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ACL Matte Box


Tom Houston

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Guest Glenn Brady

I'm reasonably certain the matte box shown with the Ikonoskop is a Chrosziel 3x3-inch. Cavision sells matte boxes that are less expensive than those offered by Chrosziel and, in my view, they're just as well made (http://www.cavision.com).

 

You may need 15mm rods spaced 60mm center-to-center to accommodate a matte box if you haven't got them already. American Cinematographic Systems is currently developing a rod support for the ACL - arfilm76 (at) yahoo (dot) com - that should be reasonably priced.

Edited by Glenn Brady
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I'm reasonably certain the matte box shown with the Ikonoskop is a Chrosziel 3x3-inch. Cavision sells matte boxes that are less expensive than those offered by Chrosziel and, in my view, they're just as well made (http://www.cavision.com).

 

You may need 15mm rods spaced 60mm center-to-center to accommodate a matte box if you haven't got them already. American Cinematographic Systems is currently developing a rod support for the ACL - arfilm76 (at) yahoo (dot) com - that should be reasonably priced.

 

 

Glenn,

 

I wasn't able to find American Cinematographic Systems through a Google search...Do they only have an email presence?

 

R/

 

Tom

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Guest Glenn Brady
Glenn,

 

I wasn't able to find American Cinematographic Systems through a Google search...Do they only have an email presence?

 

R/

 

Tom

 

Tom

 

I'm advised a new website is in the works, but yes, at the moment, there's only e-mail. It's basically a one-man operation. I've written an article about the ACS rod support made for Beaulieu 2008/4008 series cameras that's supposed to appear in the next issue of Super 8 Today. You'll be able to assess the quality of the product in the illustrations accompanying the article.

 

Glenn

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Guest Glenn Brady

Tom

 

It's American Cinematographic Specialties, not American Cinematographic Systems. My error.

 

Glenn

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I have one of the $359 cine city matte boxes w/ rod support: http://www.thecinecity.com/tcc/home.php?cat=270 it works fine, however the ACL lens must not be mounted in the "standard" position because every matte box i've tried is a bit off to the side and not high enough. i was able to make it work by flipping the rod support mount upside-down, but i still have to kinda pan the camera just a tiny bit to get the lens centered in the matte box. it works but i would not really say it's ideal.

 

i also have an old matte box and rod support from a redrockmicro M2 (see pic). that one, again, i had to build a little riser to get the matte box up high enough and over to the right (i just fashioned the piece using the metal from a coffee can, and covered it with gaffers tape for a super-cool look :-)

 

i haven't had the pleasure of working with one of the really high-end matte boxes so they may have better horizontal/vertical adjustment.

 

2rh36l2.jpg

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Tom

 

I'm advised a new website is in the works, but yes, at the moment, there's only e-mail. It's basically a one-man operation. I've written an article about the ACS rod support made for Beaulieu 2008/4008 series cameras that's supposed to appear in the next issue of Super 8 Today. You'll be able to assess the quality of the product in the illustrations accompanying the article.

 

Glenn

 

 

Would you be willing to share the pictures of the rod system?

 

Thanks again for the info!

 

Tom

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I have one of the $359 cine city matte boxes w/ rod support: http://www.thecinecity.com/tcc/home.php?cat=270 it works fine, however the ACL lens must not be mounted in the "standard" position because every matte box i've tried is a bit off to the side and not high enough. i was able to make it work by flipping the rod support mount upside-down, but i still have to kinda pan the camera just a tiny bit to get the lens centered in the matte box. it works but i would not really say it's ideal.

 

i also have an old matte box and rod support from a redrockmicro M2 (see pic). that one, again, i had to build a little riser to get the matte box up high enough and over to the right (i just fashioned the piece using the metal from a coffee can, and covered it with gaffers tape for a super-cool look :-)

 

i haven't had the pleasure of working with one of the really high-end matte boxes so they may have better horizontal/vertical adjustment.

 

2rh36l2.jpg

 

Jason,

 

Nice looking rig! What kind of lens is that?

 

Tom

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Guest Glenn Brady
Would you be willing to share the pictures of the rod system?

 

Thanks again for the info!

