It has not hard stops but that means nothing for me or my focus puller.

The build quality is awesome. Gear (the most important part of a FF) gives almost zero backlash. As they claim gear are Panavision made.

I am waiting for a replacement after Christmas as my Letus FF was one of the first that were shipped to customers and one of the two white indicators (white paint to check focus) was missing and Letus send me a replacement as they didn't want to own a faulty from every point of view unit
. So I am going to test them in comparison after Christmas.
 
I had gotten the new Letus FF in... and I'm saddened to say that I had to send it back. There were a couple of QC issues with my unit; a couple of minor scratches that probably occurred during assembly, which is not a big deal, but more importantly, it looked like the rosettes didn't mate properly. James from Letus told me they changed the machining on the rosettes, and it's conceiveable that I got a unit that had a part from the old machining mixed in. There was also noticeable play of a little less than 1mm, which is extremely disappointing considering that Shane Hurlbut put his name behind it.

I could accept that these were misses in the manufacturing process with my particular unit, but the thing that is most unacceptable to me was the gear ratio. Let me explain:

Letus advertised this as a 1:2 gear ratio "for easy focus pull" which is technically correct, but I apparently didn't understand what it meant. I thought they meant TWO turn on the knob means ONE turn on the drive gear so that your focus pulls would be more accurate and therefore "easier". What they MEANT was that ONE turn on the knob gives you TWO turns on the drive gear, or more specifically, it's driving 96 teeth of movement on the lens per 360 degree rotation on the focus knob. This makes it "easier" to do long pulls because the distance on the knob is significantly shorter than the much more common 48-teeth, 1:1 gear ratio FF units. More precisely, it reduces the turns on the knob by HALF. This is fine if you're run&gunning with a long throw lens like a CP.2, but utterly horrific on SLR lenses, which tend to have a very short focus throw to begin with. On my Canon 24-70 with a zip-tie lens gear, it takes something like 1/3 turn on the knob to go from macro to infinity... not acceptable for narrative work. MAYBE usable for deep DOF run&gun work.

To be fair, Letus was very courteous and understanding in all my dealings with them. They allowed me to send the unit back with no restocking fees and gave me no trouble at all during the return process. They answered all my questions and addressed my concerns quickly and competently, and here's where I was really impressed: returned my phone call quickly. I have no problem with Letus as a company, and if they came out with a FF unit that worked for me, I'd have no hesitation buying one, but this particular model is just not it.

For reference, I have had experience with FF units from Chrosziel, Zacuto, Shoot35, Letus, Redrock, Genus, and even Proaim. Not a newbie in the mini/indie follow focus market.
 
Nathanail & Art, thank you both a LOT for the detailed explanations of your experience's with the Letus. In particular it's really disappointing to hear they opted to limit it's uses for cine-glass with the 1:2 turn-ratio. For it's price it seems like going with a 1:1 ratio makes more sense to have it function well for all types of glass, especially with a price that's VERY attractive for shooters (like myself) that use mostly still primes and zooms. I was really hoping to get a compromise-less FF with a reverse option for under $1k... maybe not a realistic expectation. I can live without the reverse option though, perhaps the Shoot35 FF (or maybe the new Redrock Blue FF) is the way to go. My main priorities are really just 100% functionality with the Scarlet body, reasonably good feel & minimal slop.
 
Nick,

If minimal slop is what you're looking for, definitely consider the microFollowFocus | Blue. Because it's an entirely new gear box, we incorporated the ability to adjust backlash. So even as the internal gears spread over extensive use in any follow focus, you can manually adjust and reset them to have a unit that feels as good as the first time you used it! And don't limit yourself to just being compatible with 15mm L/W. You can upgrade our unit to have a 19mm Quick release clamp, as well as add a double sided studio option at any time.

Loren Simons
Redrock Micro
lsimons@redrockmicro.com
 
I have the Redrock Blue and it's very nice. I previously owned the Redrock v2 for about a day before I sent it back and this new one works very well. It's also available in a studio (left and right wheel) configuration which is nice. I just wish there was a way to have a smaller size of the studio version so it doesn't stick out so far with the newer smaller cameras. I initially bought the Studio, but had to exchange it for the non-Studio for that very reason. I had a Cinevate Durus that I sold to replace with the Redrock Blue, as I wanted a little bit smaller size (Durus would hit my matte box and camera body with certain lenses because it was so big) and quick release.
 
No what you said was:

nathanail nathanailoglou said:
As Shane Hurlbut revealed the new gearbox that Letus will use on their upcoming FF will be Panavision's .
Click to expand...

