Advantages of a Mattebox?

[Simon Duncan]

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

[Doug Boze]

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

[Robin Davies-Rollinson]

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

[Ash Greyson]

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)

[Ken Diewert]

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

[Tony Davies-Patrick]

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.