K&F Concept Matte Box Kit review: A budget matte box kit that surprises and delights in equal measure

Matte boxes can be an essential accessory for videographers, providing the difference between technical and creative control, rather than issues with stray light. They’re used to stop light from reaching the lens and causing flare, haze and loss of contrast. This is alongside facilitating the use of filters for exposure control and to apply creative effects using specialist filters.

Matte boxes are traditionally expensive, and some top-end models will cost you hundreds, sometimes even thousands. I can hear you wince, but hold on. Of course, for high-end productions, you’ll want the best that money can buy. But for what you might call ‘standard’ professional or enthusiast use, the K&F Concept Matte Box Kit with ND4 & ND32 filters is a comprehensive and useful kit to get you started, while also providing that all-important useful creative control.

Being a budget model, the smoothness of operation isn’t as high as more expensive matte boxes; this is to be expected, and performance is still great overall. The K&F matte box is of excellent build quality and is easy to use, so what more do you need if you’re on a budget? Plus, coming with two filters in filter trays ready for use is ideal for those looking to buy their first or even a second matte box. Versions of the Matte Box with one ND filter can also be bought, bringing the cost down even furhter.

Find out more about photographic filters with our guides to the best filters for photography, the best polarizing filters and the best ND filters.

K&F Concept Matte Box Kit: Specifications

K&F Concept Matte Box Kit: Price

K&F Concept Matte Box Kit with ND4 & ND32 filters costs just $130 / £130 / AU$227, which is an absolute bargain. The kit includes the matte box, a shell case to carry everything, two filter trays, a 4x5.65in ND4 filter, a 4x5.65in ND32 filter, 67, 72, 77, 82, and 95mm adapter rings. Additional adaptor rings for smaller lens threads can be purchased separately.

The K&F Matte Box is available in several kit configurations. Both with and without filters, including special effects filters. Which kit works best for you will depend on your needs. There are also several other K&F 4x5.65in video filters that can be purchased separately, alongside additional filter trays if you’d prefer all of your filters to be quick and easy to install.

K&F Concept Matte Box Kit: Design & Handling

The K&F Concept Matte Box itself is made of a mixture of aluminium, plastic and carbon fibre. The build of the box is mostly plastic with some aluminium parts, including the adaptor rings, while the single top-mounted flag is made of carbon fibre.

There are no official specs outlining the dimensions and weight of the matte box and filters, but with the two NDs attached, including the 82mm adaptor ring, the whole set-up weighs 19.15oz / 543g, which is what you’d expect for a matte box of its size with two filters attached.

A large aluminium knob on the top is used to tighten and loosen the flag, while a smaller knob attached to a bar, on the rear, is used to secure the matte box to the adaptor rings and allows the matte box to be rotated if required. This is useful if you're using an ND graduated filter to reduce exposure in the sky since ND grads are portrait format filters.

Having just a top-mounted horizontal flag works well in most outdoor situations and matches many competitor models, but with no barn door-style flags on the sides, you’re more limited than more advanced matte boxes. You can, of course, rotate the matte box for side protection, but if stray light is coming from multiple directions, this will be harder to combat.

Filters are held in filter trays/frames, which are required for them to be installed into the front of the matte box and held in place using a simple and secure mechanism. The two filters in the kit come installed in the trays, and you can either buy more so any additional 4x5.65in filters you own are kept in trays all of the time, or you can quickly and easily swap them using the simple clip on the end of the trays to release the filters and swap them out as required. This latter approach may be better because filters not in use can be kept safely in their cases/wallets.

K&F Concept Matte Box Kit: Performance

One thing I particularly like about this matte box is that it can also be used with one circular filter, alongside up to two framed filters. This means you can use the matte box with a polarising, black mist or a blue streak circular filter, etc.

This greatly extends the usefulness of the matte box, but there is one small caveat here. It’s not a major issue or even an issue at all, but you have to use circular filters that match the size of the adaptor ring, up to 82mm. The 95mm adaptor ring isn’t, unfortunately, compatible with circular filters.

During testing, I used my 82mm circular blue streak and black mist filters alongside the 4x5.65in ND filters without any issues whatsoever. This provided the exact creative and exposure control I was aiming for, while allowing me to block stray light that would have otherwise caused flare, haze and loss of contrast.

When shooting, the ND4 offers a 2-stop light reducing density while the ND32 provides a 5-stop density. These can be used individually or stacked to provide three ND options covering a wider range of lighting conditions. When testing the filters individually and stacked, I found that they added a tiny hint of red to images. This increased slightly in the ND32 and again when both were stacked.

For this test, I took three photos because it’s easier to assess colour balance with stills than video. The amount of red visible was tiny, and would be extremely easy to remove in video editing software; even more so if you’re capturing in a flat log profile or Raw video. In a nutshell, this is nitpicking, and I was happy with the performance of the ND filters during video capture.

The filters appear to be of the same or similar quality as K&F Concept’s excellent stills photography filters, thanks to the dual-sided polished glass with a 28-layer nano-coating; these coatings repel water, are claimed to be oilproof and are also scratch-resistant. For 4K and 8K video capture, there’s no doubt that the filters are optically excellent, not perfect as the minor colour casts suggest, but they’re still impressive.

K&F Concept Matte Box Kit: Verdict

If you’re a professional on a budget or an enthusiast videographer looking for your first matte box, the K&F Concept Matte Box Kit with ND4 & ND32 filters will serve you well. The quality of the two ND filters, which can also be stacked, is great despite an incredibly faint red colour cast visible only when pixel peeping. Plus, with five adaptor rings in the kit, you can use the matte box with many lenses.

One feature I particularly like is the ability to use circular filters alongside up to two 4x5.65in filters in filter trays. This opens up huge creative potential, while allowing you to use circular filters that work better in a circular rather than rectangular format, such as polarising filters. The K&F Concept Matte Box Kit may not be the best available, but in terms of price, build quality and performance, it offers excellent value for money.

Alternatives

The SmallRig Mini Matte Box is compact, lightweight, and is available for a bargain price, but without any filters. It’s quite similar to the K&F Concept in several ways, but can only accommodate one 4x5.65in filter.

The PolarPro BaseCamp Matte Box Kit includes all the ND filter strengths you’ll ever need alongside a polarising filter in a high-quality kit. It is expensive, though, and tied to the PolarPro ecosystem.