matte boxes
 

i just purchased a matte box for a panasonic dvx100a
what are the benefits of having one of these.
thanks

just curious.. u spent money on something u know nothing about?? reason i ask is that usually its the other way around. Do ur research, then fork out the cash.. hell i need more customers like u bro.. lol

Matteboxes, depending on their design (with french flag or not), can be used to stop light from directly coming into contact with the cameras lens. This stops lens abherations and lens flares... As the DVX lens is relatively wide, you WILL need to zoom in a little bit to keep the box out of the shot, but apart from that, its a fancy Lens hood with a little more reach then the standard hood which comes with the camera

Peter, you forgot to mention that a matte box usually has trays to hold filters.
A graduated neutral density filter can be handy to bring down exposure on sky etc. - as well as other types of filter...


Robin

OOps my bad bro...

Yeah usually there are vertical slits where u can throw down some filters or stack them up... I find the Cokin filters work really well and u can get them in a variety of sized so u should be able to find a filter to suit ur box diameters.

obviously there are others.

Gradded ND... man... i tell ya, sometimes i forget my brain sometimes...
which one are u using mate?? Ive never really had a chance to put one of thee to thte test... And what environments are u shooting in? I dont have a Mattebox coz its a bitch to manage when shooting events and shit, but its good to know what results ppl are getting :)

Peter,

No sweat, mate :-)

I've got some Tiffen 4" x 3" grads in 0.3 0.6 0.9 densities. They're very good and can help either bring down a bright sky or just enhance clouds, like here:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...nswithgrad.jpg

I don't keep the matte box on all the time. although I do keep the rod system on camera, since it's really quick to slide the matte box on when required.


Robin

now THAT looks sexy in a sureal kinda way..

hmm.. padre packs his credit card and heads to Tiffen's site.. ;)

What are you selling Peter? I've just come into some cash and I really need to spend it. Second thought, don't tell me. Just tell me how much for 10 (preferably in black).