That could be interpreted, and I interpreted, as saying Panavision will be using the Letus gearbox or that the gearbox is a Panavision gearbox. Neither of those is the case. It's just the gears inside the gearbox that are Panavision, not the gearbox itself. I'm sure Panavision doesn't want people thinking that the Letus gearbox is a Panavision gearbox (which would likely cost much more than the entire Letus FF if you could actually buy it).
 
That's why I gave the link of Shane's words. In order that noone could interpret my opinion. And my opinion is that a gearbox consists of gears. If a gearbox is made of Panavision's gears that is the reason that I name that gearbox Panavision made.

Of course that is far away from what you interpreted.... that panavision FF will use Letus gearbox...


Mike Halper said:
No it doesn't say that. It says they are using Panavision gears in the gearbox, not that Panavision will be using the Letus gearbox. 2 different things.
Click to expand...

How did you manage to that conlusion ? Panavision is one of the two biggest companies with Arri. They never copy or borrow parts from small companies. They design and build themselves whatever they want.



I do not know if Letus FF can be adjusted as RR's blue can. This is a very usefall option. RR's blue is the third FF they release in the market so they are much experienced of what customers want and every new unit is a big improvement of previous one.
 
Gears are, well, gears. No one is going to invent a replacement for the involute profile anytime soon. There's no special magic to having gears made by one shop vs. another -- it's only a matter of having cutting machines in good trim and good, careful, experienced machinists operating them.
 
nathanail nathanailoglou said:
That's why I gave the link of Shane's words. In order that noone could interpret my opinion. And my opinion is that a gearbox consists of gears. If a gearbox is made of Panavision's gears that is the reason that I name that gearbox Panavision made.

Of course that is far away from what you interpreted.... that panavision FF will use Letus gearbox...
Click to expand...

Whether you give a link or not, someone could still take your words as fact. No one has to click on your link. Yes, a gearbox consists of gears, but just because a gearbox may contain Panavision gears, doesn't make the gearbox a Panavision gearbox. And you said "gearbox" in your original post, not "gears". You also said "will be", so it could also be interpreted as meaning a future Panavision gearbox. It was a poorly worded statement that should have been "Shane Hurlbut revealed the Letus gearbox uses Panavision gears". Much simpler and can't be misinterpreted. But you said:

nathanail nathanailoglou said:
As Shane Hurlbut revealed the new gearbox that Letus will use on their upcoming FF will be Panavision's .
Click to expand...

A manufacturer could have the best quality gears on the market, whether it be Panavision gears or some other brand or manufacturer's gears, and do a crappy job of designing and assembling the gearbox. To say the gears are Panavision gears doesn't really say much, but when you say the gearbox is a Panavision gearbox it's a whole different thing.

nathanail nathanailoglou said:
How did you manage to that conlusion ? Panavision is one of the two biggest companies with Arri. They never copy or borrow parts from small companies. They design and build themselves whatever they want.
Click to expand...

I managed that conclusion because that's what you said. Like I said, there's 2 ways to interpret what you said: (1) Panavision will be using the Letus gearbox or (2) that the gearbox is a Panavision gearbox. That's why I checked the link for the actual quote and had issue with what you said originally, that Shane Hurlbut "revealed the new gearbox that Letus will use on their upcoming FF will be Panavision's". Note again that you said "gearbox" and not "gears". If you check Shane Hurlbut's post at the link he said: "I had Letus revamp the whole gear box with Panavision gears so it will be another month but worth the wait." It's a Letus gearbox with Panavision gears. It's still a Letus gearbox, not a Panavision.
 
Mike Halper said:
I managed that conclusion because that's what you said
Click to expand...

That's not what I said. That's what you imagined I said...


Anyway. the truth is in Jim Elias words :

Jim Elias said:
Gears are, well, gears. No one is going to invent a replacement for the involute profile anytime soon. There's no special magic to having gears made by one shop vs. another -- it's only a matter of having cutting machines in good trim and good, careful, experienced machinists operating them.
Click to expand...
 
nathanail nathanailoglou said:
That's not what I said. That's what you imagined I said...
Click to expand...

It is what you said. Try reading your own sentence. You said "GEARBOX ... WILL BE PANAVISION'S". Anyone that reads what you said would read it the same way I read it.

nathanail nathanailoglou said:
Anyway. the truth is in Jim Elias words :
Click to expand...

Again, which is why Letus using Panavision gears really means nothing. But you said GEARBOX, which is a completely different statement, and does mean something, and is WRONG.

GEAR does not equal GEARBOX.
 
If you like to stay exactly on words just stay on your sentence that clearly defines that you totally misjudged my words.

Mike Halper said:
No it doesn't say that. It says they are using Panavision gears in the gearbox, not that Panavision will be using the Letus gearbox. 2 different things.
Click to expand...


Total imagination. Panavision using (not just made but using letus gearbox ? )
 
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