Then I also bought the Shoot35 Follow focus, revision 1, which was cheap and cheap. I mean, you have a good feeling when pulling focus but… it’s cheap. Again, they made a revision two which is far better and can compete with all the biggest brand. It’s a little more expensive though.

The last thing I needed was a Matte-box. I had to rent one on every time I had a serious work, with sometime some supprises. For example, a rental company gave us the mattebox but without the swing arm… And most of the time when you rent cheap you don’t have a swing arm, you have to take the MB off every time you change the lense, which can happen a lot depending on your DP

Shoot35 announced they Matte box some time ago. The first batch was gone in a minut, and the second also. But this time I was informed and ambushed to be able to order in the second ! And I got one !!

Here is my review with some pictures

Unboxing

So today I received the box. Inside is the classic Shoot35 package with red foam. The MB is delivered with a hard case (made of plasic, it’s not a safety case but is fine for most of us. Maybe they should add an option for a Pellicase…).

Inside you find the MB itself with the flaps. There is another box containing the insert, the « clip-on » (or adaptor) ring  and a set of hallen keys.
The hard case is not the same model as I had before but feels strong. Don’t let it go under a car or in a river though… Also, you can’t lock it. This can be a real problem if you’re taking a fly…

Description

The MB feels solid. The metal parts are strong anodised alluminium, black for most of the parts and red for handles. The swing-away arm is a bit rigid for the moment but I’m sure it will be good after some time.

As you can see on the next picture, the front have 4 white screws in the corners. These are used to « plug » the Matte Insert used to limit the light getting inside the MB. It’s magnetic and stick to the screws.

The CINEbox also offer two filter tray. They can hole 4×4 filters. You can order them red or black. I’ve ordered black as I thought the light bounding on it may give a red tint on the image/flares. Now I have the MB in hands, I don’t think it can be a problem. But this is just a question of design and how you will be a star with your mattebox. I don’t care and the red handles are already fine for me

The filters holders can both rotate independantly. This behaviour is controled by the red handler. As it’s brand new it feels hard to move, specialy if you’re moving them one at a time. You have a clic at every 90°, plus some other in the middle.The white handler is used to lock to filter tray in position. There is a center « click » so you can precisely adjust it.

The Rubber Bellows (Donut) is fine. It is firmly attached to the MB itself using screw. I’m more used to MB where you can take it off quickly, which can be usefull sometime. As this is aimed for « small » optics, the 80mm hole should be enough. In the inside, a ring with small balls is here to « clip-on » a smaller ring adapter. I ordered a 77mm ring to use on my PMW EX1 and the 24-70 f2.8 Nikon lense.

The CINEbox can be used on the EX1 if you open the LCD under the microphone. I tried the MB on it as a clip-on. I wasn’t able to remove the arm, so it was really too heavy for the rubber bellows to handle.

Update : Actualy, the CINEbox manual present a soft-mount (the rubber bellows) and a Hard-Mount, which is made of hard plastic. This is used to « clip on » the lense. You can’t order it right now though. Also, you have to unscrew the rubber bellows, which is not possible quickly on a set. You will have to chose. Also, removing the arm is dony by removing the three bolts connecting the shade to the arm.

The Swing-Away Arm feels really solid. Actualy, much more than some competitors like RedRock.

The left handle allow to adjust the MB independently from the arm. At the closest position, the MB can cross before the arm. This can be handy sometimes. On the other way, if you are short with the 15mm rods, you can push it almost 5cm forward. This is also useful when you have lenses with different length. You can adjust without having to move the arm.
Also, I had a problem with a MB one day, where you HAD to put the arm at the end of the rods. Then the MB was also beeing block by the rods…No way to push it closer…
It’s No problem with the CINEbox. The moving parts are above the arm, so above the rods.

The right handle is here to tighten the swing movement. I would have prefer a quicker push/pull button like on the RedRock, but this handle is really accessible so it should be fine.

You can also adjust the parallelism of the mattebox them the arm is pushed.
One last picture of the arm opened :

I put the CINEbox on my SG-blade rod support. The camera was not there, but I tried with a 50mm f1.2 Nikon lense.

It’s working nicely.

From the front view, you can see the lense is kind of « low » in the hole. It is not centered.This is not a big issue but still.
The SG-Blade is already at it’s top position and I won’t be able to rise it more. As the CINEbox does not have a height adjustment, I’m screwed !!!
I don’t know how they managed this high. I’ll have to check with the competitors mattebox to see if it’s standard. If it is then it’s the SG-blade that is not standard ! I’ll have to figure that out. Again, if it was possible to remove the rubber bellows, I could fit any lense without problem.

