08Jun DSLR Video MatteBox Review
Mark sends in a review he has done for WeeklyPhotoTips on the $250 Dollar Flashpoint MatteBox from Adorama.com [Thanks Mark]. That’s actually a fairly good deal, even better than what you’ll find around eBay, but these MatteBoxes are also listed under different names and sold by different retailers.
Right now you can find the exact same deal by ePhoto along with another just slightly cheaper option starting at $229 via Amazon (Click Here).
ePhoto Pro DSLR RIG Matte Box with 2 Stage 15mm Swing away
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June 8th, 2012 at 9:10 am
Can’t get these shipped to Canada. Anyone know of a similar item or a place to get them shipped to a Canadian address?
June 8th, 2012 at 9:11 am
Wondering if you can reverse the rails, etc, so you can have it swing away to the left side. I like to pull focus with my right hand.
June 8th, 2012 at 9:39 am
Typical. Leave out 2 of the most important specs of a matte box.
What is the weight of the matte box?
What is the widest mm lens we can use on it full frame?
Not buying it without those. Anyone know how we could get those answered?
June 8th, 2012 at 11:10 am
I actually just bought this same matte box but from Redstar mall.
It’s nice, for the price. In fact its extremely similar to the redrock matte box, right down the the thumb screws.
But, there are a few things that are very annoying.
It is not centered horizontally at all. My lens sits slightly in the left hand side of the hole (left as in when its on your shoulder) This is supper annoying because none of the foam rings fit both on your lens and in the little slot inside the rear of the matte box.
The second is that it basically doesn’t tighten down on 15mm rails nicely. One side is always loose or the front edge of the hole is tight but not the back edge and when you tip the matte box just right it slides around.
It is super hard to turn the screws enough to actually get it tight enough not to slide around.
Third, the hinge, while nice, isn’t very well made. The whole thing wobbles around and is always kind of loose at the hinge. So even if you do manage to get it tight and stable on your rails, the whole front end is still going to wobble around when you move. It’s also not something I would grab onto to support your camera like you would with a high end cinema matte box.
Oh and it’s HUGE. It will make your DSLR look stupidly small in comparison. It may impress clients but I think it looks a bit ridiculous unless you have a full rig behind it. Even then it’s a bit much. And being huge, it’s also pretty heavy.
June 8th, 2012 at 1:42 pm
Thanks O’Ryan McEntire,
I was just about to buy but you comments made me think twice.
Any other matte box you recommend?
June 8th, 2012 at 3:21 pm
@ Eliu:
http://hdslrnow.com/new-post
June 8th, 2012 at 3:47 pm
I will say it’s not horrible. But it’s not awesome either.
If this thing was a tiny bit smaller I could probably live with the other issues.
Trusmt has a very good reputation. I’ve not tried their matte box.
June 8th, 2012 at 9:08 pm
jag35 has one at $225.00.
Have no idea about the quality but I’m myself lloking for one that’s compact, simple and will work with a wide focal length (14mm) without vignetting.
http://jag35.com/dmatte.html
“The widest focal length that will efficiently operate with the D|Matte is approximately 19-20mm.”
June 9th, 2012 at 7:24 am
O’Ryan,
What camera are you using? Looking at my 7D, the lens is not centered with my 15mm rails. It seems this box was specifically designed for Canon DSLRs maybe?
It would be nice if it could slide left and right, up and down.
June 9th, 2012 at 8:50 pm
Does anyone know for sure:
IS this identical to the Redrock MicroMattebox (which is a knock off of the Arri MB-20) for 1/4 the price (made by the same people)? Or is it a knock off with inferior design made by a 3rd party.
If you own the Red Rock Mattebox, is it now worth a lot less to re-sell?
Thanks
June 9th, 2012 at 10:50 pm
@ Josh Although the matte box is stated to be compatible with wide angle lenses, I noticed that a 16mm on a full frame camera will not work. 24mm was the widest angle I was able to get to before the 4X4 filter tray was obstructing the shot.
