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Hardware Review: Indian Matte Box Review (The Cine City)
You know, like every other low budget and guerilla filmmaker out there, I am constantly surfing the internet and browsing on eBay looking for great deals on professional filmmaking equipment. And we all understand that the phrase “looking for great deals” really just means we’re cheap.
In our efforts to find those “great deals,” we’ve all come across the film equipment manufacturers from India. You know the guys I’m talking about, you’ve seen them with a bunch of different eBay IDs like DVACCESSORY, DV-SHOP23, 23FILTERS and a bunch of other names. You may also have seen their website on the internet at . Yup, they’re all the same guys.
Now, if you’re anything like me, as tempted as you’ve been by their fantastic pricing, you’ve been more than a little wary of actually placing an order through them. You may have trolled their website and their eBay listings for weeks but never pulled the trigger on a purchase. I’m there with you. How good can their matte boxes, shoulder supports, cranes, car mounts or Steadicam-clones be at those insanely low prices? Heck, do they just keep your money and never send anything?
After months and months of hemming and hawing, I decided to take the plunge and order up some of their equipment thanks to the wonders of the government stimulus check I received (yes, I realize ordering internationally isn’t what the current administration had in mind with the checks, but cut me some slack here).
I received my first order this past week and I have to admit I was pleasantly surprised. I ordered a matte box and french flag attachment from through one of their eBay IDs — I think it was the 23filters ID, but I could be wrong. All those India-based eBay sellers seem to be from TheCineCity.com, so all the filmmaking equipment comes from the same place.
If you’ve watched my video up above, then you already know there were two things which impressed me with my order. First, it arrived incredibly fast considering it was going from India to me here in Southern California. I placed my order on a Monday and the Matte Box package showed up through DHL on Friday, 4 days later. Needless to say my mind was blown. I order through eBay all the time and packages from New York or Florida take twice or three times as long sometimes. Heck, some packages from here in California take longer than 4 days to get to me.
The second thing which impressed me was the quality of the compents in the matte box itself. The package contained the mostly metal Indian matte box, the french flag attachment and a metal adapter ring to attach the entire thing to my camera (the lucious and kick-ass Canon HV20 in my case). The Cine Matte Box was very well made, sturdy and surprisingly slick. You won’t be embarrassed to show up to your next film shoot with one of this things attached to the front of your camera.
In addition to the french flag, the Indian Matte Box also has two slots for 4″x4″ filters…I use screw-on filters for the most part, but having the option to drop in some 4×4 filters is a nice little add-on.
All-in-all, the Cine City Matte Box from India is an excellent little piece of equipment to attach to your camera, and a great bargain for indie and guerilla filmmakers looking for the best priced matte box on the market right now. If you’re in the market for a new matte box then don’t hesitate to give the a try. I can’t wait for the rest of my equipment to make its way here from India!
Until next time, take care and keep shooting!
-Mat N., the Film Sensei
http://www.filmsensei.com
Just what I’m looking for!
I’m looking for a reasonable way to rig up our new HDV camcorders but prices of the big names are just way up there!
Have you tried their DOF adapter?
Thanks.
Ervz
March 9th, 2009 at 11:15 pm
I have a question, I have been looking at the matte box on their website, I was wondering if you purchased the regular matte box or the wide angle matte box. If you did purchase the regular one, how does it work with a wide angle lens?
Thanks
April 2nd, 2009 at 11:02 am
Hey Mat,
Excellent review of the filmmaking equipments. I’m an aspiring filmmaker myself. I recently bought a SONY HDR SR-10 camcorder. So am looking for the accessories and part that I can add on the camera to get ready for my ametuer shooting. I liked the matte box that you ordered from India. What is the model and specification of that matte box? And how did you contact them. Can you give me their email or phone number? I want to contact them directly.
Thanks for all the information that you post online for FREE. You’re great.
Khampa
August 14th, 2009 at 12:58 am