Update : As pointed out Wayne, a member of Shoot35 Team, I did not read the manual coming with the CINEbox. This is why  I passed on the height position adjustment. This can be done by loosening the three bolts connecting the shade and the arm. Here is the picture. Sorry Wayne, I was too busy (hurry)….

You also see the flaps handles here. Nothing special to say. They are working perfectly.

The flaps are a little smaller than what I’m used to. I will surely have to design somthing to increase the length of the top flag and use some scratch to tighten it.
The sides flap are also too small. The screw where the moving part  is tighten should be at the same height as the handle of the top flap. Again, nothing really bad, but still…

Conclusion

It’s a good product. It feels solid and is made with good materials. While I’m still waiting to be able to use it on a movie, i’m confident. It is better than some other brands I worked with but still have few small problems. Also, note that this mattebox is designed for the DSLR market. As I’m more in the « movie » (understand old legacy camcorders world) market, I’m used to more versatile hardware.

My opinion is you can seriously go for it. I’ll have a try with a 14mm lense soon to ensure the side of the MB is not in the field (which was confirmed by Shoot35) but I see no reason why.
I hope they will release a V2 soon, with, for example, carbon instead of (heavy) plastic and instant-lock swing-away.

Pros :

• cheap
• solid
• two rotating filter tray
• swing arm
• can adjust height
• clip-on mode if you remove some bolts and buy the hard-mount kit

Cons :

• can’t take rubber bellows off easily
• heavy ? (will have to compare)
• hard to find for the moment (but I don’t care I now have one )

I was so « jealous » that I spent some time on ebay and bought these two, plus a 35-70mm f2.8 macro (macro is only working at 35mm, but i’m sure it will help where the 105mm is too much).
I just received the 80-200 yesterday, so I had some tests.
Of course, my tests are not as good as those from Ken Rockwell.

First, the lense. It’s a brand new one, coming from Hong-Kong. I received it in 3 days with Chronopost, well packed in a Chronobox box. Inside was the lense box with bubbles to protect it. Lense was 660€, 15€ shipping and 40€ taxes.

The lense is massive, heavy, feels really solid.
Starting from the top you’ll find the focus indicator and a « limit » switch. This can be used to constrain the focus ring from infini to 3m or from 2.5m to « macro » mode, which is around 1.5 meters.
Then comes the focus ring. When focusing, the top element moves. Infinite is max inward, macro is max outward. As noted by Ken Rockwell, the external filter thread is made of plastic but the case is made of metal. There is a rubber band at the end so the plastic won’t be hurt if you accidentaly hit something.

On the bottom part is the zoom ring. Moving it will move most of the elements in the center of the lense. This needs to have some strength, but whatever, who love zooms in a video ?
Then comes (not pictured) the support ring. you can rotate it to accomodate. I will have to find a support element for the rig. This lense is heavy and I don’t want it to break the shoe of the SG BLade.
Finaly comes the aperture ring, going from 2.8 to 22, which is not totaly closed. You also have a « lock », if you really want to be sure not to change the apertue without noticing it. Seriously, the aperture ring is not like it will move by itself. It’s well crancked.

And now, set on the rig :
      

And now, result of the first test, featuring Mouchette !!!
(Last pictures are made with the Nikon 50mm f1.2 AI-S)

Last words : it’s heavy, but it’s awsom, clear and sharp. it’s quite hard to follow the focus with this kind of zoom, but I’m sure I’ll get used to that. Footages have just been put on a timeline, quickly graded in one shot with a dispertion + contrast preset.

• Vimeo (see on their site, the embeded version can’t do HD)

Mouchette from sebastien THOMAS on Vimeo.

• Youtube (lesser quality, even in HD… what are they doing ?)

Then, pics of the two 35mm :

There, not much difference. The f1.4 is just a little bigger, but you still have a better feeling with it.

Now, the test on the EX1 + SGBlade and RotoRazor 1 (1080@25p) :

First test finaly done ! 

Check it on vimeo

Notice, on next picture, the Follow focus. At it seems to be a real strong device, you can’t change the gear side. If you want to use it on the left of the camera, you need to have long lenses or, I will try this soon, put the blade support backward to be able to push the floow-focus a little bit closer to the lense mount… (hey, i’m french ! Do you seriously expect me to do a review without complaining ? )

Another complain here… The battery charger of the Blade comes with a UK electric plug. In fact, the charger can also be used from a 12v source (car battery for example). Shoot35 provide a french plug to 12v battery adapter, and then you can use the charger in France. Great ! Maybe I will cut the UK plug and replace it by a french one, or simply cut the 220 input cable and only use the 12v adapter…

Then the plug on the blade. It seems to not « click » when you plug in, meaning the cable could move outside the plus without notice. Be carefull of that !

