Which is the best, and not too expensive, matte box for the HVX200?

Check out the Geardear system (www.geardear.com). It is made of a polycarbonate material and quite lightweight. I have the 3-stage version and have been able to hang it on the HVX lens with one filter. I do not feel comfortable, however, making a habit out of hanging the mattebox off the lens so I would defintiely consider a baseplate and rails. I have not used the Geardear baseplate and rails; I have the Zacuto plate (www.zacuto.com) which is about as well-engineered and sturdy a product as you could imagine.

Ned Soltz

I too have the Zacuto system, with a Petroff Mattebox and it works like a dream.

And I've got the Zacuto system with the Century Optics/Vocas matte-box system. You can see photos of the matte-box (minus the Zacuto base plate) in the Image Gallery where I posted several images of the HVX at various angles. The title of those images are "New HVX Photos" of which 3 show the matte-box.

if the GearDear box had been available when I purchased the Century version I'd probably have gone with that system since it appears to be very well desgined and has lots of user-configurable options.