Matte Box Discussion

[Filip Vandoorne]

Do you know how light the shoot35 is?

the weight of the shoot35 in clip-on config - see photo's

 

[Filip Vandoorne]

and the shoot35 in swing-away configuration. The cache in the front is metal, and fixed with magnets.
remove it, and you loose 82gram's

 

[Mike Garrick]

I have the Shoot 35 MB. Nice box, I'm sort a wondering if I can get away with 4 x 4 filter trays though or need to go the next size up & do I need more than 2 stages. Anyway my only dislike with this MB is the plastic filter trays everything else is well made. The rubberised lens mount works easily & repeatably no issues . I like this Matte Box a lot so, I'm actually looking around & wondering if theres a some metal filter trays that will fit this box.

Funny the Pro aim Indian MB's I always dismissed but after the positive comments on this forum maybe I should reconsider . I like Jeff's math for Indian verses Arri. I once owned a Redrock MB but I just hated those blasted foam donuts. I always felt it could take a lot punishment & was built with agriculture in mind...but man life is to short to deal with foam donuts.

 

[Ryan Chapman]

and the shoot35 in swing-away configuration. The cache in the front is metal, and fixed with magnets.
remove it, and you loose 82gram's

Amazing, thank you. This is exactly why I love this forum. It's a little heavier than I thought, but will still work on my steadicam. How long does it take to remove the swing away? It looks like it's attached with screws? The black colored model looks great, by the way!

 

[Ryan Chapman]

I have the Shoot 35 MB. Nice box, I'm sort a wondering if I can get away with 4 x 4 filter trays though or need to go the next size up & do I need more than 2 stages. Anyway my only dislike with this MB is the plastic filter trays everything else is well made. The rubberised lens mount works easily & repeatably no issues . I like this Matte Box a lot so, I'm actually looking around & wondering if theres a some metal filter trays that will fit this box.

Funny the Pro aim Indian MB's I was always dismissed but after the positive comments on this forum maybe I should reconsider . I like Jeff's math for Indian verses Arri. I once owned a Redrock MB but I just hated those blasted foam donuts. I always felt it could take a lot punishment & was built with agriculture in mind...but man life is to short to deal with foam donuts.

The O-Box has plastic trays too, though. Besides the 4x5.6 trays, I really don't see any advantages to the O-Box, despite all the support it has. Especially if you're using smaller lenses. If anything, the shoot35 seems more versatile and easy to work with.

 

[Michael Lindsay]

O'Connor O-Box is another favorite of mine. The mattebox itself is tough as hell. I love their design and the concept of attaching grip handles right to the box. Unfortunately, I never felt that the support hardware which mounts the box to the camera/ rods was solid enough to enable this implementation to its fullest. Every time I've used one or got my hands on one at NAB, on a job, etc.. there was always enough play or flex in the mounting and support hardware to cause me some concern.

try it running 19mm... it seems a bit more workable this way...

 

[Filip Vandoorne]

How long does it take to remove the swing away? It looks like it's attached with screws?

it is attached with screws, and it takes 5 minutes to swap the back's. if you need to switch a lot between swingaway and clip-on, you could just buy the 2 versions as it's very affordable.

 

[Brian Iannone]

I deeply apologize to everyone about appearing to be causing problems. I honestly, truly am not here to troll or cause issues. It's just that, sometimes I see a post that I disagree with, so I give my true opinion. I'm really, really sorry if I annoyed or irritated anyone. I will definitely tone it down from now on.

Sorry everyone.

 

[Mike Garrick]

@ Ryan, Yes it is a great light MB. As I implied before I'm just not sure at what point you start having problems with wide angles lenses like the Tonkina 11- 16 or even the Samyang 8mm . Somewhere in there the matte box will become an issue hence maybe the need for a larger MB. I don't know because I don't have a camera yet to test. Maybe Epic owners know as or if or when they shoot 4k.

@ Hey Brian no probs, I'll swap your youth for my reasoned & more mature (read older...well not that old!) statements any day

 

[steven moreno]

Great thread...I have been looking at all of the above Matte Boxes, except the shoot35, which looks promising. My take on it all...

