I agree with you completely. You can't beat ENG lenses for run and gun or getting the moment type shooting. This setup is really more for film style type shooting. You can go handheld with it but it's not an ENG lens and shouldn't be used as one. My thinking here is if this was in your kit and you wanted to do an in depth interview and have it have more the look of film, then you'd put this on. But for your use an ENG lens would also be needed. If you were strictly an indie filmmaker then you could get by with just this and no ENG lens. A news shooter could also take off his ENG lens for a sit down interview and put this on. I could see news producers loving this but still mostly using their ENG lens. For News, docu & even sports shooters, this would be a nice accessory to their ENG lens for cool looking dramatic content/interviews. But for an indie filmmaker this is gold.

I don't quite agree with Steve on this. What is a "film style type" of shooting, exactly? Shooting video by folks who do not have the money for one or two good zoom lenses?

I grew up shooting 16mm and some 35mm film, and back then we were only wet dreaming about those wodnerful ZOOM LENSES that only the well-off crews had. Us little fish had to do with the dumb unifocal Zeiss primes. With those, if you had wanted to achieve even a slightly differtent framing, you ahd to move the entire camera support. Usually I had to do that, so every time I had good occassion and reason to curse the fixed lens for making me do that. And boy, did they breathe.

A proper film on motion pciture film stock can be acquired today by the use of one or more cine zoom lenses, and yes, even ENG/EFP zoom lenses. The phallacy about those 'superior "primes have been invented by the Germans who are selling one of their "super" primes for as much money as the Japanese can give you a 14x ultra wide ENG/EFP zoom for.

bunkofurko,
I'm afraid you are missing the point of this. But using the Letus B4 relay and Letus DOF adapter you are making this 2/3" camera have shallow DOF similar to that of a 35mm motion picture camera. Look up Depth of field adapter on Wikipedia for how it is doing it. Then you can use prime or I guess zoom lenses on the DOF adapter and achieve the shallow DOF of 35mm film. I don't mention zooms at this point because:
1. Most people want to shoot feature style with primes.
2. They are much faster (speed of lens) T1.2 or T1.4
3. If you want shallow DOF you are most likely shooting drama and don't mind using primes.
4. Getting back into Zoom lenses would require a zoom motor.

The point here was to be able to use a 2/3" camera for shooting that emulates the look of 35mm film's shallow DOF.

Well, as we shoot (or at least try to shoot) non-artistic, commercial-class small budget movies straight-to-broadcast and straight-to-DVD/BD, we really do not care much it at all about what a 35mm lens or camera does. That is merely an ACQUSITION medium, it has no relevance to the DELIVERY format and type. The fact that 35mm cine lenses have a narrow depth of field to me personally is a a handicap and a negative thing, instead of something good and useful. It is so passe in this day and age, really.

If you saw the app. $20 million budget film "Children of Men," it seem like the whole movie was shot with a single ultra-wide angle lens. EVERYTHING IN THE MOVIE IS ALWAYS IN FOCUS, anything and anyone three feet away from the lens all the way to infinity. Everything always in focus, yeah! So much for the "big timer movie types" always insisting on narrow depth of focus, right?

An "adapter" is only ever needed if there is something wrong. Something wrong with the type of lens, or somethign wrong with the type of camera that the lens would be affixed to. For instance, I don't see 35mm cameras with "digital adpaters" so they can use ther 2/3-inch style video lenses, right?

Anyhow, every time you insert another piece of glass in the light's path, like front or rear filters and adapters, you are degrading your captured image somewhat. Again, IMO if you match a a particular camera with the right type of lens, you will NOT need to use any of those silly looking adapters and lens interchangers.

Personally, I would not use or allow the use of a Letus or P+S DOF adapter on any camera in our shoots if they gave us the thing for free. It's just so silly of a concept, really, mismatch lens and camera first, and then try to "correct" the self-inflicted mismatch by adding an extra cost adapter. But hey, it is good business for the companies making it, I give you that. ;~))

1. Unifocal lenses worked great until the varifocals (i.e. zooms) were invented by the French in the early 1950s. An excellent axample on the early dramatic use of zooming is in the French film classic "Wages of Fear" (1953). These days, there is really not much need for them, save for tradition. They are not that easy to kill, I give you that, and for the companies making no-brain prime lenses, the profit margins on them must be tremendous. You can almost buy four zoom lenses for the price of five or six unifocals, so dollar for lens, they are the most expensive types of optics ever.

2. We shot with a T1.4 lens, not with a 1.2, however. My opinion on that is, if a production cannot afford to light up a set to at elast a f2 or maybe f2,8, there is definitely something wrong with the budget. :~))

Anyhow, if youreally want the film to look like it was shot in the year 1909, turning down the lights and using a lens all the way open to 1.4 or 1.2 is probably a good idea. Otherwise, probably not.

