What Matte Box??

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Margus Voll

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Re: What Matte Box??

PostFri May 24, 2013 8:13 am

So with BMC it should be ok most of the time ?

Lets say Smayongs and maybe later some Arri CP2.
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adamroberts

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Re: What Matte Box??

PostFri May 24, 2013 8:30 am

I was originally going to order the Strummer because it had a sway away option.

Since they now have a sway away option on the Viv I think that is a better option for the BMCC. Smaller and more compact.

Only real features you lose is the 6x6 filter stage upgrade. No loss to me...
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Margus Voll

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Re: What Matte Box??

PostFri May 24, 2013 8:31 am

Seems reasonable compromise to me.
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adamroberts

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Re: What Matte Box??

PostFri May 24, 2013 8:34 am

For the Smayongs you'll need to get 80mm fronts for the lenses. True Lens in the UK can supply those or Duclos in the US.

Or you could make some nuns knickers. Seen some really simple ones made from neoprene used on a shoot I was on a few years back. Can make them in a few minutes with a utility knife.
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Thomas Schumacher

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Re: What Matte Box??

PostThu Apr 24, 2014 7:05 pm

Maybe someone can help me of you knowledgeable guys. Does the Genustech Mattebox's 360-degree rotating filter tray take a 4x4-filter?

I'm thinking about getting a clip-on-mattebox as my set-up is based on rods on top of the camera and I'm too lazy to use a baseplate with rods just for the mattebox I already have. But with only one 4x4 filter tray I'd feel a bit limited and putting the clip-on-mattebox on top of a variND filter might not work as advertised all the time :mrgreen:
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adamroberts

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Re: What Matte Box??

PostThu Apr 24, 2014 7:20 pm

gmf wrote:Maybe someone can help me of you knowledgeable guys. Does the Genustech Mattebox's 360-degree rotating filter tray take a 4x4-filter?

I'm thinking about getting a clip-on-mattebox as my set-up is based on rods on top of the camera and I'm too lazy to use a baseplate with rods just for the mattebox I already have. But with only one 4x4 filter tray I'd feel a bit limited and putting the clip-on-mattebox on top of a variND filter might not work as advertised all the time :mrgreen:


They offer trays for 4x4, 4x5.65 and 5.65x5.65.

Clip on matte box on DSLR lenses is not always a good idea. They are often not strong enough for the weight and the extra leverage on the mount.
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Thomas Schumacher

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Re: What Matte Box??

PostThu Apr 24, 2014 7:28 pm

[/quote]
...

Clip on matte box on DSLR lenses is not always a good idea. They are often not strong enough for the weight and the extra leverage on the mount.[/quote]

Thank you, Adam,

it's always welcome to save some money. Maybe I stick to my "israeli arm+clamp+french flag"-solution for the lazy times then.
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Soeren Mueller

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Re: What Matte Box??

PostThu Apr 24, 2014 7:36 pm

gmf wrote:it's always welcome to save some money. Maybe I stick to my "israeli arm+clamp+french flag"-solution for the lazy times then.


Hey Tom, I guess it's outside of your budget as well but I wanted to recommend the Shoot35 Cinebox - quite happy with this one and currently they have a fair price imho... (slightly OT love their new r3 follow focus a lot as well!)
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Thomas Schumacher

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Re: What Matte Box??

PostThu Apr 24, 2014 7:52 pm

Danke Soeren,

I already have a matte box which needs to be mounted on rods but my current lazy set-up only uses rods on top of the camera, that's why I thought about a clip-on mattebox (maybe I should start doing car-sharing instead of building tiny set-ups suitable for bike-riding run'n'gun...).
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Nikolay Smirnov

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Re: What Matte Box??

PostThu Apr 24, 2014 9:11 pm

any reviews for Movcam MM1?

Looking for a heavy duty 4x5.65mm mattbox in the price range of 1000-1100 USD.
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Kenneth Wan

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Re: What Matte Box??

PostThu Apr 24, 2014 9:24 pm

Pascal Deshayes wrote:I'm also lurking around for the best price/performance mattebox and have found this Manfrotto model:

Interesting form/compact concept - what do you think?


I have this mattebox currently and I have some serious problems with it although some has to do with my particular setup for my BMPC.

