Advantages of a Mattebox?
 

Now this may seem a very naive question but came someone please
explain to me the Advantages of using a Mattebox.

Outside making the camera look more professional what is the real function
of the Mattebox?

Thanks

To keep extraneous light out of the lens and to hold filters.

Simon,
Welcome to DVinfo.net!
You question about matte boxes crops up quite frequently, so I suggest that you do a "search" using our search feature - you'll find out all you ever wanted to know ..... :-)


Robin

Most hoods that come with cameras are already good enough. In DV world they were created so that people with existing drop-in filters could make use of those. I would say MOST people using them are doing it for the look more than the functionality.


ash =o)

But you gotta admit Ash, they do look cool!!!

I tend to prefer using a decent lens hood rather than the overpriced Matte boxes, because the UV or polarizing filters that I use are round screw-on filters.

I also own a lot of Graduated filters in square or "P" size, and these fit nicely into a 'P' size holder in conjunction with a large Bellows Hood. The advantage of using a bellows hood is that it can be adjusted to extend for telephoto lenses, or squeeze smaller for wide angle lenses to prevent vignetting.