Official Mattebox / Matte Box F.A.Q.

Hi Bobonli

1) You are right the EX microphone is a bit nightmarish. The microMB will work, provided you get a rubber hood to act as a gasket.

2) any standard 15mm rail system with 60mm spacing will work. Generally you have two classes of rail systems - single purpose rail systems such as chrosziel or cavision that come with a mattebox and generally are designed to support just one accessory: the mattebox. Then there are more robust 'universal' baseplates such as redrock and zacuto that are designed to be expandable to be the backbone of current and future camera rigs. Just compare price and features.


Brian
 
One last question then: The rubber hood you mention, is that the same as the rubber donut that is shown in the tutorial videos?

They remind my of the old-fashioned lens shades for 35mm lenses before companies made the bayonet mount plastic hoods. I know I should have saved them!

bvalente said:
Hi Bobonli

1) You are right the EX microphone is a bit nightmarish. The microMB will work, provided you get a rubber hood to act as a gasket.

2) any standard 15mm rail system with 60mm spacing will work. Generally you have two classes of rail systems - single purpose rail systems such as chrosziel or cavision that come with a mattebox and generally are designed to support just one accessory: the mattebox. Then there are more robust 'universal' baseplates such as redrock and zacuto that are designed to be expandable to be the backbone of current and future camera rigs. Just compare price and features.


Brian
Click to expand...
 
Bobonli

They remind me of the hoods that came with my mamiya medium format lenses, if that helps


Brian
 
bvalente said:
Bobonli

They remind me of the hoods that came with my mamiya medium format lenses, if that helps


Brian
Click to expand...


I was looking into the Redrock matte box and I also had a few questions:

Is the neoprene donut the only thing that connects the lens to the matte box? I realize the rails are there to support it, but there is no screw or bayonet connection, correct? Does this mean I could use the same matte box on both a DVX100b and an HPX170?

Also, does it work with the Century .6 wide angle adapter? If I'm not mistaken, I would just need a neoprene donut that fits around the wide angle, correct?
 
what about the mattebox, the newest matteboxredrock micro. please somebody to tell me if this mattebox works fine in my new hpx 170.

thank you very much.

Pete.
 
I just purchased a setup from Genus. I mainly needed a good sunshade with a french flag and 1 stage filter. I don't do a lot of filtering so this setup is perfect for me. No rails, no follow focus etc. It is the GSS sunshade with rotating filter holder and French Flag. About $400 with a coupon from LCD4video. It is quality, looks nice and does the job. Adapter rings supply the correct size for most cameras. It works great and is within my budget.
 
Does the Genus swing away?

What is the widest lens you can have in there before it starts to vignette?

What is the largest front element you can get in a genus?
 
Matte Boxes are too expensive it's ridiculous.

The cheapest i've been able to find is $399, swing away.
 
So, I know ProAim have a pretty shite reputation, but I have to say, I own both the Shoot35 & ProAim MatteBoxes (with sideflags), and apart from the Shoot35 being heavier and more robust, I see very little difference. (Sorry Shoot35)

Aesthetically, Shoot35's is much more appealing, no doubt about that. But if you're on a budget, ProAim is the way forward. I think I paid £150 inc shipping for mine.

Im looking to buy the Zacuto Zwing Away, but Im interested to see other modifications to their matteboxes before I spend a crap load of cash.
 
righteous. said:
I was looking into the Redrock matte box and I also had a few questions:

Is the neoprene donut the only thing that connects the lens to the matte box? I realize the rails are there to support it, but there is no screw or bayonet connection, correct? Does this mean I could use the same matte box on both a DVX100b and an HPX170?

Also, does it work with the Century .6 wide angle adapter? If I'm not mistaken, I would just need a neoprene donut that fits around the wide angle, correct?
Click to expand...


That is correct, the only part of the mattebox that has to come in contact with the lens is the varying in size rubber donuts and they are not attached to the matte box itself so they can offer quite a bit of play if you need it.
 
ben_r_ said:
That is correct, the only part of the mattebox that has to come in contact with the lens is the varying in size rubber donuts and they are not attached to the matte box itself so they can offer quite a bit of play if you need it.
Click to expand...

yep - what @ben_r_ said exactly
:)

Brian
 
I have Scneider and Tiffen 4x4 filters that are 3.9mm and 4.2mm thick. I was looking for an inexpensive matte box and I asked Trusmt what wass the max thickness filter that would fit in their swing away matte box. They said 3mm. I just sent the same question to Proaim re MB-900B, MB-600.

Does anyone know which of the cheaper matte boxes will fit these 4x4 Tiffen glass filters, 4.2mm thick?

Appologies if this gets posted twice. I'm still figuring out how the forum works.

Cheers,
Gregg
 
There are some new Chinese 4x5.65 swing away matt boxes on eBay at the moment. They look like close studies on the Redrock Micro. The quality of the design, engineering and manufacture is actually quite good considering the price of USD 228 - 295. A couple of problems with the design, which is designed for light 15mm rods. The rods, if at correct height, need to terminate before the step in the donut holder. On 16mm cameras like Arri SR, Aaton, Eclair ACL (ie most of them) with a prime lens you end up needing very short rods. In my case with Les Bosher rods on an ACL II there is just no room behind the MB arm clamp to fit a FF. So some modifications would be needed. Shifting the hinge clamp forward somehow, reducing the bulk of the MB and FF rod clamps etc. Maybe lowering the rod height by building a new rod holder.
The donut holder has a lot of depth. This helps with shifting the MB rod clamp out of the way, but is not great if wanting to use 4x4 filters, where it seems good to get the (wide angle) lens closer to the filter. Ideas that imediately sugest them selves are a plastic ring where the lens front sits into a step. Maybe some rubber in the system so that the positioning of the lens relative to the MB doesn't have to be too precise. Also a 138mm round could go in that space and be good for polarisers like in an Arri.
I think filter stages are addable with this design. A filter tray to take 138mm round would be good.
I'm hoping that they will make optional metal filter trays. The current ones are plastic.
Has anyone else had a look?
Cheers,
Gregg
 
I bought one of the matte boxes you're referencing from Amazon (I think they're manufactured by a company called 'Red Star') and like you said - aligning the matte box is a bit problematic. We ended up using black wrap draped over the camera since - when coupled with a follow focus - it was nearly impossible to secure the donut to the lens AND have the follow focus be operational. I'm assuming that part of the problem is too the rail system I'm using (if you even want to call it that - it's a HandySLR version one setup) - so I'll experiment with how I can fidget things around to get it optimal. Still, once everything was situated appropriately the matte box is quite a nice deal in my opinion.
 
I bought a ProAim MB-900 almost new recently. It has light weight 4x4/4x5.65 metal filter holders that work and has a propper molded rubber bellows donut at the rear that takes plastic screw in inserts for different lens fronts. So if you are using matched lenses they fit the dome seal as soon as you you swing closed. The rubber dome lifts off and everything is there so you can house a 138mm round ilter, just like an Arri or Chrosziel. The retainer ring threads for that felt a a bit tricky so I don't know what that would be like to use under pressure.

The body that the filter trays slide into is plastic and maybe not as accurately made as it could be and may not last as long as metal would, but will probably save the metal trays from some wear. Thee are detents in the trays to locate them but no lock screws, so if your rods don't extend under the filters you could loose a filter right through if you were careless.

They are quite cheap new. Amazing value for the money.

Cheers, Gregg.
 
Gregg, or anyone with a ProAim MB-900, have you tried using 4mm thick filters in the matte box, i.e. Tiffen or Schneider? It's about the only thing stopping me from taking a punt at the moment.
 
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