matte box shade anyone?

[Andrea Gazzoni]

anyone is using this kind of cine box shade on their LF camera?
any advice? is this overkill for photography at 1,7lb ?

thank you
andrea

[Brian C. Miller]

Nope, I'm not using one like that, but I wish I was! Keeping stray light away from a lens greatly improves resolution and contrast. I have a compendium shade, but it only works with the Lee adapter. Some of the lens shades can attach to a hotshoe mount, and then can shade the lens from the sun.

[Andrea Gazzoni]

how practical are those Lee/compendium shades ?

I am not fond of these screw-on system, in fact I often find myself annoyed by the Cokin P type filters, too much fiddling with plastic adapters, too many rings to search around in your backpack, filters slipping in the holder, etc... not so practical when your in a hurry with light vanishing in minutes.

[Bob Salomon]

Yes and no. The type you illustrated, no. It is attached to the lens of a non-adjustable camera. A proper compendiium for a LF camera attaches directly to the camera front standard. It tilts and swings as the standard moves plus it has shift and rise as well as being adjustable in and out. That way it will allow maximum extension of the compendium without vignetting when you do front or back movements.
Many also have cropping masks to allow you to permit only the light rays actually making the exposure to reach the image plane.

The type you illustrated on a view camera would simply be an adjustable length lens hood.

[Kimberly Anderson]

I have the Lee system and use it whenever I can. The problem with the Lee system is that you have to have step-up or step-down rings for any lenses that are very small. With my G-clarons smaller than 355 adapters are needed.

I would think honestly that the compendium that attaches to the front standard is best. I am strongly considering one even though I already have the Lee.

[drew.saunders]

how practical are those Lee/compendium shades ?

I have a Lee hood with 2 filter slots and the adaptors on most of my LF lenses. It's more practical than individual screw-on filters, since I only need one of each filter. The adaptor can get in the way of some of the controls on an LF lens if you have large hands, like I do. I probably should just bring along a pencil with a good eraser so I can get grip on the levers etc. I found the wide-angle hood with 2 slots to work well enough for all of my lenses, even my 300mm on 4x5.

[Frank Petronio]

One of the nicest compendiums I used was from a Wista because it mounted to the front standard and it allowed me to compress and extend any of the four corners to suit the situation. It also swung up and out of the way for quick lens adjustments, and it was large enough that I could still attach a filter holder to most moderate-sized lenses.

Most of the other brand-dedicated shades don't allow that but at least follow the front standard's movements. Many provide adjustability but don't allow you to quickly swing them out of the way to cock the shutter, etc. Even the compendiums from the fancy brands like Sinar, Arca-Swiss, etc. can be slow and awkward to use, especially outdoors or for portraits where you need to work smooth and fast.

For a screw-into the lens shade, the nicest I found was an older Hasselblad Pro-Shade with the appropriate threaded adapter (in mm, not Bay series). Nicer than the Lee IMHO, except sometimes the "arms" get in the way of wider angle lenses.

In the end, especially for field work in the wind and wanting to work fast, I would use a shallow screw-in metal shade and a little Voodoo with the darkslide or my body to shade the majority of the extraneous light.

[Andrea Gazzoni]

also found this one, fully compatible with cokin p adapter rings.
it accepts one filter but cannot rotate it, so grads may be difficult to use.
the main concern is how difficult accessing shutter controls could be with such a rig attached to the filter thread.

[anglophone1]

also found this one, fully compatible with cokin p adapter rings.
it accepts one filter but cannot rotate it, so grads may be difficult to use.
the main concern is how difficult accessing shutter controls could be with such a rig attached to the filter thread.

This looks nice Andrea where can you buy?

[Ian Gordon Bilson]

A practical,effective,and much less bulky alternative is to use a "Flag".
A small adjustable clamp to hold something like a darkslide to shield the lens from flare-causing light sources.