Matte Set for Matte Box?

[Mark Kenfield]

Hi Guys,

 

I'm dealing with the Purple Flare of Doom/Sensor Grid issue with my Sony F5. And I'm keen to try out a set of mattes for my matte box in the hope that they can help me tackle the problem. However I haven't encountered proper mattes before and was wondering how they mount to the matte box.

 

I have an Arri MMB-2, so this is the set I'd be looking at:

 

http://www.abelcine.com/store/Arri-5-Piece-Matte-Set-for-MMB-2/

 

Do mattes like these take up one of the filter trays? Or do they attach to the front of the matte box somehow?

 

Cheers,

 

Mark

[Miguel Angel]

Hello Mark,

 

There are two types of mattes, both of them get attached to the matte box in a really easy way, by putting them in front of the matte box.

 

Both of them will click in the front of the matte box.

Have you noticed that your matte box has 4 little protrusions in the internal part of it? those protrusions will hold the matte chosen.

Also, if your mattes have numbers on the front, those numbers will correspond to the mm of the lenses in 35mm.

 

Let's say that you have a 35mm lens in your camera, you should put the 35mm matte or the immediate below (sometimes with wide angle lenses the corresponding mattes can vignette but that is not usual)

 

You can take a look at this video on youtube on the minute 0:58 (more or less) to see how a matte will work.

 

Alternatively you can try to place black gaffer tape on the front part of the matte box to see if a set of mattes will help get rid of the problem!

 

Have a good day!

[Satsuki Murashige]

Those MMB-2 hard mattes will slip inside the front lip of your shade and are held by a molded lip. There are other kinds of hard mattes that have a lip and slip over the front of the shade.

 

Or, as Miguel says you can just use strips of 2" Photo Black paper tape across the shade for a quick and dirty hard matte. Most ACs and grips will carry a roll on their belt or in their toolkit.

 

There are some 2nd ACs who will go all out and make sunhoods out of chloroplast and velcro to go over the hard matte opening, effectively extending the hard matte for very long lens shots. I think is going a little too far, but whatever makes them and their DPs happy I guess. There is a point where you are actually hindering the light gathering ability of the lens even if you don't see the matte and you will lose stop by doing this. Not to mention you can vignette the out of focus areas of the image and end up with rectangular bokeh. So I wouldn't go crazy with the hard mattes.

[Mark Kenfield]

Thanks guys, appreciate it.

[Miguel Angel]

"Slip inside"! Those are the words I was looking for ha!

 

 

There are some 2nd ACs who will go all out and make sunhoods out of chloroplast and velcro to go over the hard matte opening, effectively extending the hard matte for very long lens shots. I think is going a little too far, but whatever makes them and their DPs happy I guess. There is a point where you are actually hindering the light gathering ability of the lens even if you don't see the matte and you will lose stop by doing this. Not to mention you can vignette the out of focus areas of the image and end up with rectangular bokeh. So I wouldn't go crazy with the hard mattes.

 

 

Actually you do that because sometimes you cannot put the lateral and top flags but you need to have something else besides the matte to stop the light entering the lens and that's the only possible way.

I have used it maybe twice in my life but it was very useful when it had to be, otherwise, I agree with you completely.

 

But eh! 2nd AC's.. we are very inventive and imaginative! ;)

 

Have a good day both!