June 10th, 2012 at 11:07 am
I’m getting fed-up with so-called “reviews” that are nothing but feature descriptions. And this one even sucks at that. Not helpful at all, and a few comments confirm that.
June 10th, 2012 at 6:49 pm
Hi Guys,
After some of the comments regarding both the weight of the unit and the widest possible focal length I decided to do a little surgery on the matte box. I took it apart and removed the two rotating filter trays. Yes I can always put them back if needed but for now I don’t have any 4×5.6 filters so I thought why carry the weight. In doing so I reduced the weight from 4.1 Lbs to 3.2 Lbs or roughly a full pound lighter. In doing so I also reduced the distance from donut holder to the inside of the matte box and in doing so I was able to go to the 10mm focal length on the EFS 10-22 on the 7D. This should be roughly 16mm on full frame.
Removing the filter trays required me to drill a total of eight new small holes. Four in the matte box and four in the donut holder to align with exiting mounting holes in the attachment bracket.
This brings us to one other question, is the rig reversible ? At first glance I thought it could be reversed. However in closer inspection the main mounting plate of the mattte box has attachment points only on one side. It would be possible to flip the matte box over and that will work but you would lose the use of the easy thumb turn to tighten the top flag. The side flags would be unaffected in the flip. So I guess you can says its reversible but with a gotcha. It could have been made perfect if they had a flag tension adjustment at each corner with each one going out in say either CW or CCW direction then they could have had four tensioners, one for each of the sides.
That’s my post log for the Adorama/Redsatar Matte Box Pro.
Mark
June 10th, 2012 at 7:59 pm
@Mark
Dfocus has a knack for releasing things WAYYYY after the estimated release date. Could be a long time.
Thanks Mark!
A 4lb matte box is not something I want! The Jag35 matte box is in fact a Dfocus matte box, not Jag35. I tested it out at NAB. Very lightweight, solid, and perfect quality. They are releasing a swing away version. The whole thing is likely to be under 2lbs I feel. Not to expensive either, at $225, and with the swing away, it will be more, but it will still be a quality matte box. Of course, when will the swing away version be available? Last year.
June 10th, 2012 at 11:06 pm
Hi Josh,
You’re very welcome. I bought an old DFocus follow focus ages ago. Yes getting a hold of “Tim” I believe the owner’s name is can be hard to do. I just took a quick look at the Dfocus matte box and I can see why it is much lighter. I don’t mean that in a build quality perspective. It appears that the actual matte box is very very shallow. Essentially without the flags I don’t think it would provide much if any lens shading. With the modifications I made to the tested matte box it still yields a matte box with enough depth to provide some shading on a quick run and gun shoot, assuming you did not want to install the flags.
Flipping this around to the other perspective, that shallow matte box of the DFocus should allow you to use a much wider angle on the full frame 5D. Of course at that point then the over all size of the matte frame becomes a factor as well since if you install the flags and they them selves reduce the field of view the shallow depth may not pay off. I guess like all things in life there is balance and compromise, in this case, weight/focal width/cost/quality. Aside from that little toy matte box that came out a while ago, its nice to see we have a growing selection of reasonably priced options for the budget minded film maker.
It still kills me to see so much gear that cost as much if not more than the cameras we use, thinking Chrosziel and the like.
Mark
June 12th, 2012 at 9:18 am
That is true about the shallow part of the dmatte. At NAB. I talked to the owner, and he said they are coming out with side flags soon. Soon for dfocuses products are about what we would call, in a long long time. The flags would make it nice. And yeah, true about the wide angle to. My 24mm lens on a 5D would work with the dfocuses matte box, but not this one. When the flags come out, it will be interesting, as it should hold up perfectly with the other matte boxes, and for a well price. Awaiting the swing away version to.
October 14th, 2012 at 3:33 pm
Just got one of these and it is very nice for the price. I am using it with my Gini Z1 Rig and Nikon D7000.