JTZ 4x5.65 carbon fiber matte box

I have nothing but love for this product. It has a strong sturdy front handle - with 5 potential installation screws, 15mm options on the site, 90-degree flip open hood for easy lens changes, massive light blocking flaps which you probably won't need because the carbon fiber house does most of the trick, vertical lift options, multiple filter slides and it's downright sexy. Your clients will be proud. Your rig will stand out. You'll get the "wow" effect. It's worth every penny and should last more than a lifetime (with proper care). This is an impressive product.

It’s a great matte box. Solid build. Very professional. Heavy. The only problem is the fit. As mentioned in other reviews, the 15mm rods bang into the filter stage so you can’t slide the box further for longer lenses without needing longer rods. I worked around this by sliding the whole camera back (mounted to 8sinn shoulder plate) to allow for longer lenses while keeping the same rods. Quick simple adjustment. Would have been better if they included a mid section that raised it a bit higher. Tried it with the mid section of the 19mm rods but that didn’t help. I balance the camera out with a big AB gold mount battery. Yes the rig is heavy but it’s balanced and this box is top tier for quick lens swaps and blocking glare for anamorphic lenses. The handle on the front is amazing.

I have this on my rig with a GH5. I did a lot of research on matte boxes. I didn't want to pay more than about $500. This is well made and solid. Happy with it. Couple things to consider: There is not a lot of up/down movement, with 15MM rods, the center of your lens should be about 85 MM from the rods. If you are way off from 85MM, your lens will not fit. Works best with carbon fiber rods. I tried with metal rods and it was difficult to get onto rails. Like the top handle, swing away and the flags.

Thing is built solid. I love the top handle it has to use in conjunction with the rig's top handle to lift the camera up. The main feature I love about it is that if you use cine lens with a 115mm (I believe) front element, it has a soft rubber gasket to accommodate the lens and won't scratch your lens like other, even high quality, matteboxes will. The only downside, IF it is a downside, is that if you're using 15mm rods, the rod won't go all the way through because the rectangular frame of the matte box will stop the rod from overextending, but there is no reason why there should be something more in front of the matte box. Great item.

It's a solidly built and versatile Mattebox and I do like it. I do have a few drawbacks that buyer should know: -- you CANNOT slide it past the filter trays on rails. The lowest the rail mount goes will make it so that your front rails will hit and interfere with filter trays. Discovered this on set and the only solution my AC and I could come up with was mounting to a cheeseplate and that to a dual 15mm riser and then sliding, bypassing the swing arm. -- filter trays ARE NOT standard size. The filter spots with the tray are 4x4 & 4x5.65 but the trays themselves are not standard, so beware if you use something like a Revar Cine rotating, it will just drop right through and not beheld by the filter mount.

The quality is amazingly strong. The design is perfect in every way in my opinion and the finish is like icing on cake. The functionality is superb! I love that they catered this brand for standard industry use.

Listen, Im giving this matte box three stars because it is truly an amazing matte box with amazing build quality and lots of features packed into such a light weight matte box. However please BEWARE if you own a RED camera or likewise cine cam that you are using a baseplate that adheres to the LWS spec this thing is going to be a huge pain for you. The biggest problem is that this matte box can NOT move on the rods. The design makes it so that the 15mm rods will hit the front of the matte box, not a problem if you can move your rods back, but on a RED camera the rods are butted up against the camera body. Solution is to own a bunch of different rods depending on what size lens you are using or use a different matte box. I understand this matte box is trying to stay inline with the LWS spec however, the excess material under the filter trays is completely unneeded and is only impending the use and adjustability. Its a great matte box, but with a fatal design flaw. Was able to return for a full refund, currently looking more carefully at a replacement. NOTS: this problem dose not exist when using a 19mm rod system. Unfortunately what we use in our studio is all set up for 15mm.

BUYER BEWARE. I’m really upset. I have had this mattebox for about 2 years now but it finally broke today, and it broke in a VERY weird way. Let me say first of all, I take care of my gear very well... there is no reason for this defect to happen with light use only a couple years later. I have a large production tomorrow that I’m getting ready for today and the mattebox seems to wiggle quite a bit. Then I noticed that the tab that you pull to swing the mattebox away was also very loose. As soon as pulled the tab up to swing away the mattebox, the tab itself came out of its threads that hold it to the mattebox itself. The threads are completely stripped on the mattebox and it doesn’t seem like it can be fixed. Now I’m in the market to buy another mattebox I highly doubt I will buy another JTZ.

Die Mattebox ist wirklich der Wahnsinn! Sie ist unfassbar gut verarbeitet, super wertig (da nichts aus Plastik ist) Die Mattebox ist wirklich der Hammer und wird mich in den nächsten Jahren bei vielen Drehs begleiten!

Es buenisimo

It is a decent piece of kit, however, it is also heavy so just bear that in mind. Another thing I’d advise is to watch reviews on YouTube, they will help you make an informed decision, this is in regards to the rods that don’t allow one of the filter trays to rotate fully.

Pour l’avoir utiliser depuis plusieurs semaines quel plaisir ! Ça respire la qualité ! Rien à dire à première vue, jolie qualité de fabrication, les pièces mobiles inspire confiance pour le long terme RAS

For the price it is verry rugged. There are some issues with swiveling the flags. It sometimes damages the matte box's paint layer. For the price you would think it would fit perfectly on every 15inch and 19inch rod. Unfortunately, it is not always fitting on the rods. The rest works great, except 1 small thing. Switching the 'donut' isn't that easy and sometimes isn't fitting that well on the matte box. Overall a great matte box, but maybe the price is a little bit too high for the using-quality you get.