By technical editor Matt Allard:
At IBC this year Tiffen were showing their new 138mm Multi Rota Tray for matte boxes, that can create 3 different filtration effects. A 138mm rotating circular polariser is fixed inside the Multi Rota Tray, but by adding a ultra thin linear polariser inside the same filter tray you can achieve up to 6 stops of variable neutral density. A small wheel on top of the tray lets you adjust the amount of variable ND you require.
Similar systems have been developed by other companies in the past, but they required the use of 2 filter trays or proprietary matte boxes. This is the first time it has all been implemented into a single filter tray.
If you flip the linear polariser around and add it to the circular polariser you can either warm or cool the colour temperature of your image by turning the wheel on the tray. Tiffen is calling this feature the Warm to Cool FX fader.
The Multi Rota Tray is compatible with a wide range of matte boxes from companies such as Arri, Bright Tangerine, Chrosziel, Movcam, Tilta, TLS and Vocas.
