the mysterious cheap mythical India matte-box

[c.g._eads]

http://dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=78047

Looking at this cheap matte box. I don't know anything aobut matte boxes besides they make your camera look cool. My question to those who have used Matte boxes, if I prop this thing up on my HV20-Brevis combo, will it connect? (and no, I don't know anything about rails either. will be receiving the brevis soon).

[nzo]

Whoa! Fine price too...at least for the Schneider version.

[jshooter]

Well, I bought it and it works. Nothing spectacular, cheap plastic and some tweaks needed (some pieces loosen), but I think it's a good deal. It works on Letus Extreme, so I think it should work on Brevis.

Regards

[Tõnis]

Nooo...
Please don`t buy anything without at least one independently rotating filter stage and bottom loading option or at least so that you can slide gradual filters out from the bottom. The absolute minimum mattebox should be TLS Kestrel that won`t cost much more but that is at least high quality product.
If you search eBay for "jumbo mattebox" you`ll find a fullblown mattebox system witch is a copy of Vocas 250 wide angle one, that could be OK but don`t expect it to be of any quality. But I wouldn`t support their economy at all.
This is a pic of their own ad http://www.activeindustries.com/ebay/Mattebox/Picture%202076%20small.jpg do you notice the quality ;)

Cheers,
T

[c.g._eads]

are these matte boxes designed to be compatible with any camera? I mean I guess it's going on the front of a brevis for me, not the hv20. but i'm not savvy enough to - if there's a piece missing - go to the local hardware store and find it. Whatever they send me has to work. So for those of you with experience with these things, what's the process of putting them on the front of your camera and how do I know it will fit my rig?

[africanmarty]

will the 52mm adaptor make it fit to nikon SLR lenses ???

[Tõnis]

No you must get all the adaptors for different thread sizes of your different lenses, but read on...

Most and specially manual focus SLR lenses are external focusing meaning that they extend - change their length while focusing. So ones best bet would be rails mounted mattebox with rubber/foam donut at the back allowing the front of the lens to move back and forth. I think that mounting a 4x4 mattebox directly to lens and not supporting it by the rods will lead to physical failure of the lens too.

Another possibility is to use the 3x3 wide angle mattebox from Cavision ($165 @ BH) mounted directly to the lens but my Letus isn`t here yet so I can not confirm if it works 100% with 17mm wide angle lenses for example. I know that this mattebox works even with cheap modified Cokin P sized filters without using the trays and it is quite light.
Btw it isn`t a high quality product but it does it`s job and it has hard rubber shade to take bumps without transfering the impact to the lens.
Unfortunately 3x3 matteboxes wouldn`t work with most of bigger cameras and cine lenses but for 35mm slr lenses it should be sufficient.

Cheers,
T

[c.g._eads]

Okay, so if I have a lens that zooms (and therefore moves back and forth), then obviously the matte box cannot move with it. So I have to add an extra part to house the zoom lens. that part extends up to where you'll attach the matte box. Two questions.

1) is this part hard to find?
2) it sounds like changing lenses or going from adapter to no adapter might be quite time-consuming with this setup. Would that be accurate?