$85 Matte Box

[Crafters of Light]

Was just playing around with a few items from Amazon. Since it turned out pretty well thought I would share.

$30 for this "matte box"

This $5 82mm Cokin Filter adapter ring

I just gently opened the lens hole up in the matte box with a sharp knife until I could thread in the adapter ring (it starts out at about 79mm). Open it up evenly until you can just thread in the adapter ring. This took about 20 minutes.



Then using this $50 filter kit , mount it to the adapter ring.



Gives me a fully functional matte box, set of ND filters and a rotating filter holder.

 

[treynolds]

I just forego the cheapo "matte"box and stick with the Cokin system. Get 2 or 3 of the add on square shades for crazy cheap off of eBay and its great for everything upto and including my 18mm on the wide and and i just add more and more of them for my longer lenses. In a pinch a little gaff tape around one side or the other to stop a flare from an odd light source.

That being said yours might look a touch more professional.

Nice build and thanks for the links though

 

[mannfilmz]

nice, but zoom lens issues

nice, but zoom lens issues

Nice design. But with a zoom lens, where the front element moves in and out, you'll have to manually move the matt box out of the way and then re-position. This particular matt box does not move easily.

 

[Michael Carter]

I'm seeing those cheap plastic matte boxes on all sorts of blogs and forum posts. I can't imagine being out in the sun with the shades offset an inch from the lens. I guess maybe one out of every three shots, the light might be aligned where the thing actually does more that "sorta look like a matte box". But it does seem like the primary design of the thing is to "sorta look like a matte box". Is it really worth $30? I've had to constantly watch for back reflections on my ND using a high-end box if any stray light can get in the filter slots.

As for zooms - when I shoot APS-C DSLR, I can zoom in & out a good deal without seeing the box. A full 28-70 range in fact. You do have to watch for stray flares when the lens pulls back.