Problems I have:
-it's not that compact or that light (see it on my rig for scale)
-it doesn't swing out, it swings vertically up and out (unfortunately, my top rods block this movement with a shorter lens like a 24mm prime.)
-top rods also block putting filters in from the top with a short lens
-the 15mm mounting block is huge and bulky, it blocks your camera from sliding in (from the rear) on a head like the 502HD, I had to move the mattebox forward to put it on my Sachtler ACE too
-I hate hate hate hate the nun's knickers on this. It's some type of polymer instead of felt and it's very tight. It's hard to wrap around 82mm lens diameters and it pops off easily. As far as I can tell, it's not removeable either. It's also very very short, so it's difficult to wrap a lens and keep it on...this is the big failure point of the mattebox

Things I like about it:
-Flexible, hard to damage, you never have to install your flags and it compresses flat nicely
-Build Quality, heavy but sooooo strong and well made
-Metal filter trays, 1 rotatable

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Re: What Matte Box??

PostFri Apr 25, 2014 12:46 pm

As a shooter, your life will be made so much easier if you have the ability to stand behind your camera, frame your shot in a reasonable sized (7 inch is standard bill of fare) LCD monitor and control both the zoom and focus operations of your camera.

Imagine the alternative of being hunched over a 3” or less viewfinder, your hand on the focus or zoom ring for hours. Having done both, I opt for the former scenario. Do it once and you will too.

Making it easy are Matte Box proaimshop.com/pas/Matte-Boxes/ kits (yes you really need one) that control extraneous light and a remote zoom and focus kit proaimshop.com/pas/Follow-focus/.

proaimshop.com/pas/
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Rauno Linnamäe

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Re: What Matte Box??

PostSat Apr 26, 2014 7:39 am

Nikolay Smirnov wrote:any reviews for Movcam MM1?

Looking for a heavy duty 4x5.65mm mattbox in the price range of 1000-1100 USD.


Can't vouch for their mattebox, but everything I have from Movcam is really solid and well built.
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Frank Glencairn

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Re: What Matte Box??

PostThu May 01, 2014 8:24 pm

Just got a MB11 mattebox from Camtree - surprisingly good for the money.

http://cgi.ebay.de/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie ... 1466386867
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Soeren Mueller

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Re: What Matte Box??

PostThu May 01, 2014 8:41 pm

Frank Glencairn wrote:Just got a MB11 mattebox from Camtree - surprisingly good for the money.

http://cgi.ebay.de/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie ... 1466386867


Hm.. doesn't look too bad... if only I wouldn't have been burned by the indian stuff too often in the past ;)

How are the filter holders - do the filters snug easily in place, or a little (too) tight or (too) lose?!

Saw a Fotga recently.. couldn't get my Tiffen 4x4 in without applying brute force.. that was definitely a no go!
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Frank Glencairn

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Re: What Matte Box??

PostThu May 01, 2014 9:00 pm

Yeah, I also had some bad experience with that Indian gear, but I saw that MB at a friends camera, so I gave it a go.

The filters are held by two spring articulated steal balls - the tension is adjustable with a tiny screwdriver.
Would love to see a tool-less solution, but you can't have all.

And the frames of my old Crosziel box fit in there just fine and snug.

Otherwise its a real nice box for the price - also it comes with a free Pelicase knockoff - that is worth at least 50 bucks alone, if you don't buy an original.
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Soeren Mueller

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Re: What Matte Box??

PostThu May 01, 2014 9:07 pm

Frank Glencairn wrote:And the frames of my old Crosziel box fit in there just fine and snug.

Otherwise its a real nice box for the price - also it comes with a free Pelicase knockoff - that is worth at least 50 bucks alone, if you don't buy an original.


Sounds good - thanks for the heads up!

F.K.

Re: What Matte Box??

PostThu May 01, 2014 9:57 pm

If you can afford to go with Chrosziel or Arri. I got an used 16:9 (4x5") Chrosziel matte box for quite a good price but I had to make a Rod Mount for it myself as the original one was missing. Just as with a FF unit if you buy a decent one it's a one time Investment and you will surely be able to use it longer then the camera.

