Is the Genus much of a matte box or more of a filter holder?
 

Hi:

This is for Dan and the others using the Genus matte box. It looks awfully shallow to me to be of much use in actually shading the lenses from reflections. Have you shot in bright sunlight with it and have you had any flares or light pollution creeping in on the edges? I have the Cinevate matte box right now but I agree with Dan's assertion that the Cinevate or the Red Rock boxes are too damn bulky for such a small camera and rig. I barely use my Cinevate right now on my HPX170 because it is too big and bulky, especially with the side flags on. I have kind of gone back to mostly screw in 72mm filters as I find using the matte box to be a nuisance unless we have permits or I have an AC with me.

I do mostly run and gun type of shooting and when you put on a matte box and rods, you instantly look a lot more obtrusive. That begs another question. Dan, I love your Beijing footage sequences, do you find it is more difficult to shoot observational documentary footage when your 5D looks like a film camera than when you were shooting with the just the naked 5D? It seems that for just a while longer, we can pass as tourists with an SLR rather than videographer/filmmakers with an HD camcorder. Often, still photographers can get away with shooting in places where videographers get grilled for permits and "will this be used for a commercial project?" Comments? Are we kind of losing one of the best features of the 5D MKII by turning it into a motion picture camera-looking rig?

Thanks,

Dan

Somehow matte box loses it instantly but it comes down to morals anyhow.

How, how is the mod for the rig? I saw a setup that Stillmotion uses with the rails from Cinevate. Pretty interesting solution too.

Please Dan, can you check then if adding a RR follow focus to your actual Genus+5D rig works with shorter nikkor lenses as well?
Thanks (also for all the beautyfull Guardian videos)

Hi. Steven. Have you found if we can use Redrock ff with shorter Nikkors (worst case probably been 50 1.4) and Genus rails?
I already have all this stuff but still waiting for my 5d.
Thanks

If you put the Manfrotto 357 adapter on top of Genus rails, it works even with the shortest Nikon prime..

Great. Thanks. BTW I sent you an email 1 hour ago

Alvise,

A word of caution. If you do a lot of running around with your rig you might find that the 357 quick release plate moves a little on the 5dmkII causing issues with matching the follow focus gears. I see Steven uses a RRS bracket on his camera and I think this may alleviate the problem by giving a better surface for the rubber of the 357 to grip to. Your mileage may vary.

I'm actually thinking about using the Redrockmicro DSLR2.0 mount in preference to the Genus version, or until Genus has a better alternative.

Dan

Thanks. But then Redrockmicro new mount doesn't solve the problem with follow focus (Redrockmicro v1) and shorter nikkors ai/ais, or am I missing something?

Alvise,

Sorry but I'm not too sure about that one, I use the Redrock V2 FF unit. Even with this unit I imagine very short Nikkors might be a problem unless you reverse the FF.

Dan

Ok. I don't think there's a difference between v1 and v2. Gear box is the same one in the same relative place. I'll wait for my 5d to arrive and I'll try out something.
Thanks again Dan for sharing all those infos