imageonepictures
Well-known member
Shooting a film this July on my Panasonic DVX100 (original). I was looking at a matte box for $199.00. Do I need one? What does it do other than make my camera look cool?
Chris
Chris
Matte Box -- Do I Need One?
- Thread starter imageonepictures
- Start date
Nope, just makes it look realy cool. But $199 is worth it to look cool ! right?
Just kidding. It actually does three things....
First it keeps light off of your lens, like sunlight, or other light from hitting the lens and causing lens flare, or this cloudy look in the lens. You want to look through the glass not at it. Unless of course you are wanting the lens flare etc. for creative reasons.
Second, it allows you to put filters in front of the lens. For instance, polarizers, or special effects filters, etc. This way you don't have to use the little screw-on filters, you just load what you need into the mattbox, and depending on the mattbox you can use multiple filters at the same time. Good idea if you are shooting sky, through windows, water, trees...
Third, it looks really cool!
Just kidding. It actually does three things....
First it keeps light off of your lens, like sunlight, or other light from hitting the lens and causing lens flare, or this cloudy look in the lens. You want to look through the glass not at it. Unless of course you are wanting the lens flare etc. for creative reasons.
Second, it allows you to put filters in front of the lens. For instance, polarizers, or special effects filters, etc. This way you don't have to use the little screw-on filters, you just load what you need into the mattbox, and depending on the mattbox you can use multiple filters at the same time. Good idea if you are shooting sky, through windows, water, trees...
Third, it looks really cool!
Capt Quirk
Veteran
It depends on the one you buy. The french flag and side flags keep unwanted light from spilling onto the lens. They are also used for filters, both rotating and non. And, as the name implies, they were used to hold a background matte.
What he said, only less talky
What he said, only less talky
