monaceio: Matte box recommendation

The primary functions for a matte box is:

Attach French flag and/or side flag(s) to block glare and unwanted lights to the lens
Be able to swap filters (rectangular or square) quickly
Extra protection for your lens's front element

Lens hood can also block glare and protect the lens, so why should I spent a lot more money to get a matte box?

In terms of blockage, matte box is more flexible because you can adjust the angles of the French flag and/or side flag(s). This allows pros to better control lighting depending on the ambient conditions and their needs. Lens hood's coverage is constant.
In terms of protection, matte box is better and more convenient as well. If you are not shooting, you can fold down the flags to cover your lens. With lens hood attached putting the lens cap on/off is not very easy if the lens' filter size is smaller than 72mm in diameter. The metal flags and matte box housing is more sturdy than the plastic lens hood, too.
The biggest advantage of a matte box is the ability of swapping filters quickly. Circular screw-in filters perhaps would get job done, but it requires a quite bit time to change the filters. In real production environment, shooters never have this kind of time. Pros swap filters from a matte box in seconds.

You probably would think why I should spend big dollar on the glass filters when the advanced post production software can do the job.

Optical excellence vs. Digital artificial (ex. optical zoom vs. digital zoom, 50mm f/1.2L vs. 50mm f/1.8)
You always need to get the footage done right at first while shooting and then use post production software to improve it. This also indeed saves your time in post.

Any limitation of a matte box?
If the matte box is physically attached to the rig, the distance between the matte box and your camera's lens mount will be fixed. This means you cannot zoom unless your lens support internal zoom (ex. 70-200 f/2.8 L IS II). If your lens does not support internal focus (lens front elements stay constant while focusing), it will be pointless to buy matte box. Instead, invest on a high quality lens first (most lens over $800 has internal focus). Why Zeiss CP2 are so expensive besides their optical quality? Because every lens has the exact same physical dimensions. This is ideal for using with matte box in the cinematography world. People can swap lenses as quickly as they swap filters.

Which matte box should I choose?
It depends on your budget (Price here reflects TCO, Total Cost of Ownership, not MSRP, Manufacture Suggested Retail Price).

Anything below $250: AVOID. They call it "affordable," "entry level," and etc. In reality, those so called matte box are *functionally incomplete.* You better off just save the money and use a lens hood instead.

$250-500
At this price range, you have to buy it offshore.
Proaim MB 700
This is my second matte box. At less than half the cost, it is actually better than my first matte box, Genus GL GMKBAS. Proaim can attach side flags, Genus cannot. Neither has the build quality of Redrock micro.