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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 :)

Scarlet Matte Box??

Why do people consistently HAVE to have the most expensive accessories? I concede, my Indian matte box and Jag35 shoulder rig and follow focus may not have the build quality of Zacuto or RedRock or Red, but it still works really well and I would assume it would all work really well on the Scarlet, too. Why must I spend into the many hundreds on a follow focus when I can get one for $150(ish) from Jag35?

Oh...just realized this is my first post haha. I've been cruising these boards for forever, guess I've never posted though!
 
bumping ...

oy....3x3...i would say might work for fixed scarlet. If i knew the measurements of the lens...but I think it only has one slot for glass, thats a bummer. I would say 3x3...this is the one I use....its not the best, but it was funny, we bought a 4000 dollar rig from redrock and the mattebox was the same as mine! haha! So i think its a good deal for the price.

http://www.indisystem.com/products/indimatte_pro

If you will use rails for the scarlet, im sure this will fit it. and its not too bad on the pocketbook :)

i guess by the time you get to ordering a mattbox you often realize you're out of budget :)
i spent a good 16.5K on my Scarlet kit, and now on the market for a relatively inexpensive mattbox (we don't use a mattbox often, and if we need a serious one we can always rent)
i ran into this thread and did some more web digging

Solomon, the "indi" part of this MB you suggested actually stands for India :)
i found this on Alibaba
http://www.alibaba.com/product-tp/122194989/PROAIM_DSLR_KIT_7_wide_angle.html

its the very same MB (even same pictures) but with a full rods and follow focus kit. the price seems sci-fi...
how bad of a deal can this be?
intuition tells me this should ork fine.

anyone has experience with indian film gear?
 
Why do people consistently HAVE to have the most expensive accessories? I concede, my Indian matte box and Jag35 shoulder rig and follow focus may not have the build quality of Zacuto or RedRock or Red, but it still works really well and I would assume it would all work really well on the Scarlet, too. Why must I spend into the many hundreds on a follow focus when I can get one for $150(ish) from Jag35?

Oh...just realized this is my first post haha. I've been cruising these boards for forever, guess I've never posted though!

Tommy, you're 100% correct. My production company has 5 of the India version of the RedrockMicro shoulder rigs, matteboxes, and follow focuses. We've used it on everything from 5DII, R1, & Epic. Works perfectly. The FF has some play but for the price, no way on earth will we spend 7x's more on a single item. All of our previous clients have been satisfied as well. They even allow us to upgrade our rigs to the newer version every time they make them. Very professional peeps.

We've used this mattebox -- swingaway, no foam rings, no light leaks... $580. No complaints:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/PROAIM-Matt...ltDomain_0&hash=item2560944aba#ht_3118wt_1110
 
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Ok firstly I would like to point out that this is exactly the sort of subject that makes some groan, I can here it now "grow up buy & an Arri or O'connor & be done with it " However I believe these statements belong in the past because of the camera revolution happening right now, not just in quality, but size. Personally I think its time for a bit of a rethink on this whole issue, what worked in the past doesn't mean it will work as well with smaller & lighter camera's in the future.

Anyway I have used & owned both Redrock's & Shoot 35 versions. Both have good points, both have swing away, a must in my book.

Redrock's is strong, 2 metal 4 x 5 filter trays & really well made, most probably would handle rental situations. Having said that it is a huge big mo fo of a thing, you can see it on Tonaci's 1st Scarlet thread, yes thats the one looking right at home with that huge cine lens. But the killer for me & the reason I sold mine was because of their stupid foam donut system for marrying lens to MB. For me it just doesn't work, it was fiddly, imprecise, sort a jury rigged thing. The last thing you need when shooting.

Shoot 35 MB is smaller & lighter, far more in keeping with a DSMC concept. I like this matte box a lot, it has a "soft mount" rubberised ring that docks with lenses fitted with their lens rings. This system works a treat is fast, accurate reliable & totally repeatable. It has two 4 x 4 filter trays , I don't believe you need bigger filter trays if your using stills glass. (maybe someone can correct me?). My issue with this MB is the plastic filter trays , I hate plastic, particularly in a rough & tumble production environment . Hence because I like this MB so much, I'm actually looking around for alternate metal filter trays & junk the plastic ones. Other than that I believe this is a great MB for Scarlet X.

MB's from India in my opinion if you look at them closely you'll see there's opportunities for light leaks all over the place. Defeating the very reason for using a MB in the 1st place , I don't believe they are worth the money. But having said that I have never owned one and after reading Prince's above post maybe I need to revise my opinion.

Chinese made MB's are different matter, manufacturers like Tilta & Trusmt . Many are carbon fibre & seem well engineered, as to how long they'll last who knows but the quality appears to be there visually . Any MB system offering foam donuts for sealing lenses to MB you need to find an alternative. Prices for these seem to hover around $500 certainly cheaper than many pro options out there. As to how strong they are & how long they will last in the field, some lucky owners need to find that out out & post on this thread ;)

Hope this helps.
 
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I believe that the actual manufacturer for much of the (DSLR) Rigging parts, Followfocus's and Matteboxes that are sold from India vendor Proaim,DV city, Cinecity etc. (all names are same vendor) and most of the sellers of DSLR rigs in the US are manufactured by TRUSMT O&E Technology Co., Ltd in China.
Either from their stock designs, or by international companies own designs and requirements and manufactured by TRUSMT.

In their stock design they have both aluminium and carbon mattebox's. TRUSMT O&E Technology Co., Ltd
They also have a direct sell e-bay store; TRUSMT2011.
 
I have seen somewhere mentioned that the TrusMT mattebox filter holder can only accept filters with max 3mm thickness and a lot off Formatt, Tiffen etc. filters are 4mm thick. This is quite a worrying fact cause I thought this is standardized. After reading this I noticed that none of the matteboxes define a max. filter thickness supported and none of the review videos actually show the insertion of filters.
Does anybody know if this is a false alarm? Anyone tried 4mm thick 4x4 filters in TrusMT or other mateboxes?
 
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