LETUS HAWK

DISCLOSURE: I have absolutely no ties to Letus in anyway. They do not support me financially or through sponsorship. My philosophy is that if someone sends you a product to test you owe them a chance to respond to criticisms before you publish. I will do this with every piece of kit I review because that’s just how I roll. I had criticisms of the Hawk and sent these to Letus who were good enough to respond honestly and this review is therefore written in light of those responses. I just think that’s fair.

I really don’t enjoy reviewing products, mainly because it’s not what I do, but also I feel terrible if someone’s put hundreds of hours into developing something and I find things to criticise. It’s particularly bad if you’re reviewing a product category that you don’t really like in the first place, namely viewfinders. If I’m honest I find the viewfinder proposition a flawed one (albeit a neat one) but let me explain why. Firstly, when I first began using DSLRs for video I totally bought the hype and invested in a Zacuto Z-Finder. I spent £300 for the pleasure yet when the big Z-Cup arrived and I fitted it with trembling hands to my shiny 7D I was shocked. Here was a product, retailing for as much as a decent camera lens, that fogged up, that didn’t appear to be much more than a plastic cup and a bit of glass and, crucially, didn’t give me the confidence in my focusing that everyone had been telling me it would. And I do mean everyone. I couldn’t find a single dissenting voice online. The image was enormous, it looked dirty, smeary and, on anything moderately wide, the detail just disappeared into the very visible pixels of the screen it was enlarging and I was really none the wiser. Judging focus on long lensy, shallow, 100mm shots isn’t that difficult, but when you’re on a 35mm at 1.4 and you need to judge the focus I’m afraid it just doesn’t cut it. And this is a situation you encounter again and again with DSLRs, that surprising shallowness in wider shots. With a monitor I can judge it, with a Z-Finder I couldn’t. Sorry.

I tend to give Zacuto a monstrous basing on this blog but this isn’t really the Z-Finder’s fault (apart from the fogging of course, oh and the smeary, grubby image), the screen on the back of a DSLR simply isn’t designed to be blown up as big as these loupes achieve. They enlarge the image to such an extent you can see individual pixels on the back of the screen. High-resolution images enable us to judge focus more critically with clarity being the key. But what does a low resolution image look like? Lots of blocks and pixels. And that’s always going to make it tough to focus. With wider shots this is the problem we run into, more detail, less resolution, squinting.

Pixels...

This is the big problem with viewfinders as a proposition. Although they do blow up the image and give you something bigger to work with it’s not like they’re magically achieving extra resolution. They’re not. The camera screen isn’t fit for purpose (even if the VFs are) so, until the manufacturers give us ultra-high resolution screens this will continue to be a problem. While you can do a good job of staying in focus, that notion of ‘critical’ focussing (you know the one we were told about in the Zacuto press release: “My focus is 100% more precise with the Z-Finder than without it” – it can make the blind see apparently…) goes out of the window, especially in those tough wider shots. It was always a lofty claim by bloggers and manufacturers, and without the peaking, or focus assist functions you’d enjoy on traditional video cameras or broadcast monitors, it simply wasn’t valid. Sure sold a lot of Z-Finders mind, and I bought the hype, hook line and sinker. With an 11-16 at 2.8 on my 7D I was still enjoying the characteristic shallow DOF which looked great but with the Z-Finder I really couldn’t be sure where the focus actually lay. On pro jobs that wasn’t good enough. I quickly bought a monitor and have never looked back.

