Matte Box Extraordinaire!

BrianMurphy

Veteran
First time posting here so if I am not completely correct in what I am doing let me know for the next time.
I would like to say thanks first off to DVUSER community for the tremendous help this site and its participants have been to me in the past coupleof months. Though I just joined today, it has been for me a constant reference source as I made the transition to a DVX100B camera.
I am writing what can only be described a a GLOWING report of a Matte Box I discovered here through a posting. I recently had the pleasure of dealing with Joel Arthur of HysonFilms.com and buying one of his Matte Boxes. It is quite simply fantastic, the design is brilliant. It is light, holds a couple of filters easily and is extremely a snap to install and remove. I went with the HD version and I am glad I did the added size is great for cutting.
WHen looking at various other options all I found were the extremely high end stuff from the big guys or the still very pricey stuff from a Canaadian company-Cavision. Everything was very expensive and overkill. I didn't need filter rotation as a feature and it is at this stage the only thing the others offered other that a bellows which I couldn't see the need for either.
So in closing if you want a great Matte Box for a very very reasonable price of $229.00 US visit :
hysonfilms.com and get ahold of Joel Arthur!
He also has a follow focus system that I am looking at and will have a rod support system out in the fall.
I am writing this because I think it is important that we support guys like Joel Arthur. He is a film-maker first and a designer/fabricator, not a big corporation. His main biz is making films/production like most of us . His skills in design and fabrication are surely to be applauded and small business like his (the backbone of your country and mine) help keep the big guys in check and make it easirer for us to compete.
I would like to see the big gun writers in the on-line magazines pay more attention to innovators like Joel and some of the others who design and build everything from Matte Boxes to cranes and dollies and stablizers and even filters . Nope, they won't be at NAB like the big players with hospitality suites buying them drinks. They will be sitting in their workshops saying " I could build something just as good for a third the cost"
Cheers
Brian
 
Welcome aboard Brian. Some good sentiments there. I think Joel is a pretty straight up guy who you can trust. His stuff keeps getting better.
 
Has anyone used that mattebox with an M2? I'm wondering how you make a light tight seal for other lenses? ie. Nikkors
 
craigbowman said:
Has anyone used that mattebox with an M2? I'm wondering how you make a light tight seal for other lenses? ie. Nikkors
I would contact Joel and see what he says he has probably dealt with this issue or can offer some ideas. I am reluctant to say "shed some light on the subject" ...
 
I am also the happy owner of the Hyson Matte Box. Will order a second one soon and am eagerly awaiting his follow focus unit and rails.
 
I did contact Joel and he did assure me there was a ring that slides in to cover the outer lens from letting light escape.

I have now ordered one and eagerly await its arrival. This could be the best bang for the buck matte box I've ever seen. All I needed was a good matte box for ND gradients to get that pesky sky down to manageable levels!

Thanks for making the post Brian. For a first post it was a great one!
 
Look like a good mattebox for the price. However, there is one problem with that mattebox, there is no rotation filter, only fixed filters not practical for polarized filter.

The follow focus seem well build too.
 
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