Matte Box and Diopter recommendations

[Seth Baldwin]

Building an equipment list for an up coming music video. Were shooting on Alexa Mini, Lomo anamorphic 50mm, 75mm and 100mm round front with also a 32mm square front.

 

First time shooting anamorphic and Im already aware Im gonna need many different diopter strengths which Im not concerned about, my concern is on specific filter trays and matte boxes to support these lenses.

 

The rental house only sell Arri matteboxes, were not to concerned on budget of which matte box to go with, all we need to make sure is that the mattebox can support the round fronts specifically and that the diopters will actually fit in standard filter trays.

 

Any suggestions?

[Kyryll Sobolev]

you will have to use a clip-on mattebox, because i don't think that studio MBs come with a diopter stage (someone correct me if i'm wrong)

 

i have not worked with lomo anamorphics before, but internets tell me that 50mm, 75mm, and 100mm have a front diameter of 110mm, so you can use the standard arri 4x5.65 clip-on MB

 

usually diopters come in 138mm diameter, and diopters up to +1 can fit inside the normal filter holders or even the 138mm stage meant for polarizers,

but a stronger diopter bulges out too far and will not fit in

 

ask the rental house if they have an arri-made diopter stage for the clip-on MB (like this one)

or a non-arri stage like this

in my experience, nobody carries these stages, and if they do - they are usually rented out

 

normally i skip the mattebox and tape the diopter directly to the lens

[Seth Baldwin]

Super useful, thanks for that mate. Haha I suppose taping it on could work if I got that desperate

[Colten Currey]

I have a chrosziel 805 swing away mattebox and it has the rotating 138mm filter stage in before the bellows. Its nice cause you got 2 filter trays plus round stage.

[James Malamatinas]

Arri do do a Diopter stage for their clip-ons, its below. Be aware though that it takes up the space of two filter trays so bear that in mind depending on number of filters you want to use.

Clip-On Diopter Stage: https://cvp.com/product/arri_k2.0014745_diopter_stage_138mm?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI4b-I7-m02gIVjrvtCh0tcQHXEAQYASABEgLJufD_BwE


Regarding Studio matteboxes, these don't have the same kind of filter stage but most if not all Arri ones have this type of filter ring that accepts 138mm diopters

 

Studio Mattebox Diopter Ring: https://cvp.com/product/arri_k2.47190.0/department/cinematography