TrusMT - it's height is adjustable, which is great, but mike said it best - "life is too short to deal with foam donuts" . Also I saw some posts on other forums about it having some looseness and rattle, in fact there is a vid from the manufacturer about how to tighten the swing away. I have their Follow Focus, and it's great and solid...except a little design flaw on the arm, which doesn't hold the FF to the lens unless you crank it super tight. Chinese stuff is getting good.

Proaim - I bought a Proaim kit a while back with shouldermount, FF, MB. I think that it's junk. FF has ridiculous play, mattebox is a toy, shoulder mount is really heavy...only thing worthwhile is the whip and crank. BUT - I did see that new matte box and it looks good. Someone here pointed to the fact that a 4x5.6 is better for wide angle stuff. I would consider it, but still not sold on Proaim in general.

Shoot35 looks great for sure. Maybe the winner, so far.

I shoot with Zeiss glass, as well. My 85 is cine-modded, so it has a 80mm front. I plan to cine-mod the kit, but in the meantime, I will at least have 80mm fronts on all, so my mattebox workflow is faster. Check this site for step-up front rings http://www.cordvision.com/lens-upgrades/

 

[Ryan Chapman]

Great thread...I have been looking at all of the above Matte Boxes, except the shoot35, which looks promising. My take on it all...

TrusMT - it's height is adjustable, which is great, but mike said it best - "life is too short to deal with foam donuts" . Also I saw some posts on other forums about it having some looseness and rattle, in fact there is a vid from the manufacturer about how to tighten the swing away. I have their Follow Focus, and it's great and solid...except a little design flaw on the arm, which doesn't hold the FF to the lens unless you crank it super tight. Chinese stuff is getting good.

Proaim - I bought a Proaim kit a while back with shouldermount, FF, MB. I think that it's junk. FF has ridiculous play, mattebox is a toy, shoulder mount is really heavy...only thing worthwhile is the whip and crank. BUT - I did see that new matte box and it looks good. Someone here pointed to the fact that a 4x5.6 is better for wide angle stuff. I would consider it, but still not sold on Proaim in general.

Shoot35 looks great for sure. Maybe the winner, so far.

I shoot with Zeiss glass, as well. My 85 is cine-modded, so it has a 80mm front. I plan to cine-mod the kit, but in the meantime, I will at least have 80mm fronts on all, so my mattebox workflow is faster. Check this site for step-up front rings http://www.cordvision.com/lens-upgrades/

I was thinking the same thing. I'm just waiting to see if any shoot35 naysayers show up before I pull the trigger and buy one. If you want to save some money, shoot35 sells step-up rings of all the Zeiss thread sizes for 8$ each.

http://www.shoot35.com/products/cinebox/lensattachmentrings/lensattachmentframe.html

 

[Peter.G]

Chroziel & Zacuto sell a swing away bracket to add this feature!

-P

 

[Mike Halper]

Thanks everyone for the lengthy answers. I can see why the O-Box makes sense, and I would love to have the O'Connor brand for my setup, but it seems like it isn't really compatible with my Zeiss ZE lenses, which have all different filter threads starting at 58mm. It looks to me like I'd have to get a 150-114 converter, then a 114-80 step down, then a 80-58, 80-62, 80-67, etc, step downs to make it work. Even if I did do that, screwing all those step downs together with each lens change would kill me, and having them loosely touch would defeat the purpose of such a classy matte box.

I'm looking at matte boxes as well and the O-Box is on the top of my list. I was planning on putting a nuns knickers on the matte box to use it with my Zeiss ZF lenses. Has anyone tried that with the O-Box? How about other matte boxes? I'm looking at the O-Box, MMB1, and Chrosziel 450W-R20 or 450-R30. I know Arri sells a flexible light preventer (like a nuns knickers) for the MMB-2 that works with the MMB-1 if you use the appropriate adapter ring(s).

