FLASHPOINT MATTEBOX - $329 (aka Adorama Store Brand). ANY GOOD?

[Nick Morrison]

Hard to believe, but is this every budget conscious Scarlet owner's dream?

http://www.adorama.com/FPVMBM2.html

Swing away, holds 4x4 and 4x5.65 filters, comes with flags, everything. I'm sure it's an Indian Matte Box rebranded as "Flashpoint" by Adorama, but hey. At least you know where to return if it breaks!

If anyone has used this, or plans to and wants to share if it's any good, please let us all know.

best

- Nick

 

[Ian McGrew]

wow... copy red rock much!

 

[Andrew Allsbury]

Wow...it looks like an exact copy

 

[Kwan Khan]

US$329? Hummm

 

[Michael Millichamp]

I would not trust that.

 

[Steve Yager]

You always get what you pay for with gear. You could get it if you don't mind it being fairly disposable.

 

[Chris Jordan]

Actually Red Rock copied...and they copied....and then so and so copied.... psh. It's fair game. Give it a try, if you hate it, sell it on ebay for what you bought it for!

 

[Trevor Meeks]

Haha wow... $329 for a redrock mattebox copy? Hmmm... would never trust a $329 mattebox to begin with.

PASS.


Edited to add: If the Redrock mattebox sucks as much as it does for the $700-800 that it is... I can only imagine how this thing must be.

 

[Michael Millichamp]

Edited to add: If the Redrock mattebox sucks as much as it does for the $700-800 that it is... I can only imagine how this thing must be.

I don't understand why you think the Redrock sucks so bad. I personally enjoy it. Its a quality mattebox for 800 bucks.

For it's price range and functionality's, I think it's quite good.

 

[Matt Gottshalk]

Avoid anything branded "flashpoint".

Very low quality.

 

[Nick Morrison]

Avoid anything branded "flashpoint".

Very low quality.

Haha, yeah it's Adorama's own internal, "store brand". They are not great, you are right. But for $300 it's worth a try! I live in NY, so if we hate it I can just walk over and return it.

- Nick

 

[Trevor Meeks]

I don't understand why you think the Redrock sucks so bad. I personally enjoy it. Its a quality mattebox for 800 bucks.

For it's price range and functionality's, I think it's quite good.

We all have our opinions man, nothing wrong with that, seriously! No beef with you buddy, I just personally couldn't stand the thing. It was:

• Heavy
• Huge
• Wobbly
• Had iffy filter trays
• Vignetted on wide lenses (21mm and wider, APS-H)
• Felt cheap
• Rods hit the bottom of the mattebox with some shorter lenses because it was... refer to #2

 

[Michael Millichamp]

Oh no, I didn't mean any hostility by it, sorry if it came off that way.

I was just curious of why you thought it was that way.

And I have to agree most of the things you pointed out, I agree with, but for what it is I enjoy it.


I was thinking about the O'Connor MB, but decided right now, just to go with RR.

 

[Norbert Jalitsch]

if you buy it, this will be the start of an learning progress. you will be ending up at a high quality, expensive mattebox. and you will have paid a lot of extra money for that. so. save your money and buy a mattebox which offers you the best quality you can buy.
norbert

 

[Timur Civan]

I don't understand why you think the Redrock sucks so bad. I personally enjoy it. Its a quality mattebox for 800 bucks.

For it's price range and functionality's, I think it's quite good.

Have you ever used an MB19? if you've never used a good matte-box, you may not think the RR is bad. But its one of those things, once you use a good one, a low quality one disgusts you.

 

[Trevor Meeks]

if you buy it, this will be the start of an learning progress. you will be ending up at a high quality, expensive mattebox. and you will have paid a lot of extra money for that. so. save your money and buy a mattebox which offers you the best quality you can buy.
norbert

exactly. Buy once, buy right. When I was a photographer a lot of my friends gave me a hard time for buying pro camera bodies and not the newest, "greatest" prosumer bodies. They'd go through 4 $1500 cameras while I kept my 1 $4000 camera...

learned the hard way going into video/film when I thought the XH-A1 was hot shit... it just turned out to be shit haha.

research, save, buy once, buy right.

Or if you have a lot of extra money to blow, buy multiple times, live and learn.

No offense intended to anyone.

 

[Trevor Meeks]

Oh no, I didn't mean any hostility by it, sorry if it came off that way.

I was just curious of why you thought it was that way.

I didn't think you were being hostile. Just wanted to make sure we didn't go there. You know how forums get sometimes... lots lost in text. Which is why my girlfriend and I don't talk about important stuff via text messages haha

 

[Alexander Ibrahim]

I assure you its a piece of crap.

But for the money ... $330 is dirt cheap. Unless its plain useless I'd give it a whirl. Like has been said, it looks like a rip off of the RR MB, and the RR MB also sucks, but it also serves.

I completely agree that the Arri MB20 is nicer, and much better suited to my regular use. It's also more than ten times as much.

So, my old plan was "buy a RedRock MB, use it, replace it when I can afford it, and sell it."

My new plan is to check this POS out in person when I can swing by NYC next. If its 90% as good as the RR, I'll buy it. I'll replace it when I can afford it, and probably keep it as a backup.

Ultimately though I don't care about the MB. Its a means. I just want to keep the lights off, and the filters in front of the lens.

 

[Alex Veitch]

I don't have any experience of the product, but in the UK Shoot35 list a swing out Matte Box for UKP400 at the moment. I'd be interested to hear from anyone who has used it - I've experience of the RR which is okay for the price, but its certainly no MB-19.

 

[Timur Civan]

I don't have any experience of the product, but in the UK Shoot35 list a swing out Matte Box for UKP400 at the moment. I'd be interested to hear from anyone who has used it - I've experience of the RR which is okay for the price, but its certainly no MB-19.

Its surprisingly good for the price. but designed more for DSLR folks. small opening, wont work on most decent PL.