In light of the IMPORTANT NOTE section, I will just offer a couple of pieces of advice (if not for that paragraph, I might have written a coupld of pages :) )
1. Since you are committed to the Nikons, I'd highly suggest investing in either purchasing or renting the very best follow focus unit that you can get your hands on (and gear rings for the lenses). While still camera lenses can of course be used on DoF converters, it is quite difficult to pull focus with them (the problem is the range of travel: you only have to turn the ring on a still camera lens about 1/8th of a revolution to go through its complete focus range... whereas with a cine lens it's almost a complete revolution). You can also combat that by carefully blocking action so little rack focusing is required. You'll probably want to avoid rack focusing much anyway, as almost all still lenses (even Nikkors) breath when racked.
2. Be prepared to focus very carefully... by eyeball. Cine lenses are typically calibrated very carefully, and all the witness marks are usually accurate... so focusing by distance is no problem. However with still camera lenses (even expensives ones), the footage scales aren't always accurate. The infinity mark is usually right, as well as the closest possible distance... but sometimes the ones in the middle are a crapshoot, and not usefully for tape-measure focusing the way the good Lord intended.
3. Prior to shooting check all your lenses very carefully in any conceivable lighting situation that you think you might encounter. The Letus35 is notorious for vignetting, even with lenses that should cover the 35mm frame fine. The darkened edges might only be visible in certain situations though, so check various scenarios so that you are not surprised when it is too late. This problem is not exclusive to the Letus35... most of the budget-priced DoF converters suffer this problem on occasion, and even sometimes some of the more expensive ones.
4. Make sure you have a matte box or other way to hold all the filters you might need, and a full complement of ND filters, especially if you will be shooting exteriors. You will probably have to pile on some NDs for daylight exteriors as you do not want to stop the Nikon lenses down much at all... if you close the iris on them much past wide open you will definitely see the grain in the Letus35 groundglass.
5. Good luck and have fun.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