 

[steven moreno]

I was thinking the same thing. I'm just waiting to see if any shoot35 naysayers show up before I pull the trigger and buy one. If you want to save some money, shoot35 sells step-up rings of all the Zeiss thread sizes for 8$ each.

http://www.shoot35.com/products/cinebox/lensattachmentrings/lensattachmentframe.html

Nice, thanks! Even better - one stop shop. Plus it's nice that you can get both bellows and hard mount and choose between swing away and clip on, on the fly. Liking shoot35 more and more but need to look deeper into the obox.

Of topic, but related...what's the best way to go for NDs? Scheider Platinum IRNDs?

You think that with Zeiss ZE's or ZF's we'd have any problems on the wider end of 18mm (16mm coming soon, I heard) with 4x4 filters?

 

[Ryan Chapman]

i do like the Shoot35 mattebox. they now have a clipon option, its lightweight, can be swing away,
2 rotating stages - the only minor remark is that those are plastic, it would be nice to have a option
to have metal filterholders, but the plastic ones do the job fine and are light.
all the rest is solid construction, metal where its needed = most of it.
limitation was 80mm diameter lenses only, but with the clamp on, other optional diameters are now possible.
the 80mm works perfectly for my Leia-R lensset.
very flexible in adjustments, up to 14mm lenses seems to be usable with the 4x4
it doesnt loose its screws - which i hate - as in the Redrock and Red matteboxes...

^^ Filip said up to 14mm is useable with 4x4. So 16mm should be pretty safe.

 

[steven moreno]

^^ Filip said up to 14mm is useable with 4x4. So 16mm should be pretty safe.

Ah..yes. Thanks. I think I read that, but my brain has been drowning in a Scarlet river full of MB's, MM's, FF's, ND's, rails, ki pros, SSD's, DMSC's, FMJ's, 4k's, FPS', etc etc.

I did look back at the shoot35 site and it says at the bottom "widest lens : 24mm @ 36x24mm sensor size (Canon 5D) - I checked that at the Abelcine Field of View Comparator and 24mm on a 5D is 17mm on an Epic-x and 14mm on a Red One. So it checks out.

 

[Shane R]

Recommend Wondlan Matte Box

Recommend Wondlan Matte Box

For matte box, I can also suggest a good brand : Wondlan

The site is www.wondlan.com I bought from them twice, so far so good. As I know, it's us-headquartered, have manufacture dept. in China supplying all kinds of cam kits. Price is competitive and worth a try. :wink5:


Here is one of types of matte box I copied from their site, hope it can help ya :


Matte Box I (Professional Edition):

1. Main Body--------------------------------------- 1PCs
2.15mm lightweight swing-away arm ---------1PCs
3. rubber gasket(4 standard) -------------------4PCs
4. 360 degree rotating filter stages -----------2PCs
5. filter frames (4*5.65)---------------------------2PCs
6. adjustable filter(altering to 4*4)-------------2PCs
7. top flag -------------------------------------------1PCs
8. side flag ------------------------------------------2PCs


A. Swing-away function for changing lenses;
B. All the three detachable flags are made from aerometal material, which can be detached and fixed easily and quickly. The patent design of bayonets on the lateral flag solves the problem of its easy come-off.
C. The front dia. is 245mm*160mm; the back dia. is 140mm; distance between front and back is 115mm. Suiting for 16:9 screen and wide-angle lens and providing 4 rubber gaskets (suitable for lenses with diameter of 51mm, 64mm, 76mm, 103mm ).
D. Rotating filter grooves available for two 4*4 or 4×*5.65 filters. And the filter frame is rotatable.
E. 15mm diameter rail (International standard) and one can adjust the height of matte box quickly and widely to closely meet the position of all kinds of lenses.

 

[Trevor Meeks]

^^^ Funny... an exact ripoff of Redrock Micro's mattebox...

Shane, do you work for Wondlan? Are you aware that Reduser is a REAL NAMES forum? Not abbreviated last names forum...

Just a friendly reminder.

 

[Felipe Leite]

After reading several posts on Matte Boxes I've decided to get the Vocas MB-255, it can used on rails too and it comes with a 114 to 105 reduction adapter ring, I intend to use it along with the Zacuto universal donut. If anyone has had a bad experience with a Vocas please let me know. Thanks.

 

[Ryan De Franco]

Vocas is fantastic stuff. Well made by good people.