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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

Matte Box Woes

Well, we will not ever release a POS product into the market... if we do then let me know. That price doesn't reflect cheap construction techniques, it represents volume pricing and a thought through design. It's taking longer than I expected because I've been reading everything I can get my hands on that relates to matte boxes and lenses. There's more to design than mimicking whats already on the market.... I was told awhile ago that if you plan to be a contender in the business world your product needs to be an order of magnitude better than whats currently on the market. Or if you can't be an order of magnitude better, then half an order of magnitude and a lower price.
 
...and not to forget, some good reviews and mouth to mouth propaganda, but I know that´s not going to be the problem.
 
CVB said:
I was told awhile ago that if you plan to be a contender in the business world your product needs to be an order of magnitude better than whats currently on the market. Or if you can't be an order of magnitude better, then half an order of magnitude and a lower price.
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Music to my ears.
 
Jaime Vallés said:
That sounds interesting... :shifty:
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Oh, did I say something with an intercultural misunderstanding in it? That was a common adage here, thought there´s the same in english, too.
BTW, read about your breakthrough with your movie on an other thread, congratulations Jaime!
 
Yeah, I was contemplating that... but then I thought it would be better to eliminate the trays altogether... much like the cds in the early 90's. The reasoning is that the closer that you can get the filters to one another the shorther the length of the mattebox. That allows you to accept larger angle lenses. Then I found that damn Tiffen patent... maybe I can get a licensing agreement or make some tweaks. But I am putting serious thought into a filter tray that can handle any size... 6x6's are pretty big (the diagonal is 8.5") and it makes for a pretty big mattebox. Do you have a feel for how many people are using the 6x6" filters?
If theres a lot then I should probably keep that in mind.
 
Alexander Nikishin said:
Speaking of patents, Curt, have you thought of developing a tray that accepts all filter sizes from 4x4 to 6x6?
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I'd wondered the same Alexander. Seems bizarre that it hasn't been done already.

Also Curt can you start making filters too, they're far too overpriced too :)
 
I think the 6x6 and 6.6x6.6 are used for lenses such as the large zooms from companies such as Cooke, Curt.
 
CVB said:
Yeah, I was contemplating that... but then I thought it would be better to eliminate the trays altogether... much like the cds in the early 90's. The reasoning is that the closer that you can get the filters to one another the shorther the length of the mattebox. That allows you to accept larger angle lenses. Then I found that damn Tiffen patent... maybe I can get a licensing agreement or make some tweaks. But I am putting serious thought into a filter tray that can handle any size... 6x6's are pretty big (the diagonal is 8.5") and it makes for a pretty big mattebox. Do you have a feel for how many people are using the 6x6" filters?
If theres a lot then I should probably keep that in mind.
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Trays are actually fairly handy because when you do have the filter in them it becomes a lot easier to handle without getting finger prints on them. Also filters are very expensive and the trays help keep them from rubbing against each other as they scratch very easy.

Now for 6x6 filters. 6x6 is one of the most common sizes and most DOP filter packages are made up of 6x6 filters. This will be a hard decision for you to make Curt as 6x6 will make the matte box a fair bit bigger but if it was a MB that accepted 4x4 right up to 6x6 you would appeal to a larger market. IMO i would suggest go with the larger one that takes all filters at first and in 6-10 months come out with a clip on baby brother version. At the price point you are looking at many would be happy to buy both in time. It pretty much becomes the quandary of the right tool for the right job. Many people will need both but at least the bigger MB that accepts 6x6 will work for everyone.
 
PaulClements said:
I think the 6x6 and 6.6x6.6 are used for lenses such as the large zooms from companies such as Cooke, Curt.
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Hi Paul 6x6 is actually short slang for 6.6x6.6, they are the same thing.
 
Well about making the sunshade thin and resistant, I just wanted you to know, that sometimes, when going in for close ups in wide angles handheld, I have already hit an actor in the forehead with the sunshade.

Ok, I was even less experienced as I am today, and it was totally my mistake (operation mistake, not thinking about removing the sunshade, lack of real world attention), but still, it could have made a cut if it was sharper, and oh my god, that would be incredibly awckward, to actually halt shooting for that!

(as it stands it was just severely awckward, but still not incredibly awckward, if you know what I mean...)

Well, and as you know as it gets cheaper, it gets in the hands of stupid young operators as myself, and well... Sh*t happens...
 
taubkin said:
Well about making the sunshade thin and resistant, I just wanted you to know, that sometimes, when going in for close ups in wide angles handheld, I have already hit an actor in the forehead with the sunshade.
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Hey thats ok man. I had Chevy Chase try and get a producer to fire me because of my smart mouth. He cracked a joke and I shot back with a whity retort that the crew laughed much harder at then what he had said and instead of cracking something to put me into my place he had nothing and just stomped off set. The producer gave me the day off with pay to appease Chevy and I think the only reason why the producer did not fire me was because when I had said it he had laughed the hardest. I learned that day not to upstage the talent. Although you think a big star comedian like him would be able to burn me big, I guess that is why his talk show gig lasted 22 minutes.
 
Definitely include the 6x6 feature in there Curt, older zooms such as Cooke's and Optimo's need the extra size as far as filters go.

I perosnally will only be using 6x or 5x filters.
 
Finner said:
6x6 is one of the most common sizes and most DOP filter packages are made up of 6x6 filters. This will be a hard decision for you to make Curt as 6x6 will make the matte box a fair bit bigger but if it was a MB that accepted 4x4 right up to 6x6 you would appeal to a larger market...
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Hmmm... I think that the 6x6 may scare off many of the EFP / ENG / lightweight / handheld / indy crowd, including anyone coming from the electronic world (F900, Varicam, etc.) Remember that Red is 16x9 camera, and a wee small one at that. I would wager that there would be a bigger demand for a 4x5.6 or 5x5 mid-sized matte box first. Don't know. Maybe it's time for a poll!
 
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