Edit:
Just in Case you consider Lanparte or something in the same price-range. I own a V-Mount VBP-01 powerplate the build is good but clearly not on par with that of the brands you would traditionally find in rental-houses. The most striking thing about it is that you can see that they are far less experienced in terms of Industrial Design. To give you an example, the Charging port shares the same connector type as the other outputs if you are in a hurry you might easily plug it in the wrong port, you might experience similar imperfections with matte boxes of that type of Manufacturer. You can get a a decent mate box for a reasonable price but there is always a reason why one product costs more then an other.
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Scott Stacy

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Re: What Matte Box??

PostFri May 02, 2014 12:45 am

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I like my Arri MMB-2. It's light; sturdy; holds two 4x5.65 filters; and has the capability to attach handles. I don't regret spending the extra money, based on buying garbage in the past.
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Frank Glencairn

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Re: What Matte Box??

PostFri May 02, 2014 7:49 am

Yeah, but come on, a super simple mechanical device like an Arri mattebox, that costs up to 3 times more than your camera, which is stuffed with a 4k sensor, electronics and screen, 4k recorder and milled from an solid aluminum block? Something is really bend out of proportion here.

IMHO matteboxes are the most overpriced items - for what they are - in our toolboxes.
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Soeren Mueller

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Re: What Matte Box??

PostFri May 02, 2014 8:07 am

Frank Glencairn wrote:IMHO matteboxes are the most overpriced items - for what they are - in our toolboxes.


100% ack.. definitely not going to shell that kind of money out again for a piece of plastic, even when it's precisely made / sturdy, there are better value for money options nowadays
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Thomas Schumacher

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Re: What Matte Box??

PostFri May 02, 2014 1:05 pm

Just got a Genustech Mattebox Lite and am delighted by its quality:

http://www.genustech.tv/collections/spe ... fw-special

I really wonder what their other matteboxes, which go up to 1800 $, can offer as a surplus on quality considering the huge price difference - the feature-set of a mattebox is limited by the nature of the product itself, so....
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Scott Stacy

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Re: What Matte Box??

PostFri May 02, 2014 11:17 pm

Frank Glencairn wrote:Yeah, but come on, a super simple mechanical device like an Arri mattebox, that costs up to 3 times more than your camera, which is stuffed with a 4k sensor, electronics and screen, 4k recorder and milled from an solid aluminum block? Something is really bend out of proportion here.

IMHO matteboxes are the most overpriced items - for what they are - in our toolboxes.


Actually 1,100 US. But, I do agree, Frank, Arri gear is way over priced.
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Benton Collins

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Re: What Matte Box??

PostSun May 04, 2014 8:00 pm

Genus always has "demo" items on their site at greatly reduced prices. I bought the demo PV Matte Box Advanced kit and it looked fully brand new to me. I think all their "demo" items are really new items. I mean how many "demo" items can you have on supply? I think it's just a way for them to discount new products to move them out the door. The quality is great and I've been very happy with this matte box. But don't pay for a new one, when the "demo" is just as good or exactly the same.
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Ulysses Paiva

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Re: What Matte Box??

PostSun May 04, 2014 9:56 pm

Mine is the Fotga DP3000 with flags, 2 filters support (1 rotating), articulated, good depth and everything else. Its well built. Probably not as good as an Arri but it's one of the cheapest and does a relly good job. As many others already said, for the job it has to do, we really dont need the most expensive. And they are really, really overpriced for what they do.
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Dustin Boswell

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Re: What Matte Box??

PostSun May 04, 2014 10:09 pm

I'm using the Kamerar, for $160 It's quite good, single filter tray, mostly plastic with the important bits made of metal, thumbscrews. Perfect for a Blackmagic Pocket camera I think.
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Soeren Mueller

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Re: What Matte Box??

PostMon May 05, 2014 7:17 am

Ulysses Paiva wrote:Mine is the Fotga DP3000 ...


Thats the One I saw/Tried that I think was a little too much of a compromise.. because I could only get 4x4 filters in it by using brute Force - I guess yours Works better?
Was a little too scary for me to endanger Filters like that ;)
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Ulysses Paiva

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Re: What Matte Box??

PostMon May 05, 2014 11:26 am

Soeren Mueller wrote:
Ulysses Paiva wrote:Mine is the Fotga DP3000 ...


