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matte box with long valley equip 15mm rods

M

M Munoz

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Can anybody tell me whether I can mount the Redrockmicro matte box on Long Valley Equip's lightweight 15mm support rods that screw into the front of the camera?

Will I have enough vertical adjustment on the matte box to do this? I believe the Long Valley rods sit much higher than the Red ones.

I'm trying to get as light a configuration as possible.
 
The Long Valley Rods sit at Arriflex 15mm Lightweight Standard, ie. two 15mm rods, 60mm apart and 85mm below the optical axis of the camera. So as long as Redrockmicro's mattebox conforms to standard Arri specs it will be fine.

See:
http://reduser.net/forum/showpost.php?p=60410&postcount=10
 
Yes, Eric is right, and thanks for that, Eric.

Douglas Underdahl
Long Valley Equipment
 
If you want a really lightweight setup, I'm not sure the RedRock mattebox is the best choice for you. It's rather large.
 
Well we offer the Arri MMB-1 which is a great mattebox to fit on 15mm lightweight rods.
 
What is the weight difference between the Redrock and the MMB1? And how about the LMB5?
 
I've posted the weights of the Arri matteboxes in the past. I don't know the weight of the RedRock offhand.
 
I'll second Nils' question and ask a third (???)

How much weight can I put on the end of aluminum 15mm rods?

And how long do the rods have to be for the mattebox to sit in front of the 18-50mm lens?

Doug?
 
I can't find specs on the length of the 18-50 zoom. Just eyeballing the size of it by the PL mount at the rear, I would say the 7.5" rods would be plenty long enough to put a matte box in front of it.
 
I've ordered the mattebox. When it arrives, I'll measure it, and if it looks like it's going to work, I'll contact you.
 
No fitment problems here with the MB1 or RR Matteboxes on Doug's rod system. Its actually a fantastic add-on and looks/feels like it came standard on the camera. Its quite solid and can take weight well. We've tried heavy zooms, motors, and other misc accessories with success.

The main issue with the RR mattebox is the clumsy size of the rear donut hole. Its so big that the front of the rods bump into the mattebox, thus your rods must match your lens length exactly, otherwise you'll never get a flush fit with your lens and rear of mattebox. Its a major weakness of the RR box.

I have a question for you Doug - I emailed you guys regarding shorter rods. Do you know if those are an option yet? I'm looking for something like 1" or 1.5" extensions and 4.5"/5" rods. Zeiss C/Y Primes are too short for the 7.5" rods.
 
Thanks Avenger for your nice review.

We have 7.5" and 2.5" rods standard, and they can be combined to make other lengths, like 5" or 10" (they have male threads on one end and female threads on the other).

Of course you can always cut down a set of rods for other lengths. We might do this as custom for our customers soon.

We are just out of stock on the support and rods right now - very popular problem solver. Should have more in the next week. We are also clear anodizing the rods and drilling them to reduce weight.
 
I just want to reiterate Avenger's comments about the weakness of the mattebox. It really makes the lightweight 15mm spacing set-up very hard to use.
We've since decided to go for their alternate 15mm studio spacing swing-away arm and its working fine. Its certainly worth the extra 100$ for this arm, if you've got the choice.

Andreas
 
Hey Mitch,

Since the trays on the MMB-1 are 4x5.650, am I correct in assuming that the mattebox has to sit at the end of the rods on a 15mm lightweight setup in order for the rear stage to fully rotate? Or can it ride pushed back on the rods a little ways and still have full clearance?
 
No, you'd hit the rods. Not a fault of the mattebox, there's just no way around that on lightweight 15mm rods. It's fine for most use because the rod mount is back far enough that you have plenty of clamping range before you would get to the filter trays.
 
That's what I figured. Thanks for the clarification.
 
allstar03091.jpg

allstar03092.jpg

RED1 with Vocas lightweight 4x4 matte box attached on Long Valley Equipment 15mm rods.
 
Photos of LVE 15mm setup with RedRock MB and FF

Photos of LVE 15mm setup with RedRock MB and FF

Here are some photos of our rig, setup for semi-lightweight field use with the RedRock MB using RR's 15mm lightweight arm. A few notes per the above:

1. You can run the rods long, under the MB, but you have to set the vertical adjustment on the arm all the way up, putting the lens off center - which for us has not been a problem even at 15mm, the 1.6 crop seems to be OK. Its a tight fit though, the rods rub on the bottom of the filter holders/eye

2. We too need rods in between the small and long sizes offered by Doug - yes, we can chop, but the threading is nice to retain.

3. We've had good luck screwing together multiple "short" rods to get the right fit - as noted, with 15mm lightweight, any MB will hit the front of the rods unless adjusted up and even then, not sure about Arri, still clumsy and of course off center

4. Doug's handle, 15mm setup and drive mount are AWESOME - we shoot a lot on skis and foot in remote areas, and ahve found no other way to get the overall R1 setup as light while keeping rods on the front

5. If you want images of the adapter without rods, check out the video on Long Valley's site/link to same

6. We're going to buy a lighter MB for run and gun work - right now, we just use filter mounts on the lens if carrying gear a long ways, but its not quite enough - need the flags and ability to use larger filters....
 
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