 

Tom

 

Tom,

 

I'd be happy to share pictures. Unfortunately, I'm 'computing challenged' and have never succeeded in posting pictures to this forum. If you'd PM me with your e-mail address, I'd be pleased to send the pictures I have of the ACS rod supports for my Beaulieu and Bolex cameras. If you search '4008 rod' at this forum, you'll find a post by Seth King of American Cinematographic Specialties showing the ACS rod support on a Beaulieu 4008 series camera.

 

Glenn

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The adapter looks like C-to PL. The outer mount on the ACL (TS) is a more stable choice. It must have been pricey too, but I am sure it works fine.

 

yea its the c-mount version. i originally planned get one of Les Bosher's PL mounts, I have one of his Nikon mounts & it's solid as a rock. But this one came up on eBay with the lens for a good price so I snagged it. it seems like it's made out of some lightweight aluminium or something, but it actually feels really solid. I don't know if I were to put a big honkin' telephoto on there, though. my wife says that the camera is my little doll that i like to play dress-up with. sadly the analogy is apt.

Edited by Jason Hinkle
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my wife says that the camera is my little doll that i like to play dress-up with. sadly the analogy is apt.

 

Hi Jason,

 

say thanks to your wife for the first luagh on a rather dreary day! :lol:

 

Cheers, Dave

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  • 8 years later...
  • 6 months later...
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Can somebody tell me if the ACL fits with a 4x4 or 3x3 mattebox? I found this one: http://cavision.biz/MB3485S.aspx

Seems to be of good quality and is not expensive. Also, this one seems to work without rods, which if possible, is something I really prefer since I shoot mostly with the camera handheld.

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Hey Willem,
Unless you have access to a lot of 3x3 filters, I would recommend going with 4x4. It's the most common, most affordable filter size that will cover the primes and zooms that you may want.

 

The next issue, the possible matte box brands. There are a couple of "off brand", second tier or whatever manufacturers that are worth exploring and supporting. Cavision is, almost but not quite one of them. Petroff and Genus or Genustech come to mind.

 

Also, Chrosziel are really great designers and second hand MBs are often there on eBay, good value for money.

 

For work on a tripod the weight of the MB isn't important, so rod mounting and swing away are usefull. Mabe a used Crosziel, or there were some interesting swing away matte boxes from the no mans land of China and India that looked interersting a year or so ago, and are affordable new.

 

The most interesting (to me) modern lightweight 4x4 design that is affordable new is probably from Petroff. One of theirs has rod mount and or clip on. Another on worth a look is Genus or Genustech. Also, Shoot35.

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  • 1 month later...

Don't know much about his matte boxes, but I've had a couple of his rods with base units and they are very well designed and made. Adding weight though. One unit I still have, someone had drilled/milled out quite a lot of alloy from the base, which helped.

 

Once you are looking at the design requirements for a rod system for an ACL it is quite trickey. I had some fun in ACAD drawing for an ACL II rod system. The camera designers were not thinking much about Indies and artists shooting precise stuff with matte boxes. The ACL II camera base is not very friendly to the available generic rod base systems. I have one ACL II camera base that was customised, actually, probably made from scratch, so that the rod mount simply screwed to the camera base.

 

The ACL II is also getting a bit uncomfortable on the shoulder with rod base and a quick release plate attached. My thoughts went this way...a 19mm rod base that enabled a set of stiff handles, shoulder cushion and rear mounted battery. With a 15mm rod mount at the front. All trying to be light.

 

It's a shame that the era of the film camera as the ubiquitous production tool is over, because a third party adaption of the ACL magazine with composites would deliver something really light. Lighter than an Aaton, and bringing any desired ergonomic refinements. Basically taking all the hardware from the existing magazine and putting it into a carbon/kevlar shell. The initial easy way being to preserve a small part of the front of the alloy shell.

post-47078-0-58839600-1538347675_thumb.jpg

Edited by Gregg MacPherson
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Really interesting, Greg. I like the design, especially the shoulder cushion. I don't really understand why they made the bottom of the 400ft magazine round and not more shoulder ergonomic. It's not a big bother to me, but it would've made more sense, right?

 

I have handles and got a DIY made rod base from the guy that sold me his ACL. He still has to ship it to me, though. But my plan is to get two 15mm 9" rods and add it to the base with the handles at the end. Hopefully it works out. Adding a shoulder cushion would be a nice final touch if there's a way to do that.

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