I'm planning on ordering the TrusMT follow focus and mattebox. Does anybody have any experience with the follow focus? How does it compare with other oens in the price range?

Well, given the price I bought a the LCD hood even though the seller doesn't specify a GH camera fit. It's strong, felt inner lining, stitched leatherette & folds flat.
The floating GH-2 effect was all mine. No photographic equipment was injured in the process.

lol. That looks funny.

***Trusmt D100MB2 CF Review***

Recently received the Trusmt D100MB2 matte box with carbon fiber flags.

It fulfills my expectations of what it would be: functional, no frills, practical, basic. It's just the kind of matte box I was looking for - for the right price.

The hood is made of strong, impact-resistant plastic. The swiveling, hinged parts are made of aluminum/metal. The carbon fiber flags are pretty cool. Incredibly light and super stiff - I understand Vitaly's concern about durability, but it would take quite an accident to snap one of these.

The up-and-down adjustment of the mattebox is about 6mm in each direction - enough to make a difference.

There are four neoprene "donuts" (which they call 'gaskets') included. I struggled with them a bit before figuring out they're supposed to angle back out from the ring in a conical shape. Once you get that they install in and out quite easily. They don't exactly cover every one of my lenses perfectly - there's a bit of a gap between the donut and the outer diameter of the lens on a few of them. A universal donut might do some good here.

One thing that's not perfect is the strength of the screw-down knobs that hold the flags in place: while they tighten down enough to prevent the flags from swinging around when moving the camera, the hold is a bit loose and can be knocked out of place by a slight touch.

A bigger issue is the sizing of the 4x4 filter holders (made of plastic). They are slightly too big for my Tiffen 4x4 ND filters. I'm not sure if Tiffen 4x4s tend to run small, but this is the first time I've had this issue. The spring-loaded "arm" on the filter holder that is supposed to hold the filter in place does not quite touch it, and therefore the filter will drop right out of the holder. This already happened once, and the ND filter clattered onto the floor. I'm getting around the problem for now by jamming a Q-tip stick in the gap. That's enough to hold the filter in securely.

I emailed Trusmt about this issue (trusmt@gmail.com) and they were very responsive - much quicker to reply than the typical eBay seller. They said that they're already aware of the problem and are currently creating a new filter holder. The implication is that they will send out a replacement once it's ready.

But don't let these two issues give you pause on purchasing the D100. For this price, I feel it gives matte boxes costing $800-1000 a run for their money. Two 360° rotating filter stages, a swing-away function, and just an all-around good, basic matte box design. Let's assume they will be fixing this 4x4 sizing issue and sending out replacements.

Hope this review helped. Good luck with your shopping and shooting!

Hi Vitaly, thanks for your prompt answer. I found the D100MB2 CF here (http://tinyurl.com/3g3e4xl). Contacted the manufacturer about my inquiry and the mattebox has the following specs: 15mm diameter standard rods and 60mm from rods themselves (center to center). I asked for some infos because cinema industry uses also 19mm rod systems. I'll follow your advice regarding CF hood and buy the AL flags version. Best and keep up the good work.

>mine just arrived with the "swing-away block" missing...

What do you mean? :-)

>I'm interested in the D100MB2 CF

Where do you see D100MB2 CF here? I do not advise carbon flags as they are very easy to damage.
As for rods, any 15mm rig must have standard rods and standard rod distance.

@Vitaliy_Kiselev Bit of a misunderstanding; I didn't realize they were different sellers and assumed that TrusMt were retailers of both. Oh well; I couldn't of brought the Cinematics mattebox with the FF anyway, and I'm pretty happy with it now - it does have some nice features the Cinematics doesn't (height adjustment, better filters, more mounting options..).

@Ptchaw

I looked at the PM.
You asked specifically about follow focus+MB deal.
I even asked if you want TrusMT.
You said yes.

I think having just one arm is an advantage. With small lenses, the space to mount other accessories like a FF is usually very tight. Having only one arm versus two can make the difference between mounting a FF or having to shoot without it. All the high end (arri, chrosziel etc.) matte boxes have only one arm...

I received my Cinematics mattebox yesterday. Very pleased with it. There are some limitations as have already been pointed out such as the filter holders not being the greatest but overall I am very impressed for the price. It looks and feels very similar to higher end matteboxes.

@Nino_Ilacqua
>I would like to have some kind of shoulder support

So would I - for a DSLR but centred like you are when using an ENG camera or any one of the heavier movie cameras. With the GH.x cameras there's the need for an eyepiece solution, too - but something like this $20 Dollar Shoulder Rig seems at least to sit at about the right position to me:

@Nino_Ilacqua
You mean rail support?
http://www.personal-view.com/talks/discussion/524/interesting-stuff-rail-camera-support