Questions on Arriflex 35-3 with Cooke 25mm

[Ryan Alexander Huang]

Hi all,

 

Student filmmaker here. Very excited to be joining this great forum after lurking around for a while!

 

I filmed a feature in high school on digital, but will be shooting my next short biopic on film. We're using an Arriflex 35-3 with a 25mm Cooke Speed Panchro (series 3). I just have a few questions regarding this configuration:

 

1). The Cooke 25mm is a beautiful but dainty piece of glass, especially when mounted on the Arri - can anyone provide some input or advice in regards to pulling focus with this setup?

 

2). On the subject of the lens, which matte box or hood would be the best to use? Additionally, how will the matte box affect focus pulling in front of such a small lens?

 

Thanks in advance for your time!

 

-Ryan

[Dan Finlayson]

1) You'll definitely need a follow focus, there won't be enough room for a hand to pull off the barrel with a matte box on there.

 

2) Something rail mounted, MB-19 or MB-20

 

3) Be careful with wide lenses on the 35-3. I own one (though its in another state right now) and the rental house I bought it from warned that the mirror is at a different angle or position or something than later cameras (like the 535, 435, Moviecam, etc) and that some older wide lens can actually touch the mirror. If a lens were to touch when you roll the camera, you would destroy both the camera and likely the lens. I can't speak for the 25mm Cooke Speed Panchro... maybe someone else on here has some more specific info on this

[Ryan Alexander Huang]

Thanks, Dan! Appreciate the info.

[Edgar Nyari]

I seem to be having the same problem with Schneider 28mm, on Arriflex 35-III. Not only is this thing so tiny but half of the lens body goes into the mount opening, so all you have in the end are two rings, aperture and focus sticking out of the camera, the rest of it disappears into the body of the camera. One other problem I had was how to close the rear opening of the matte-box around the lens, because for the matte-box I have, there are no step-down rings or rubber extensions with an opening small enough to embrace the body of the lens. And if there were, they would directly touch the aperture ring, which is another problem. So what I did in the end is made a custom "nun's knickers", which makes it easy to pull it off the lens any time I want to adjust the aperture.

Edited July 26, 2015 by Edgar Nyari