A typical DSLR shooter (Jared Abrams)

There is a caveat to all this. And it’s a nice round, well-formed caveat. I’m very well aware that the way I like to shoot is not the way everyone likes to shoot. Many DSLR folk I know enjoy shooting with a viewfinder and find monitors too cumbersome for quick run and gun work. They’ve become used to trusting their judgement even with the blown up image and, you know what, that’s cool too. Even more pertinently, the plain financials make a viewfinder a cheaper purchase than a monitor (I wouldn’t go anywhere near a cheap monitor, sorry!). Does that make it better value? I would argue not, when you look at the functionality and versatility of the best ones, but money talks. A year ago we had but three choices, the Hoodman Loupe, the LCDVF and the Z-Finder. Now there’s a plethora of different options, not including the much lauded and never seen Zacuto EVF and the other EVFs from Redrock and Cineroid. At the top end of the price-range sit the Zacuto Z-Finder ($395), the Cinevate Cyclops ($414.99) and the Letus Hawk ($375). That’s a fair bit of wedge to spend on a loupe and I don’t know about you, but I want these products to justify their price tags. My original Z-Finder absolutely did not, it has been sold and there’s now some healthy competition so, as Zacuto are so fond of saying, the game has changed. In some ways possibly the the easiest part when designing a VF is magnifying the screen (though I’m sure Letus would disagree with their clear [groan] focus on the optics). The real challenge for manufacturers is designing a product that fits the peculiar ergonomics of DSLR video without becoming cumbersome and annoying. It’s not just about the optics folks.

So now, here in my reticent mitts, I hold a Letus Hawk, a high-end DSLR viewfinder from a company well-renowned for their DOF adaptors (the precursor to the DSLR craze). I’ve been sent the Letus Hawk (aluminium) to have a play with and first impressions are good. It feels solid, well engineered, the body is cool and metallic and the baseplate beautifully machined. It feels like a quality bit of kit… and then things start to niggle. First, the rubber seal that marks the join between the Hawk and the screen of your camera isn’t glued on and it comes off really easily (NB: having spoken to Letus apparently all new Hawks will come with the rubber seal glued on permanently). Without it you’re likely to start damaging the screen. What happens if you lose it on a shoot? Probably best to glue it on when you receive it because it will definitely get lost at some point. Attach the Hawk to the camera and, due to the way the quick release is designed it falls away from the camera the higher it goes, pivoting around the bottom mounting point. This results in rattling. It’s fine when your eye is pressed to the VF but when you’re just carrying it around it starts to grate. Letus do say that this part of the design represents one of the major tradeoffs, quick release vs a solid mount and the quick release was felt to be more use. My feeling is you can probably live with it. (Note: Letus have in fact designed a new ‘universal mount’ which apparently gets rid of this, like I said, the design is constantly evolving and they’re aware of the problems).

Letus Hawk: razor sharp optics, razor sharp eyecup

The original Z-Finder mounted to the camera via a sticky mounting bracket that allowed you to pop the VF on and off the camera really easily. I actually loved that about it, such a simple solution but it really worked. Zacuto have abandoned that approach in their new range which I think is a shame as it obviates the need for the mounting plate system they share with Letus. The Hawk mounts to the camera via a quick release tongue, slotting into a small plate mounted to the bottom of the camera via the usual thread. This video neatly explains how it works. Letus have seen fit not to name their plate after a mountain simian which I think shows some real guts. Would have been very easy to call it the orangutan mount. There are alan screws to allow you to adjust the mounting point of the Hawk so it sits flush with your screen but even after a few adjustments I could feel the key starting to gnash the screws and wasn’t entirely happy about making any more adjustments in case I knackered them completely. Slide the Hawk into the slot on the plate and two ball bearings grip and hold it and you’re ready to shoot. They call it a quick release mechanism but really it’s an easy on/easy off system, with no levers or pins. The temptation is to grab the Hawk itself and ease it out of its slot but the best way is to grip the bottom of the unit just where it slots into the mounting plate and it slides out nice and easily. Grip it anywhere else and it really doesn’t want to come out. This is good. I have to say I’m not a fan of the mounting plate system on the whole. It’s another bit of kit to screw onto your camera, and more importantly, it raises the height of your camera on a shoulder rig changing the eye position. It made a big difference when mounted on my Redrock shoulder rig and I found myself nose diving the camera in order to get my eye in the right place. The vertically mounted counterweight on the Redrock makes this tricky but on other rigs this probably wouldn’t be such a problem. Small things, but they all add up when shooting long days.

