Lindsey Optics Brilliant² Tray Mount Diopter Set – Close Up Filter And Tray In One

Lens Filters

by Tim FokJuly 2^nd, 2018

Brilliant² Tray Mount Diopter Set are close-up filters from Lindsey Optics that combine a 138mm filter and drop in tray into a single product, offering a fast solution for close-up filter changes on set.

The AC’s Friend

Traditionally adding a 138mm filter such as a close-up X-amount diopter to your mattebox takes two items – the filter and filter tray.

Lindsey Optics has looked to reduce time spent juggling your filter & filter tray on-set by offering up a set of close-up filters with a built in tray mount.

Unique Design

The Brilliant² Tray Mount Diopter Set compiles of 5 pieces – +¼, +1/2, +1, +2 and +3 diopters.

All are directly compatible with 4”X5.65” stage Matteboxes.

Industry standard 138mm trays usually take up 2 stages in your mattebox (up to +2).
What’s neat about the Lindsey Optics Brilliant² Tray Mount Diopters is that the lower 2 lenses only take up the thickness of a single stage.

+¼ / +½ – Thickness of 1 stage
+1 / +2 – Thickness of 2 stages
+3 – Thickness of 3 stages

Lindsey Optics are US made and take pride in the quality of their materials (words from PR and President Dwight Lindsey:)

All Lindsey Optics lenses are made from the finest optical glass and have a broadband multi-layer anti-reflection coating (MC Coating)…[we] manufacture lenses and filters for cinematography in Lancaster California, just North of Los Angeles.

…We chose the BRILLIANT part of our filter names because we are Anti-Reflection Coating our filters.  All of our filters have a 7 layer AR coating.. (multi-coating/MC ).  The top layer is Silicon Dioxide (SiO2), which is as hard and durable as quartz.

..”Brilliant Squared” refers to the rectangular shape of the filter trays.  OK it’s cute and the 4×5.65 isn’t exactly a square . . . but we were being cute the day we named them.

“Diopters” Explained

138mm round filters are a fairly staple size for close up filters within the industry. Placing one in front of your lens reduces the minimum focus distance; the higher the grade of diopter, the closer you can get.

Diopter is actually a unit of measurement, like millimetres; it’s not the name of the filter itself.

The filter itself is a “close-up filter” – a close up lens with a power of 1 diopter has a focal length of 1 meter.

But industry has it that we refer to close-up filters by the nickname “diopter”.

“Diopter filters” are a popular combo with older lens sets, particularly anamorphics that are renown for having poor (long) minimum focus distances.

Applying magnification also increases the apparent sharpness of your lens, another reason why they can pair with older vintage lenses quite well.

Conventional diopter tray from Cinema Hardware

The Brilliant² Tray Mount Diopter close-up filters are available now, and can be purchased as a set or individually; a single filter costs $550.