Camera cage & accessories manufacturer Tilta has announced the new MB-T15 Mini Matte Box and FF-T06 Mini Follow Focus units for low budget shooters. Designed to help you turn your DSLR or mirrorless camera into a more useful cinema and video rig, the two new items both cost less than $100 each.
Tilta MB-T15 Mini Matte Box
The Tilta MB-T15 Mini Matte Box only offers shade protection from the top, rather than all four sides, but that’s probably what’s “Mini” about it. What it does do, though, is allow you to stack screw-on filters behind it, as it mounts directly to your lens using the filter thread, as well as use industry-standard 4×5.65″ filters in front. Matte boxes are traditionally very expensive pieces of kit if you want a decent one. There are a few cheap ones out there, but given Tilta’s prior products, I would imagine this is much more solid than those available at similar prices. As this fits to your lens filters, the standard package includes adapters with 67mm, 72mm, 77mm and 82mm threads. Optionally, you can pick up adapters which cover 52mm, 55mm, 58mm, 62mm and 85mm filter threads as well. The Tilta MB-T15 Mini Matte Box is available to pre-order now for $84.15 before December 20th, after which it’ll go up to its regular retail price of $99.
Tilta FF-T06 Mini Follow Focus
A good follow focus unit is also something which has traditionally cost a fair amount of money. The R&D to develop a follow focus with zero-backlash and a nice smooth action is not inexpensive. But such units have been out for a number of years now, and this isn’t Tilta’s first rodeo. Again, there are a lot of cheap ones out there, but given Tilta’s reputation for producing solid kit, I would imagine this will beat out much if not all of the similarly priced competition. It weighs only 220g (7.7oz) and bolts onto any standard 15mm rail system and is adjustable to fit just about any diameter of cinema or photo lens. It offers 360-degree rotation with adjustable hard stops (handy for those using photo lenses that just spin and spin when you hit minimum focus distance or infinity). Inside the kit, you get the Mini Follow Focus unit itself, a Zip Tie follow focus ring, a 15mm single rod attachment, two allen keys and a portable case. A variety of focus gear attachments are available for lenses with different pitch gears. The Tilta FF-T06 Mini Follow Focus is available to pre-order now for $84.15 before December 20th, after which it’ll go up to its regular retail price of $99. Both of these items look quite interesting, and I’m curious to see how well they live up to expectations given their low cost. I think that matte box is definitely going to have to go on my shopping list when they hit the UK. [via No Film School]