The rubber strip, glued in new versions

The weight of the hawk pulls it away from the camera: rattle rattle

Speaking of shooting long days this brings me on to the single biggest shortcoming of the Hawk, the eyecup. It’s sharp, made of hard rubber, and really not very comfortable at all. I only shot for half an hour with it but it was killing me by the end of it. Fortunately I had a quick solution to the problem which was to fit an Arri chamois soft eyepiece cover which you can pick up for not very much at all online and this sorted it right out. It seems like a bit of an oversight, but there hasn’t been enough negative feedback for the folks at Letus to go back to the drawing board yet. The VF provides a much needed additional point of contact for DSLR users, and, as a result, comfort is really important as that contact point is going to be doing a lot of work. The chamois cover is a simple fix and one I’d recommend but if you’re paying that much for something… Letus have said they may make alternative eyecups, or covers for the Hawk, but I’m sure, if they did so, they would make it easy for current owners to upgrade to the new design.

Do yourself a favour, get an eyepiece cover

Putting the full Redrock, Hawk (and chamois cover) to my eye I have to say I really liked it. For all the niggles and annoyances listed above the moment you put the Hawk to your eye and start shooting they all start to ease away. I have the Redrock balanced perfectly now and adding a viewfinder to the mix makes the whole system feel very stable. The Hawk delivers the best version of the screen I’ve seen optically. And that’s its big promise, ’3 custom lenses in 2 groups’ – so you’d expect it to be good. The Z-Finder always used to make what I was seeing look smeary and dirty but the Hawk is clean and clear, with a small amount of barrelling around the corners but not so you’d really care. It features 2.75x magnification which is a decent compromise (possibly still a little too much for me, but it’s all personal preference). As I said before you can see pixels and that does make it hard to really judge focus on wider shots where the details are smaller, particularly text, and that’s a problem for me. You can adjust the focus of the Hawk with a beautifully smooth dipoter but make sure the lens unit is fully screwed in or you could mistake it for the diopter itself, I did! Did it fog up? Yes, but I’d been running with the camera and was sweating when I put it up to my eye. At all other times it stayed clear and useable. Just out of curiosity I decided to put the old Z-Finder on the camera just for a giggle to see if I’d been too harsh on it. It fogged up in under a minute. That’s just not acceptable. I’ve now sold it.

As you can probably tell I’m not going to give the Hawk a glowing endorsement because I don’t think it truly deserves it. Ask me to pay $375 for a loupe and I don’t want niggles, I want it to be amazing. I don’t want to have to glue on the rubber join myself, I don’t want to have to buy my own soft cup, I don’t want it to rattle on the frame. The aluminium version I tested is not the lightest bit of kit in the world and adds a chunk of weight to your overall setup. It’s not like a great big anvil hanging off your camera but you definitely notice it and it’s considerably heavier than my old Z-finder. This is of course down to the more complex optical assembly and the metal body. Assuming, and it’s a big assumption, the next generation of DSLRs boast much higher resolution screens then, long term, the Hawk should improve as a proposition. Unfortunately it’s just one of those bits of kit you definitely need in your bag. Sunny day, whack on a viewfinder. Need to keep your shots private, whack on a viewfinder. Is it better than a Z-Finder? I don’t think I’m qualified to judge that, if I’m honest, as I don’t have one of the new Z-Finders. Compared to the old one the quick release and mounting plate aren’t as neat as the old sticky Zacuto frame, but the lens elements are much much better. As always, with these things, try, try, try, try before you buy. Viewfinders are as much about ergonomics as they are about optics and for that reason you really need to have shot a proper day with it before you can make a proper judgement. When actually using the Hawk for shooting I liked it but, as I’ve already explained, viewfinders have to be good on more levels than one and I’m not sure the Hawk has quite managed that feat yet.

Before I finish, let me say this: Letus have been very open and honest about the quality of their product with me and anyone who can make fun of themselves as in this video is okay in my book!