Thats the One I saw/Tried that I think was a little too much of a compromise.. because I could only get 4x4 filters in it by using brute Force - I guess yours Works better?
Was a little too scary for me to endanger Filters like that ;)



Well, I didnt try 4x4 filters yet. Here in Brasil it's not an easy thing to find and the few you see, are **** and more expensive than a good one, so I bought a cheap lens filter, a rotating one, from Fotga too, and intended to use as a test as I was in a hurry needing one at the time. Result: I´m still using that cheap rotating lens filter as of today, giving me what I need: reducing light in externals in daylight. Did a lot of tests before using it. No red tint, no change in color, nice sunlight reducing and no compromise. Was cheap and has done the job with no hassle. Same with the mattebox.

At the time I was considering a more expensive one, then I saw it, did digg into a lot of images (as there were almost no reviews) and thought it should work and from pics it looked a nice quality for the price. And it is.

Here's the guy we're talking about:

-font-b-FOTGA-b-font-DP3000-Pro-DSLR-swing-away-font-b-matte-b-font.jpg
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Hearnia

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Re: What Matte Box??

PostMon May 05, 2014 2:09 pm

I just got the Fotga DP3000 and so far it's great. It's not an Arri or O'Connor but for the price it's really quality.
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Soeren Mueller

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Re: What Matte Box??

PostMon May 05, 2014 2:18 pm

Hearnia wrote:I just got the Fotga DP3000 and so far it's great. It's not an Arri or O'Connor but for the price it's really quality.


Have to ask you as well ;) did you try any 4x4 filters yet?

@ulysses .. yes thats the one, I was "playing around" with it for a while.. for the price it's sort of a no-brainer, or "would be one"... but as I said.. my main use for a mattebox is to use my 4x4 filters. Sorry to hear about the situation in Brasil :-/

At least with the one I tried the standard 4x4 (mine are from Tiffen) did only go in with brute force.. of course then they stayed in place but I would be too afraid of scratching/breaking them when putting them in or out with a filter holder like that. Maybe it's possible to do a quick'n'dirty mod by somehow removing some of the plastic ;)

So far I'm happy with the Shoot35 Cinebox.. I think it's quite fairly priced currently, considering it's made locally in the UK.
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Rafael Molina

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Re: What Matte Box??

PostMon May 05, 2014 4:55 pm

¿How about this one? I've been looking at it for a while, but it holds two 3x3 filters.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/8 ... _with.html
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Hearnia

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Re: What Matte Box??

PostMon May 05, 2014 7:31 pm

Soeren Mueller wrote:
Hearnia wrote:I just got the Fotga DP3000 and so far it's great. It's not an Arri or O'Connor but for the price it's really quality.


Have to ask you as well ;) did you try any 4x4 filters yet?

@ulysses .. yes thats the one, I was "playing around" with it for a while.. for the price it's sort of a no-brainer, or "would be one"... but as I said.. my main use for a mattebox is to use my 4x4 filters. Sorry to hear about the situation in Brasil :-/

At least with the one I tried the standard 4x4 (mine are from Tiffen) did only go in with brute force.. of course then they stayed in place but I would be too afraid of scratching/breaking them when putting them in or out with a filter holder like that. Maybe it's possible to do a quick'n'dirty mod by somehow removing some of the plastic ;)

So far I'm happy with the Shoot35 Cinebox.. I think it's quite fairly priced currently, considering it's made locally in the UK.

Yes, I tried the full set of Skier 4x4 IRNDs and they were tight at first going in. I left two of them in the matte box for a couple days and now it's loosened up considerably. I'd probably rather have it snug than the opposite and have one drop out accidentally one day. If you're worried you could always buy the cheapest 4x4 you can find just to break in the filter holders.
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Gary Stanford

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Re: What Matte Box??

PostTue May 06, 2014 3:10 am

Just sold a beloved Fender Stratocaster so I can buy a matte box.

Let me see:

Stratocaster - a modern design classic made of hand crafted wood, quality electronics, quality cast components and mojo in spades.

Matte box: a bit of pressed metal with some flat sheets of metal attached to it with some hinges and bolts.

Seems like a fair deal to me. :?

FTR I'm going for the Cinematics box with a plan to upgrade with metal filter trays. Any ideas where I can get compatible trays?
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Craig Marshall

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Re: What Matte Box??

PostTue May 06, 2014 3:37 am

I have a good collection of 4x4" Schneider Optics glass filters and they are some of the best in the world but I am not too proud to use them in a $99 Fotga DP3000 'swing-out' matte box as it does all I need and works exceptionally well in remote and international locations.
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