Cavision Matte Box and follow focus.

C

calito

Active member
I'm looking to by a follow focus and a matte box.

Is anyone familiar with Cavision products?

If so ? What do you have to say about it?

i've got a list of their prices . The entire rig will come out to about 1967 US dollars.
What do you thing of this price?

The rig includes:

4x4 matte box
Rods and support system
Rubber adapter ring.
conical ring
French flag
side flags
shoulder pad
dual handgrips
follow focus
 
Yeah.. its really hit or miss with Cavision. I love those guys, but the stuff is made in China and alot of it is Plastic.

I have various matteboxes and the follow focus, and the mattebox from a couple years ago actually is pretty decent. I have the new wide angle swing away.. and the thing if it was a little more solid would blow alot of them away.. but even the filter trays are plastic, and the filter housing is plastic. A little aluminum, hell even if it was cast, would be 1000% better. The actual swing away is nice machined aluminum, as well as the support rod system. Cavision makes the coolest rods made out of carbon fiber.

The follow focus I have is actually very nice, no plastic, but I have heard a few stories that people got really screwed up ones.
 
Their FF is intended (I think) for the video world. I don't think I have seen one yet mounted on Arriflex/Moviecam, et all. They offer film pitch gear (optional) but the gear it comes with is for Canon or Fujinon lenses (or even for their "add on focus gear for DVX) Backlash between belt driven mechanism and pinion can be adjusted (to a higher tension) and is OK for a video camera but unsuitable (imo) for film lenses.
Overpriced 4 the quality offered.(my 0.02c)
 
I have a Cavision matte box. No real problems with it. The Flag comes loose sometimes. You might have to add some gaffer tape to the tabs to prevent it from falling off your camera. I am about to get some rails for mine. You should see the crazy looks I get from people when I show up with my matte box on there and then I hear them saying stuff like wow thats a big o lens you have on there! My reply as I mumble to myself? Mmm mmm mmmmm some people have no clue! LOL!
 
i hate it when people do stuff like that, i had a wide angle lense on my dvx when i filmed a wedding a few weeks ago and the brides father kept following me around (reguardless of my many attempts to shake him and repeated asking for him to just ignore me and the camera) and while following me around kept asking me "whats that gizmo on the end of that camera of yours."

Some people just dont know.
 
I have the Cavision 4x4 with rod supports.

Over all, it does the job, but the rotating filter tray drove me INSANE until I learned how to work with it. The whole rotating section would slide right out of alignment when I tried to adgust it with one hand.
You need to tighten all the little screws on the mattebox a few times per month to keep thigs fitting together right.

bottom line - these are not the best quality, but for the price you get a good basic tool that has flaws which can be worked around.
 
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