DV Info Net - Poor Man's Matte Box

Well... like many here I have been astounded at the prices of matte boxes. I had recently had the pleasure of buying some barn doors from one of our members (www.coollightsbiz.com) with the idea of putting them on quartz worklights for which they were designed. (I did add one set and am very happy with the result btw.)

Well, curiousity got the best of me and instead of mounting the second set I bought on a quartz worklight, instead I mounted them on a Cokin P series lens shade designed (with appropriate adapter ring) to mount onto the Z-1 lens - 72mm.

I used 4-40 nuts bolts and washers to assemble the shebang.

Now remember that the flags he offers are steel, and hence the entire unit is a little heavy, especially to hang on a 72mm lens mount (though not terrible, just more weight than I like) but the steel flags will make nice templates for lighter plastic or aluminum ones for the next step. (Looking back the bottom flag is probably not necessary which will help.)

The side flags may need a little more engineering on my part, which I plan to do as I build them out of lighter material, but I have to tell you for under $50 this matte box idea - fully adjustable... is even better than I imagined. Who knows maybe rail support is not far off.

I wish I could post pix, but I still new enough they don't yet trust me to do that yet, though I have some to show you all of this little project

Anyway, there are simply DIY solutions to some of these issues... just as we have seen from other members. As soon as I can post, I'll add pics here.