Cavision Warning

[spitfire]

Jay--

I sincerely regret expressing early enthusiasm for the Cavision box to you on a sidebar conversation. We really thought it was going to fill the niche. Cavision has certainly added insult to injury by failing to step up, assess the situation, and find a solution. I'm not at all suprised they have not chimed in on this thread. Throughout all our communications with Cavision, we had a intuitive feeling that management's default approach to their customers seemed to be one of suspicion and contempt. Jason, our sales rep, could not respond to our concerns without first "checking with his supervisor". Only after our follow up call several days later, we would again be told they could find no real problem, and that we could simply return the box and pay the restocking fee.

We even suggested taking the value of the unit and applying it to a couple of their clip on boxes and a follow focus unit, only to be told the units we were proposing for exchange had exactly the same specs as the unit we sent back! We asked if they had actually verified that fact, and the answer was yes! I can't remember a more frustrating situation with so little common sense made available to resolve it! Very eye opening.

 

[RCFisher]

I bought a Cavision Matte box for my DV500 many moons ago and am happy with it, decent value for the money. But I did have access to a machine shop and do a bit of machining and made a lot of mods to it so that it worked for me! It is very cheaply made but then again you are not spending $5k on it. I think I spent 6-8 hours doing mods to improve it but I had the time to do it and not much money.

The phrase I live by is "you get what you pay for and nothing is free!"

 

[Jim McKinney]

Jay--

... only to be told the units we were proposing for exchange had exactly the same specs as the unit we sent back! . . .

So what do their products interface with?:wacko:

 

[Dominic Jones]

So what do their products interface with?:wacko:

They have their own line of plates and rods, so I presume (with no practical knowledge) that those would be of the same "standard" as the MB. FWIW, I've never been happy with any CAVision products I've used, although that's not a very large sample of their line. Build quality in all was severely lacking, however, which is not a good sign!

When someone gets a REDROCK I would like
to see how that fits.

I've got one on order (in the first run of 50), and I'll be more than happy to post a short review of it when it arrives...

 

[mavrix]

Cavision matteboxes

Cavision matteboxes

It's a bummer you guys have had a bad experience with Cavision - I actually bought two of their matteboxes and follow-focus units and have had good experiences with them on the Reds - they've worked well.

Rob

 

[Michael Morlan]

We used a CAVision RFF-15B follow focus on a recent feature I shot and were quite disappointed in its build quality:

The disc marker could not be properly cinched down to prevent movement around the marking wheel. We taped it to lock it to the gear cylinder.

The internal gears suffered a failure when working with a particularly tight lens, increasing lash to unacceptable distance.

The rocker arm interferes with tightening of its lever when positioned at the side of a lens. We used the focus gear under the lens at all times.

Regarding less expensive matte boxes; seriously consider the Petroff - excellent build quality, tool free modularity. The only thing I would like in the Petroff system would be swing-away and a bellows for 138mm filters. But a 4x4 will work just fine for my polarizers/grads.

The P45-2-W two-stage is $1550 at B&H. I just got mine, used plus nine donuts, for $900 on eBay.

http://petroff.ws

M

 

[Nate Clapp]

Cavision has pictures of 6x6 universal matte box on a Red on it's website. does that mean problem is fixed? anyone with eyes on a Cavision mattebox? Or are they "flexing" the rods to get it on as well?

 

[Alexander Nikishin]

DO NOT buy from Cavision, their customer service is down right rude!

Their carbon fiber rods are always bent and or off in diameter.

And if you attempt to return something, expect to spend a day or two on the phone beating around the bush.

Just bad business.

 

[Nate Clapp]

Ah, another happy customer. based on their website though they are positioning themselves as Red friendly, or at least compatible. Sounds like in real life they can't even get 105mm spacing right? You can only make so much off of restocking fees, you have to sell a few actual units, which I can't see happening if they can't fix the spacing problem.

 

[Shawn Nelson]

I'm shocked that Cavision hasn't jumped on here to strongly combat these ill-feelings and make everything right. Are they that stupid to piss off thousands of customers/potential customers? Don't they realize how much they are losing by this?

EDIT: Wow, I just looked at Cavision's website, they are advertising themselves as being very Red compliant, in complete contradiction to this thread. Who's Red is that in the pictures?? Cavision needs to come clean, I would love to see them honestly competing and providing nice low-cost accessories.

 

[Dale Launer]

On their website Cavision shows this mattebox and their follow focus...."mounted on Red rails system"

http://www.cavision.com/pictures/Red/P1000048.htm

The quotes are in their words. If you relied on this ad to make your decision, I believe you are in the correct legal position to get all your money back.

 

[Jarred Land]

EDIT: Wow, I just looked at Cavision's website, they are advertising themselves as being very Red compliant.

I requested a sample of the 6x6 back in November to test from Cavision to see what the problems were when this thread was heating up.. They did respond within a few hours with a "sure" but i haven't seen anything since... So i'm not sure what to say to you guys about them claiming to be RED compliant as that compliancy sure didn't come from us. Hopefully someone can get to the bottom of this.

 

[spitfire]

update from Spitfire

update from Spitfire

After a month long back and forth through American Express, the card company found in favor of Spitfire, and credited us for the full purchase price.

Jarred, I suspect enough time has passed since our run-in that even the headstrong owners of Cavision have had time to face up to the design goof and retool.

But the fact remains, their concept of customer service is truly pathetic. Hindsight leads me to believe they just OEM poorly machined products from overseas at price points so low that they simply don't see the need to add a reliable support component.

Buyer beware, regardless of how RED compliant they appear to be.

 

[Shawn Nelson]

I am still curious which serial # of Red is depicted in their product shots.

 

[Brigham Edgar]

I'm sure glad i read this thread, i was just about to lay down some hard cash with Bernie for the 6x6. I think i may hold off now, use a couple of screw on ND's and wait for RED or REDROCK to get underway, after all, we're only talking a month or two away compared to a world of pain.

 

[Shawn Nelson]

Please move to the Accessories section so others can be warned.

Cavision, if you are reading this, come clean. I'd love for you to be a low cost contender, instead of something that everyone warns each other about. I visited your booth at NAB 2007, thought you made some excellent products, this thread made me think otherwise. Please make effort!