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Matte Box Discussion

Trust MT makes almost equivalent stuff that's sold by Proaim and others from India on ebay. I've mentioned before that we own a few of the proaim rigs/follow focus/matteboxes and have no complaints -- except for follow focus play.

Their new swing away matte box is amazing for the price. One 4x4 filter holder and two 4x5.65. AND no foam rings. Rubber bellows.

Also check out a previous mattebox discussion thread: http://www.reduser.net/forum/showthread.php?59411-Scarlet-Matte-Box
 
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Prince Bagdasarian said:
Trust MT makes almost equivalent stuff that's sold by Proaim and others from India on ebay. I've mentioned before that we own a few of the proaim rigs/follow focus/matteboxes and have no complaints -- except for follow focus play.

Their new swing away matte box is amazing for the price. One 4x4 filter holder and two 4x5.65. AND no foam rings. Rubber bellows.

Also check out a previous mattebox discussion thread: http://www.reduser.net/forum/showthread.php?59411-Scarlet-Matte-Box
Click to expand...
Do you have a link for the new model? I only see double 4x4 tray models on eBay.
 
Prince Bagdasarian said:
Trust MT makes almost equivalent stuff that's sold by Proaim and others from India on ebay. I've mentioned before that we own a few of the proaim rigs/follow focus/matteboxes and have no complaints -- except for follow focus play.

Their new swing away matte box is amazing for the price. One 4x4 filter holder and two 4x5.65. AND no foam rings. Rubber bellows.

Also check out a previous mattebox discussion thread: http://www.reduser.net/forum/showthread.php?59411-Scarlet-Matte-Box
Click to expand...

I've checked out that thread, but was looking for a little more matte box vs matte box dialogue. What's your opinion of trustmt vs proaim? The trustmt seems more solid to me, and looks more expensive, which helps in making the decision to buy a cheap mb.
 
As Prince hinted at foam rings are painful... I would steer clear of any matte box with this system.
 
i do like the Shoot35 mattebox. they now have a clipon option, its lightweight, can be swing away,
2 rotating stages - the only minor remark is that those are plastic, it would be nice to have a option
to have metal filterholders, but the plastic ones do the job fine and are light.
all the rest is solid construction, metal where its needed = most of it.
limitation was 80mm diameter lenses only, but with the clamp on, other optional diameters are now possible.
the 80mm works perfectly for my Leia-R lensset.
very flexible in adjustments, up to 14mm lenses seems to be usable with the 4x4
it doesnt loose its screws - which i hate - as in the Redrock and Red matteboxes...
 
Filip Vandoorne said:
i do like the Shoot35 mattebox. they now have a clipon option, its lightweight, can be swing away,
2 rotating stages - the only minor remark is that those are plastic, it would be nice to have a option
to have metal filterholders, but the plastic ones do the job fine and are light.
all the rest is solid construction, metal where its needed = most of it.
limitation was 80mm diameter lenses only, but with the clamp on, other optional diameters are now possible.
the 80mm works perfectly for my Leia-R lensset.
very flexible in adjustments, up to 14mm lenses seems to be usable with the 4x4
it doesnt loose its screws - which i hate - as in the Redrock and Red matteboxes...
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info. Do you know how light the shoot35 is? And I'm assuming it doesn't rattle around at all when you're using it, like the Redrock does? And can anyone compare it to the Trusmt?
 
Ryan Chapman said:
I've checked out that thread, but was looking for a little more matte box vs matte box dialogue. What's your opinion of trustmt vs proaim? The trustmt seems more solid to me, and looks more expensive, which helps in making the decision to buy a cheap mb.
Click to expand...

Well Ryan, I've never personally used trusmt gear but have seen others use them from time to time. There were complaints often -- mainly for the foam rings (as Mike mentioned as well). Proaim's new mattebox no longer has foam rings. They are now rubber (80% better) and it accommodates two 4x5.65 filters rather than 4x4's only. Both trusmt and proaim are ABS plastic with aluminium flags.

Looks can be deceiving. For the 300-500 price range, I recommend the proaim matteboxe.
 
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Oconnor is a 3k+ mattebox with a 1k price tag. It´s a no brainer to me.
 
Stay away from all those cheaply made Mattebox....they will fall apart in no time and you'll end up wasting your money and buying another one. The only exception being the cinevate. It's rock solid...but I would still recommend the oconnor for your price range. It's the best bang for the buck and very good quality. Just remember that it's "limited" to about an 18mm wide lens.
 
The O-Box is something I've been looking into as well. If you're using smaller diameter lenses you'll need the bellows attachment (roughly $150) and then you'll need the 114mm reduction rings that attach to the bellows. I believe they make 3 - 110mm, 95mm and 80mm all at around $55.

