matte box

[Joe Lloyd]

Looking to get a mattebox, either a 3 x 3 or 4 x 4 chrosizel or the century optics. Any thoughts on any of these items?

[Ken Tanaka]

Well-made, gold-standard industry gear. I have a 4x4. Give ZGC a call and they'll make sure you get the right rig and adapter rings, or rods, depending on your needs.

[Joe Lloyd]

Ken,

the 4 x 4 fits with no major issues on the XM2/Gl2?

[Marco Leavitt]

"Well-made, gold-standard industry gear."
Is that the Century or the Chroziel?

[Ken Tanaka]

Marco: Chrosziel. Top dollar but well engineered.

Joe: I've not used my Chrosziel on my GL2. But I have used it frequently with my XL1s and, more recently, on my DVX100A.

Do give ZGC a call, as there are specific piece-parts required to properly adapt these units to a specific camera.

[Travis Cossel]

This may not be the best place to ask this, but what purpose does a matte box serve? And it seems that one would be ungainly on a GL2, but I'm thinking handheld, so maybe on a tripod is less troublesome. I've never used one, but would sure like to understand why one would want to. Thanks for your patience.

[Ken Tanaka]

The "matte box" dates back to the early days of filmmaking in which one of its primary functions was to facilitate matting (blocking-out) part of a shot. Cut-outs could be inserted in the matte box to mask-out parts of a frame, thus allowing other images to be placed in the darkened area. Of course this has become somewhat of an ancient art with the advent of digital special effects. Still, some of the really great special visual effects shots in films were made with the aid of the "matte box".

Today its primary functions are to facilitate the use of rectangular filters and to facilitate a French flag and side-wings to protect lenses from flare.

Aside from poser value, it's not an instrument designed for casual run-and-gun shooting around the 'hood or club <g>. It's an instrument to aid in accomplishing specific visual goals with a camera.

[Travis Cossel]

Okay, thanks for the explanation. Unfortunately I got my degree in Biology before I realized that video is where I needed to be, so I'm having to learn all of this on my own now. I appreciate the help.

[Graham Bernard]

Ken, maybe you could point us to some "before" and "after" websites depicitng the "useful" options for appyling filters and the like? - Am I coirrect in thinking that "blue" sky is possibly one of the areas that can be captured when using a DV cammie and a matte box - ie filter? Or have I goit totally wrong?

So wotz wrong with posing - HMMM..!!?!?! ;-)

Grazie

[Robin Davies-Rollinson]

The most useful filter to use in a matte box for DV is the graduated ( "Grad") filter. This is a neutral density filter going from clear to a defined value such as 0.3, 0.6 etc via a very gradual or quite pronounced change.
It's used for cutting down areas of high exposure in a shot - the sky for example, especially bright overcast skies with little or no detail in them. This would burn out completely with video, but the grad filter will control it. Grads are usually oblong, not square, so that when they are in the filter tray, they can by moved up or down according to where the skyline has been composed.
It's all about image control.

Robin

[Ken Tanaka]

Robin's spot-on. Neutral grad filters are the mainstay for matte boxes. You can also find colored grad filters for color-enhancing a portion of the frame. There are also polarizers. Good matte boxes, like Chrosziel's, feature one rotating tray perfect for a polarizer. Nearly all of the filters available as screw-ons can be found as rectangulars (albeit at higher prices). There are actually many more image control options with matte boxes and rectangular filters than with circular filter.

I should have noted earlier that the -real- origin of matte boxes pre-dates filmmaking. They've been around since the early days of photography and are still used for still work to accomplish the same goals as above. Of course Photoshop has greatly lessened the need for them in the digital still world.

Grazie, I cannot cite an extensive site for showing filtration effects. Tiffen's site, if I recall correctly, features a bit of this. Schneider Optics also has some very good examples.

[Graham Bernard]

Thanks Ken .. just had a "quick" look, lots of nice detail to read . .

Wddyah think of this "kool" gizmo? :http://www.digitaljournalist.org/issue0402/richards.html

Grazie

[Robin Davies-Rollinson]

Although Cokin only make smaller filters, they too have a small version of a matte box - more a filter holder with a clamp-on modular square lens hood which might suit some people. I tested one out on an XM2 with favourable results. Their website at www.cokin.fr will show some good examples of filtration as well.

Robin.

[Marco Leavitt]

I've actually been looking at the Cavision matte box which has a bellows. Is a hard shade better? The bellows LOOKS cooler anyway. :)

[Robin Davies-Rollinson]

Bellow are better, since they'll extend to suit the focal length of the lens.
If you're shooting dangerously close to the light on a long lens, they will help a lot.
I use an Arri matte box which lives on the camera now. The rails help for holding the camera when hand-held and are also useful for tying off cables to the mixer etc.

Robin.