3. We are shooting drama (spiced with comedy), and DOF -- narrow or wide -- has never been an issue. Least of all when it comes to selling the end product. NOBODY had asked me what the thing was shot with, that's for sure, let alone whether "primes" or "zooms" were used on the camera. The buyers don't care, and the general audience surely won't bother with it, either.

4. Some zoom lenses come with a servo zoom, these are the ENG/EFP types. The simpler cinema zoom do not come with a motorized zoom, I understand, so for them you would indeed need to add a third-party external gadget and controller to turn the zoom ring. Extra expense, more things that could go wrong, too. But with these 35mm and 16mm and even cine-style B4-mount manual zoom lenses, you have no choice. Or either have to try to zoom manually and hope it will be smooth and not jerk your image, or else you have to add a third-party accessory to the lens, as you would with one of those Letus or P+S technik "35mm DOF adapters."

Anyhow, I sort of feel sorry for folks who have spent thousands (Letus) and tens of thousands of dollars (P+S) on 35mm lens adapters up until now, just so they can use a 35mm lens on a camera, even if this meant a substantial loss of light. And that is because with the newfangled cine-DSLRs by Canon, Nikon, and especially Panasonic hitting the marketplace as we speak, one can actually use a 35mm-type (SLR/DSLR) lens on one of these pseudo-cinema cine-DSLR cameras. Without any lens adapater at all. In fact, one can get two of these cine-SLR camera bodies and maybe five-six lenses for them, unifocals and varifocals alike, for less than half the price of some of these importaed lens adapters.

Good point Matt, don't know how we missed that. We are going to upload some sample footage tomorrow afternoon along with some comparison footage shot with an HVX200 with same Letus and Zeiss ZF lens.

David,
You can do it, we have lens support out the wazoo. To each his own. You have very little light loss in this unit and the camera is much more light sensitive then the mid class HD cams.

David, you are mabe wanting to be matching apples to oranges to donkeys.

The Panasonic P2-series full-size camcorders take 2/3-inch B4 mount lenses. These are now available as fixed focal unifocals (i.e. primes); as ENG/EFP type zooms; and as cine-style full manual zooms by all major lens manufacturers.

If none of these optics would work for you, I would suggest you guys to look at other types of cameras instead, not those with a B4 mount. For example, if you have a nice Optiomo 28-76 35mm zoom lens, go right ahead and use it on a 35mm motion picture film camera. That is what it was originally designed for, I understand.

No converters, lens relays, or any of that overpriced, light-eating mumbo-jumbo after-market optical quack stuff is needed to capture an image that way, see?

That's rediculas Bunkofukro,
Most of the indie folks who want to shoot a feature can't afford the cost of film, processing, transer, etc.

This is a very viable option and not that expensive compared to film.

Well, my understanding is that these newfangled 2/3-inch sensor sized camcorders are supposed to take NOT Super 8 lenses and NOT 35mm cinema and NOT EVEN 65mm cine lenses, but their own category and fully-matching 2/3-inch (usually B4-mount) lenses.

But hey, maybe I've got this all screwed-up, hmmm?

But hey, if one has all the money in the world to throw away on getting a wrong lens and affix it to the camera with an ueber-pricey adapter, it's not my money, thus not my funeral.... ;~))

Shooting on film is actually CHEAPER than shooting video, since what you are saying that you are already using film lenses, so that cost would be the same, but then you would need to add one of these thrid-party "adapters" to the camera package at the hefty cost of anywhere from $4,000 to $35,000, give or take.

I know many young filmmakers, the ones who cannot afford to shoot on 35mm film shoot on S16 or even N16, and those who cannot afford S16 shoopt on S8. I sort of feel sorry for those ones, however, who would shell out thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars on a grotesquely priced "film adapter," just so they can put a maybe $4-500 photographic lens (SLR lens) on the camera, and thus being able to say that they are "shooting in 35."

Unfortunately, they do not.

Anyhow, with the new breed of cine-DSLRs hitting the market and people using them to phenomenal results, the days of these ridiculously overpriced '35mm lens adaptors' is coming to an end rather quickly, I predict. :-((

I completely disagree,
THIS IS FOR PEOPLE WHO WANT SHALLOW DOF
Why would you wand to use a zoom that is 2 stops slower than a prime. That works against the DOF adapter and gives you greater DOF? We are trying to get shallow DOF. If you want to use a zoom after the DOF adapter here is what you are looking at.

DOF adapter and B4 relay 1.5 stops of light loss
Zoom lens might add 3.5 stops of light loss
That's 3.5 stops lost.
Prime lens 1.4 stops loss
You lose 2 stops more light with a zoom.
Each stop is a doubling of light.
That's a lot of light loss.

You need a lot of light now