Accesories to go with 35 mm

CookFX Productions

CookFX Productions

Well-known member
I know a matte box is key to go along with my adaptor, but is there any other things that I should be thinking about getting to make production better? Also to go with that question I have a older manfrotto tripod that has a cracked support is rigged a bit. Any suggestions for tripods to support a dvx a letus extreme and rail system and indie follow focus. thanks

BRian
 
rail support system, follow focus, monitor, whips, matte box is helpful, various lenses, etc. (noticed you mentioned a few in your post). There's quite a list to get your adapter working as efficiently as possible

I use a bogen 503 head with 3046 legs with my dvx/letus flip/rails/monitor and it works fairly well.
 
Step back a second, a matte box is a key only if you are requiring a matte box. That is, if you already have matte box filters to slide in. If you just want a matte box to reduce risk of lens flare, french flags are more appropriate and often more effective, as well as cost effective. Clamp them to rails on camera or position them to block lights off camera, to allow for a bit of freedom.

If you are using 35mm still lenses, you most likely have, or can get screw on filters.
Since you have a "depth of field" adapter, I'm predicting you'll be using it at max apertures to emphasize the shallow focus, so you probably won't be needing filters to make the image softer, as it already will be. But perhaps a creative filter set is what you yearn.

As Tomiger said, a Rails Support System is essential, especially when using a tripod, attach a matte box, or just for general support (to not brake camera threads/drop lens/etc..)

As for tripod, calculate your max weight of camera/adapter/lense/rails/etc... to work out what head require, and hence the sticks.
If you are going to be using a jib arm, or a slider, again, you need to take this into account for the max weight on the tripod legs.
Are you going to be wanting to shoot very low? and if you don't also have a high hat - then you might want to get some legs that can go ultra low (from ground).
Do you want to be able to move light weight and can sacrifice a little bit of stability (arguable), or are you shooting studio?

As for follow focus, again like most of these 'accesories' (maybe essentials is more appropriate, if goal is "to make productions better"), there are lots of opinions and topics in these forums for them.

:)
 
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The main concern I have at this point really is the small things if Im going with an indie focus which I know is a constant thing on a lot of peoples mind whether that it being so cheap makes up for other things so you can save in places for your railing system and adapter price. Thanks for the feed back, I thought when I bought my camera and my workstation and getting those two things were hard to decide on this is like trying to pull teeth so many different opinions everyday. I dont know what adapter to go with the focus, the rails.
 
It will all depend on how you use it - for all the items.
There is some great footage shot with all the adapters and different follow focuses, much like there is some not so good footage out there.
A finished product should work, some may work better, but the results will largely (well they should completely) depend on how you use them.
It's all a bit like buying a Sony or a Canon or a Panasonic etc... always going to be different opinons.
The indie focus is quite cheap compared to some other brands, but then again I'm sure there are some really cheap (both in price and quality) ff's out there. Indie focus has a good rep, so I wouldn't look at their low prices as a negative, or a reflection to their quality OR ELSE they'll start raising them = not good for us :(
 
Good point friend. Really its just down to the damn tripod. Such a simple thing yet so expensive and easy to break. I live in michigan and do lots of winter shooting and have had many tripods break in the proccess of coming and going from inside to out and so on. Lucky for me acclamating a camera is easy. tripods snap from cold to warm if your not completly carefull coming in from out of the cold. I think that goes for most things though. I've learned the hard way a few times. Would you say a tripod that holds 13 lbs would be enough for a letus extreme w/rails and a follow focus?
 
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Hardly. I'd say at least 18 lbs.

ie: camera - 7+ lbs, extreme - 3 lbs, rails - 3 lbs, lens - 1++ lbs,
follow focus, monitor, etc...

So, minimal setup is probably around 15 lbs.
But you would want to have room to add items, not to mention using the max weight of a tripod head isn't preferable.

I'm actually trying to decide today on a new tripod head and sticks. Too many variables, not to mention choices - looking at Manfrotto/Miller range. Arghhh decisions decisons :(

What tripods have you had break in the past due to sudden climate changes? Or just break for any reason for that matter? Getting me a bit worried.
 
I've been making do with a Cartoni Focus for a while and its just not enough fora 35mm adapter with something like an 80-200 zoom lens. I'm finally going to spring for a serious tripod, but its not cheap. I am probably going with a Miller arrow 25 - but that's up in the $4-5000 range. Just tired of having the camera shake on a long lens shot.

I was at B&H recently and the salesman there told me he had a lot of clients who did cold weather shooting and they like the miller especially the Miller Sprinter II legs - much more than the sachtlers for cold weather. I think it was the carbon fibre versions. Again, not cheap though.

That's closer to a 30 lb set up equivilent to a Sachtler 15 or even heavier. I weighed my HVX w/ Letus + 80-200 at 15 lbs. You don't want to max out your tripod.

Lenny Levy.
 
Lenilenapi said:
I'm finally going to spring for a serious tripod, but its not cheap. I am probably going with a Miller arrow 25 - but that's up in the $4-5000 range. Just tired of having the camera shake on a long lens shot.
Click to expand...

I haven't had the luxury of testing an arrow head out (i'll keep praying), but i'm predicting long lens shake (on adapters ie: no optical stabilisation) will not change much from say a miller ds20 to an arrow, UNLESS you have a lens support eg:
cavision
redrock
geardear

I may be wrong, and please tell me if you/anyone has used a lens support and is still receiving lens shake (on a reasonable fluid head & sticks ofcourse - eg: miller) as I'm trying to decide on a lens support.
 
OK im gonna stick my foot in my mouth with this one But I've been looking at tripods all day on B&H And I would never take my 35 out into the cold just for practical reasons. I havent read any posts about people shooting out side and temp settings. Anyways they have Libec Tripod For 650 that holds 33 lbs its the Libec TH-2000 - But ther pretty vauge on the head It says fluid for pan and tilt, but its not a stage 2 or anything. for the deal would it be worth it? I dont think I would break this one. God I would hope not, if i break another cross bar im gonna give up on tripods.000
 
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