So total cost of the O-Box with all the step downs is around $1400 - still a bargain.
 
OK, seems a few users have problems with several of Brian's posts. They even report him regularly to moderators using the "report post" function. But you know what? Every time I go and read these reported posts or reports of trolling, I don't see a real problem. @Brian, you do come off as having a bit of an attitude at times, but you usually have your facts straight. Might want to tone it down a notch because it's obviously rubbing a few people the wrong way.

Now, at the risk of trolling, I'm going to say that I bought one of those PROAIM boxes. Yes, it's a piece of crap, but it was on the same level as the RedRock and even better in a couple ways (no neoprene / rubber bellows donut things to start with) and less money. If you buy one or two and think of them as expendable, you will do just fine. ;) Actually, I really like them for this. Or just look at it this way, they're a bargain because the PROAIM is 1/10th the price of an ARRI MB20 and 25% as good. So it's stronger in terms of price/utility than the ARRI is... LOL.

I really like the RED Mattebox, but it's limited in its abilities right now. Until we get rotating stages, ability to rod mount, etc.. it's not going to be a studio mattebox replacement. But it's nice and light and is a great option for clip-ons. I would say that the RRI LMB-5 and the RED MB are the top two clip-ons on the market right now for overall build quality. I think in some ways I do like the RED one a bit better... But for now I prefer the LMB-5 because of the various options out there for it. With a third-party 3-stage conversion and a few other goodies, it's usually my go-to mattebox for the EPIC. For lenses I'm mostly shooting with RPP's, the Duclos modded Tokina 11-16 (I don't use this with the mattebox) and the Optimo DP zooms.

O'Connor O-Box is another favorite of mine. The mattebox itself is tough as hell. I love their design and the concept of attaching grip handles right to the box. Unfortunately, I never felt that the support hardware which mounts the box to the camera/ rods was solid enough to enable this implementation to its fullest. Every time I've used one or got my hands on one at NAB, on a job, etc.. there was always enough play or flex in the mounting and support hardware to cause me some concern. But the O-Box WM is a worthy competitor to several ARRI, Chroszeil and Vocas matteboxes. I used a Vocas for years with my DVX100 then HVX200 cameras. Sold it with one of the HVX200's, but I've always had good luck with them and they're typically cheaper than Chrosziel and ARRI.

I went through 3 of the RedRock Matteboxes before giving up on them. Actually received the third one (second replacement unit) and sold it without unwrapping all the bits and pieces.
 
Yup, what Phillipe & Jeff said!

For the 1000-1500 range, I would definitely consider the O-Box, especially for the ability to attaching grips and accessories. However, I also disliked the rod mounting hardware... honestly felt like i was going to break it. Somewhat of the same feeling of the older proaim attachment, except we have multiples of the proaim and it doesnt cost 1k more -- so I can break without worries (which has never happened btw) lol

Another thing to consider is whether there's a real need for swing-away or not. As far as I know, the O-Box isn't swing-away (unless theres an attachment I've never encountered).
 
Thanks everyone for the lengthy answers. I can see why the O-Box makes sense, and I would love to have the O'Connor brand for my setup, but it seems like it isn't really compatible with my Zeiss ZE lenses, which have all different filter threads starting at 58mm. It looks to me like I'd have to get a 150-114 converter, then a 114-80 step down, then a 80-58, 80-62, 80-67, etc, step downs to make it work. Even if I did do that, screwing all those step downs together with each lens change would kill me, and having them loosely touch would defeat the purpose of such a classy matte box.

Can anyone compare the shoot35 to the O-Box? The shoot35 has some really strong supporters, costs about half as much, swings away and clips on, and is fully compatible with my ZE lenses. I know everyone is saying don't buy cheap, but it's hard not to when the MB makes more sense on paper than the expensive one.
 
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Ryan, the "150 to 114 converter" is the Bellows Ring (or Donut) which will hold 138mm round filter. A reduction ring can be attached to that. There are 3 to choose from and you only use 1 at a time. The options are 114 to 110mm, 114 to 95mm and 114 to 80mm. There may be 3rd party options as well. You still may be right that this is not a good option for the lenses you have. Hopefully someone else can offer some advice on that.
 
The key for me with the O-Box was to have the ability to use it with some of my Nikons that have extension on the focus. A hard ring wouldn't work. So, I added the Chroziel Flex Ring. That solves the problem for me and makes the matte box versatile. If you need swing-away this is not the matte box for you. Personally, I can live without that for the projects I use it for, but on a big project where time is money, I'd have an MB-20 on set. Here are the parts I ordered for O-Box. The 19mm studio adapter needs the handheld bridge to work and I haven't ordered that yet. I use the MB with 15mm LW right now.
obox.jpg
 
Thanks for posting this Steve! I'm definitely picking up one of those Flex Rings.
 
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