Matte Box for letus

D

Dli151

Member
I have a up coming shoot for a commercial. I'm sticking to my bread and butter the HVX-200 with an Letus extreme.

  • 1 24mm f 2.0 lens
  • 1 28mm f 2.0 lens
  • 1 35mm f 1.4 lens
  • 1 50mm f 1.4 lens
  • 1 85mm 1.4 lens
  • 1 105mm f 2.5 lens
The last time that I shot out door I did not have the luxury of having a matte box, and ended up with a few dingles that slipped past. We have the budget to get one now, so I called up our local production house that has them, and they did.

What i don't understand is that if were using 15mm rails I though the matte box would slide to and slightly over the edge of the lens.

I thought that the way they were fitted was to the size in mm of the lens. Say our 50mm lens has a 55mm diameter, ie the lens cap size. When i spoke with him he referenced to them as 4x4 and a few others. I get that 4x4 is that size of the filters that we slid in. How would i know which one.

I'm doing some research but its like trying to finding a needle in a hay stack on the web. Can some one point me in the right direction.

Thanks in advance
 
You're understanding of how they work is correct. They do slide slightly over the end of the lens. Most have soft or hard foam donuts with a hole slightly larger than the lens.

The 4x4 filter size is fine for what you need.
 
The RedRock Micromattebox is pretty unmatched of its price. Mounts right on 15mm rods and has two 4x5.6 shots for filters.
 
The RedRock matte box comes with four different donuts. But in my case, none of them fit my 35mm lenses. The price/performace of the Red Rock unit is tough to beat, but it does come with some negatives....

1) It's very heavy
2) It's very large (might be a good thing)
3) You have to hand trim the donuts to make them fit your lenses

Otherwise it's and awesome unit. If I was to do it again, I would seriously look at one of the Zacuto matte boxes and use their universal donut. It looks to be a better design. But that setup is going to be almost twice as expensive, especially when you consider you'll need to buy their swing-away mount as well.

Red Rock = $750
VS
Zacuto = $1200
Swing-Away = $300? (I can't remember exactly)

Cinevate also makes a new swingaway mount they introduced at NAB that's worth looking at.
 
MitchLewis said:
The RedRock matte box comes with four different donuts. But in my case, none of them fit my 35mm lenses. The price/performace of the Red Rock unit is tough to beat, but it does come with some negatives....

1) It's very heavy
2) It's very large (might be a good thing)
3) You have to hand trim the donuts to make them fit your lenses

Otherwise it's and awesome unit. If I was to do it again, I would seriously look at one of the Zacuto matte boxes and use their universal donut. It looks to be a better design. But that setup is going to be almost twice as expensive, especially when you consider you'll need to buy their swing-away mount as well.

Red Rock = $750
VS
Zacuto = $1200
Swing-Away = $300? (I can't remember exactly)

Cinevate also makes a new swingaway mount they introduced at NAB that's worth looking at.
Click to expand...

Great mini review! All I needed to know.
 
For the low end, Red Rock is hard to beat. Lot of goods for the money. That said, there are other contenders now. Chrosziel CMB runs for about 850.00 (I think) and can be converted to a clip on as well (great for non-still lens use). Also, the Chrosziel build is pretty awesome.

Right now, I'm running a Chrosziel 450-1 I picked up here for 700.00 (great deal). It's two stage and takes 4x4 and 4x4.65 (this stage can also do 4x4 - saves you a bit of money). I personally love the build quality of Chrosziel and it's very light weight ( a priority for me).

They've recently come out with flexible step down rings that go from 50-85 and 80-95 and 90-110. They're simply awesome. They use a rubber ring inside the hard ring that conforms very easily to a range of lens diameters. Far better and more pro than the neoprene donut method. Light tight. My AC absolutely loves them. I bought them for my RED since MB's often don't perfectly center on the lens, making hard step down rings less than light tight. These flexi step downs solve that in a far more elegant way than donuts as well as what Zacuto tried to do with their universal donut (unfortunately, it slips off small lenses and isn't as easy to use as it looks). By far the best seal method I've seen short of a clip on.

That said, another MB worth looking into is the new Arri MB1. It'll set you back about 1500.00 but the build and performance is truly pro stuff. A bargain at that price. It can go rods and clip on. Whenever I use PL mount lenses I prefer clip on (lighter, better seal). Every detail about this MB says you'll have it a long time and never be embarassed at any level.

If I could do it all over again, I'd probably go that route.

In the meantime, deals do pop up in Marketplace (I've scored a Petroff and my Chrosziel at almost half price and in great condition)
 
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yeah i agree that the RR mattebox is a great deal for the cash. solid build etc. but i hate the neoprene donut they use.

the chroszeil donuts are way way better. the one i have is a is like a round rubber bellows with a hard ring in the middle. it's 80mm diameter and slides perfectly over cine lenses. then the bellows flex easily with the lens as you focus. for my SLR lenses, i have 80mm step up rings on them to make them fit flush just like the cine lenses. plus this donut will accept a round 4.5 filter such as a polarizer and the whole thing rotates 360 degrees. so that's a rotating 4.5 donut stage, one rotating 4x4 stage, and one fixed 4x4 stage. i picked it up used with a rod support plate and rods for $500.
 
I'm thinking of the RedRock Mattebox, but using the Zacuto universal donut. Can the Zacuto universal donut fit in the RR Mattebox? If not, can it easily be modded for the RR mattebox?
 
I love my RedRock mattebox! Sure it's big, but as someone mentioned this can be a good thing. It's very well thought out and manufactured, swings away, accepts 4x5.65 filters and comes with nice case foam insert.
I hate their filters, though. I get terrible magenta cast with their NDs - much worse than built-in NDs my HMC151 offers.
 
scenedirector said:
I'm thinking of the RedRock Mattebox, but using the Zacuto universal donut. Can the Zacuto universal donut fit in the RR Mattebox? If not, can it easily be modded for the RR mattebox?
Click to expand...

I had the Zacuto Universal donut. I found the design quite a pain to use and far less convenient than the already inconvenient neoprene donuts. A real pain to fit onto short Nikons.

The Chrosziel flexi step down is b far the best method for non clip ons.
 
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