And finaly my best actress around who helped me shooting (video to come soon) : Mouchette !!

I planed for some time to get a 35mm adapter for my Sony PMW-EX1 camera. A lot of people ask me : what for ?

the short answer is : the Depth Of Field (DoF). A longer answer will also include bokeh, which is how light points render in the ouf of focus part of the image. Generaly, this also describe oh blury is the out of focus area.

The difference of DoF between real 35mm and common video camera comes from the size of the video sensor. Most of video camera have 1/3″ or 2/3″ sensor size, which is far smaller than the full frame 35mm size, as you can see on this picture from http://www.cambridgeincolour.com :

The Sony EX1 and EX3 have a 1/2″ sensor, which is not so bad compared to the 10 times more expensive 2/3″ camera, like the Sony F900.

Without going too deep in how a 35mm adapter work(you can get a good explanation here), let’s see what are the different parts composing it : the lense, the lense mount, the glass, the flip module, the accromate and the camera mount.

• the lense and the lense mount :
  
  most of 35mm adapters offer different lense mount, like Nikon, Canon, Pentax or the more expensive PL mount. Mine will have Nikon lense mount. I also already ordered some old 35mm lense on ebay. More on this later.
• the glass :
  
  depending on the adaptor, the image, coming through the lense, will be displayed on a vibrating glass or a rotative one. First is cheaper to build but have serious problem when using high shutter speed or stopped down lenses. Later have better rendition, but can be really expensives.
• the flip module
  
  When your image reach the glass, it is upside down. Your camera will then record it this way. Some camera have a way to flip the image in the viewfinder so you can work with the picture in the right side. You will then have to flip the image in post production, before cutting it. This is why most brand are selling a flip module. This will simply flip the image, so the camera sees the right image.
• the accromate
  As most prosumer camera have a fixed lense that you can’t take off, you will have to zoom in to have the image using the whole camera sensor. You will also have to focus on the rotating glass, maybe using a macro mode. This can give some distortion to the final image. The accromate is the small part going in between the adaptor or flip module and the camera lense.
• the camera mount
  This is just the piece allowing to fixe the whole adaptor to the camera. It may include a step-up or step-down ring, depending of the thread size of the adaptor and the one on the camera.

Now You know all this, what do you have on the marker ? This is not a full listing but what is available and working on most prosumer camera.

• Letus Extreme
• Letus Ultimate
• Brevis 35
• SG Blade
• RedRock M2
• P+S Technic Pro35 or Mini35

I have just purchased the SG BLade two weeks ago, which will be out mid-february. I also bought old 35mm Nikon lenses, as : 35mm f2, 50mm f1.8, 85mm f1.8 and 105mm f2.5.
I purchased the full kit, with rods, flip module and case for the EX1 for around 1400€. Lenses are between 60/100€ each. I’m still looking for 24mm f2 and 135 f2 or 2.8, but they can be a little bit pricy, like the 24mm sold between 200/300€ on ebay !!

At the end, it should look like this :

This adaptor, successor of the SGPro, seems to lose almost no light, less than 1 f/stop. You can also replace the glass to get one, losing a little more light, but adding some grain and beeing close to some 35mm strips.

Next purchase will be a follow focus and a matte box, but these simple gears are really expensives right now so I will wait to really need them.

While I’m at it, I aslo purchased eFilms MxR express-card to replace the two 8Gb SxS cards of the EX1. I’m about to buy two 16Gb SDHC cards:
MxR cards, 35$ each, and SDHC cards, 30€ each, will give me almost two hours of shooting for less than 200€, which is just half the price of a 30 min SxS card from Sony… Only downside : you can’t shoot overcranked images… I will still have the two SxS cards for that, so, who cares ?

[EDIT]
Just got some news of the SGBlade. First you can get the manual here. Then, here are 3 more pictures of the production release… Yes, we are getting close to it !
    

As I’m looking to buy a 35mm adapter for my Sony PMW-EX1 video camcorder, I need to buy a set of 35mm lenses.

I bought some on ebay. There you will have many people selling the old style AI or AI-S lenses with prices going from few euros to hundreds… Moreover, many lenses were build with different aprture or shape, all having the same name.

Hopefully some kind people made reviews, listings and versus comparison.

Here are some links I found to usefull sites (comments to come) :

• http://www.mir.com.my
• http://www.kenrockwell.com
• http://photo.net/equipment/nikon
• http://www.nikonpassion.com
• http://www.nikonlinks.com
• http://www.cameraquest.com
• http://www.nikonusa.com
• http://www.nikonians.org
• http://www.naturfotograf.com

Readers, I’m still looking for a 24/2, a 85/1.8, a 105/2.5 and a 135/2 or 2.8, all Nikon mount Ai or AI-S. Thanks.