The Matik has been a long standing project for CAMP, who have put in a lot of time, effort, and money into getting its design and various features right.
The Matik weighs in at 276g in comparison to the Eddy's 360g and overall it feels like a more compact device. In terms of rope soloing it's not something that I personally used it for, hence wouldn't really like to comment.
Agreed on the 'soft catch' point. I had a friend belaying me with one of these recently and if he didn't add his own dynamism (is that a word?) it wasn't that soft a catch. For a proper soft catch you're still better off with a belayer thats substantially lighter than you!
Is it not the case with a regular (grabby, something along Pivot/ATC/Reverso) belay plate though? If your belayer is heavy and doesn't give you much dynamic in the belay, you would still suffer? Maybe not such a big deal on trad with half ropes as the falls can be a little bit longer than the falls in sport climbing. I don't fall too much on trad gear though, less than 5 times this year .
Fri Night Vid Finding Focus - Life Behind The Lens of a Climbing Photographer
This week's Friday Night Video is a portrait of a prolific climbing photographer from Wedge Climbing. Sam Pratt is well known in both the outdoor and competition scene but if you haven't heard of him, you've likely seen...