Recs.
Updated
SpecsUpdate
Pros
Pro Easy to pay out rope
The camming system of the Matik is designed to allow a small amount of rope to slip.
Pro Dynamic catching action
"unlike other mechanical assisted locking models, it boasts a gradual camming action that produces a dynamic catch and can reportedly reduce impact forces by as much as 40%." "This isn't particularly relevant if you are squared away with modern dynamic soft catch techniques as a lead belayer, but it is extremely relevant when you are belaying directly off an anchor. "
Cons
Con More sensitive to rope type
"It doesn't like stiff ropes or fat ropes for this application, nor was it designed as such. I had the best luck with malleable Sterling ropes such as the Nano and Helix, and it also performed extremely well on the Mammut 8.7 and 9.2 ropes. Anything 9.8 and above, and performance starts to suffer significantly, as it's pretty hard to get rope to feed through the device smoothly."