Why do video cameras often use rectangular matte boxes and hoods instead of DSLR-style petal hoods?
Asked 8/14/2016
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I often see professional video cameras using rectangular lens hoods or matte boxes, while DSLR and mirrorless cameras usually have round or petal-shaped lens hoods. Why is that? Is it mainly for using square/rectangular filters like ND or graduated ND filters, or because video shooters need more precise light control? Also, why don’t still cameras typically use rectangular hoods instead?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
9y ago
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Why do videographers have rectangular lens hoods available?
Primarily because videographers frequently mount rectangular filters such as NDs and ND grads, and for the ability to use flags or barn doors to more finely control light blocking.
Light control is more important in videography than in photography, because one exposure control variable, shutter speed, is not a free variable under the videographer's control (they are limited by the frame rate for the video). The adjustable barn doors / flags correspond to the image's aspect ratio crop. Of course, straight-edged barn doors that correspond to the rectangular aspect ratio allow for tight light control, as well as being easy and inexpensive to manufacture. Rounded or curved barn doors with adjustable cone shapes are a lot more complicated and expensive to make, and are not useful because they don't match the aspect ratio crop.
Adjustable barn doors are not as useful in photography. The photographer's position is typically more fluid / transient, and even when it's not, shading and flagging needs are usually only for a few shots, and can be easily controlled by an intern with gobos or block cards, or stands with clamps to hold the gobos.
Do they only use Internally-focusing lenses?
Pretty much, yes. But not necessarily exclusively. All of the cine lenses I've seen are internally-focusing (but my experience with cine lenses is rather limited). Non-IF lenses are undesirable in videography because everything in front of the lens (matte box, filters, etc.) have to move in conjunction with focus changes. And because of the weight of matte boxes and filters, they aren't mounted onto the lens; they are mounted on the video accessory rails in front of the lens.
Lastly, why don't DSLRs use rectangular hoods?
Most photographic lens hoods are round (or tulip shaped) for compactness. A round lens nestled in a round hood in a round or round-ish lens pocket or camera bag compartment allows us to be more space-efficient with our gear.
Note that some photographic lens hoods are rectangular. While not DSLRs, many hoods for rangefinder camera lenses are rectangular. As WayneF notes in his answer, the tulip-shaped hoods on many DSLR lenses are the approximate intersection line between the projected rectangular field of view and a cylinder or cone.
In the context of slide-in square or rectangular filters, rectangular hoods are not very convenient in photography. Videographers never have to worry about orientation: their video is always presented in landscape orientation1. Photographers frequently change between landscape and portrait orientation. For shooters who use them, directionally-oriented filters (such as polarizers and ND grads) need to be large enough to be usable for either orientation. Note that ND grads and polarizers must maintain the same position/orientation with respect to the scene, regardless of camera orientation. As I mentioned, that isn't a concern in videography (for the most part). But in photographic uses, that requirement of orientation-independence strongly implies rotational symmetry, i.e., circles. That doesn't require filters to be circular; rather, it implies that if a filter covers a certain circular area, it is guaranteed to cover the lens's entire image circle, regardless of camera orientation. This is one of the reasons you don't typically see hoods mounted in front of square/rectangular filter holders on photographic cameras. But you often see matte box filter holders with barn door, bellows, or other rectangular hoods in front of them.
For photographers who do need or want rectangular hoods or matte boxes, they are available. Those users are just a relatively small portion of the DLSR-wielding population.
1 : I'm not talking about people who take vertical videos with their smartphones.
Originally by user11924. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user11924
9y ago
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Video rigs often use rectangular hoods as part of a matte box system. These are useful because video shooters commonly use square or rectangular filters, especially ND and graduated ND filters, and matte boxes can also add flags or barn doors for precise control of stray light.
That extra light control matters in video because exposure options are more constrained than in still photography: shutter speed is usually tied to frame rate, so controlling light with filtration and shading is especially important.
Still-camera lens hoods are usually round or petal-shaped because the lens projects a circular image, while the camera records a rectangular frame. A petal hood is essentially optimized to match that rectangular image area without intruding into the corners, giving as much shading as possible in a compact shape.
So DSLR/mirrorless cameras do already use a rectangularly optimized hood in a sense—the petal hood. Video matte boxes go further because they are designed around filter use and adjustable flags, not just basic flare protection.
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