I was recently asked a series of questions that I don’t know answers to and in todays world is a bit hard to find sensible resources for…
The questions are:
How do the polarization (CPL) filters work? How do the ND filters work? How do the Variable ND filters work?
When and how to use polarization filters? When NOT to use them? What to look for when using them to know they are performing as expected or not doing much? What are the trade-offs?
When to use ND filters? When not to use them?
When Variable ND make sense to use instead of ND filters?
Are there any other “interesting” filters that one might want to look into?
Then there are square filters which I personally got burned with (low quality filter + demanding shooting condition = pretty much unusable result :/).
Are there any sensible materials I could read and watch about those? All that I could find was vids/materials in the style of “look at how cool is polarizing filter and now buy my presets” or “filters from this company are the best, the other are garbage” with very little practical info or knowledge
There are some good and easy readings on the NISI Filters site: A guide to using filters to their maximum potential - NiSi Filters Australia They explain and do showcases on their filter products. But basically you can use all of the major brands in a similar way. The only thing which I found important when buying filters is that they differ in color cast magnitude.
Yes, I had the same problems (as expected) when I bought some cheap rectangular ND filters. Especially when trying higher grades you get all kinds of color shift. So better stay with major brand filter glass.
As an upside there and the main reason I bought these filters: they came as a set, complete with a nice cover for 6 or 8 filters, and - the best - about 10 lens thread adapters (49 to 92 mm I think) for a major brand filter carrier system. Whole set for 8 or 10 Euro, when the brand adapters are 8 to 12 each. Real good fit, work like a charm, a real bargain.
One thing which I find import is that the filter holder should allow the CPL to be as close as possible to the lens. This reduces vignetting in the end if you have an ultra-wide angle lens. And keep in mind that each filter reduces the sharpness of the image. That’s a trade-off you need to keep in mind.
Tell me about it, I decided to change my filters because of this. After a bit of research I bought Nisi square filters. I haven’t regretted it. The ND filters are particularly good, with very little colour cast.
Hi.
I am asking for advise on what magnetic filter solution might be the best bang for the buck. I think there are 3 major systems available:
K&F concept
Nisin
Kase
Does anyone have experience using any of these filter systems? I lean towards K&F as they are much cheapter but I don´t want to invest into a system that is either impractical of really cheap quality.
Advice is much appreciated.
I have the kase system and I really like it. Its not the newest color coded one, I think its the wolverine series. I have the cpl, and 3/6/10 stop ND filters. The ND filters are pretty neutral and the cpl works well. I like them and would recommend.
I also have Kase Wolverine filters: CPL, and 3 and 6 stop NDs. A couple of weeks ago, I wished I also had a 10 stop ND. I found that stacking a CPL and a ND works nicely, but a CPL and two NDs doesn’t work very well…the magnets aren’t strong enough for that. Almost lost a filter!
I have lenses with 67 mm and 72 mm filter threads, but I got a 82 mm filter kit and a couple of magnetic step-up rings. This pushes the frames of the filters further out of the FoV of the lenses and helps avoid vignetting.
Do you find with the larger step up (like 67 - 82mm) makes the CPL too hard to turn? I thought i was going to strip the threads on my lens… but I try to be really gentle.
Sorry for the slow answer. I’m at home now with my camera and filters handy.
No, I haven’t had that problem. I find that turning the CPL or any of the other filters makes a sort of dragging sound that could be reminiscent of grinding filter threads on the lens. Maybe that was what you were experiencing?
I find that it’s easier to turn only the CPL if the ND is put on the step up ring and then the CPL is put on the ND. This gets you more separation between rings.
I have a number of Nisi filters, though no magnetic ones. They are high quality, but I can’t speak for this compared to your other systems.
The one thing that I do like about the ones that I have is the engineering of the mounts, solid and well-thought-out. Looking at the magnetic filters, the thing that I noticed was that you are able to lock the filter into the adapter, something that you don’t appear to be able to do with the other systems. How much of a factor this is, I don’t know. Is there a risk that a filter could drop out of the holder?
Anyone putting EF glass on an R camera can use the Meike drop-in filter adapter (cheaper than the Canon one and apparently not worse, maybe better in some respects). The adapter and filters are quite a bit cheaper again on TaoBao if you can access that. Makes changing filters super easy. Drawback is you can only use the filters on that combination of lenses and cameras.
K&F Concept Magnetic Lens Filter-kit CPL-ND-UV 72mm
for a whopping 116 €. I could not justify spending more in such an item. But my variable ND is driving me crazy. I will report on quality if anybody cares.
Got it. I can only talk about ergonomics so far: very good, at least the way that I see it. I am using the UV filter - which is part of the set - as one of the base magnetic rings on my 16-80 and the empty 72 mm base ring is combined with a 67 mm step up ring such that I can quickly adapt either my 70-300 or the 16 as the other base ring.
The CPL or the 10 stop ND can than be magnetically attached on any of the two base rings or even stacked on top of each other. The magnetic force is just about right to make it sticky enough to hold but not too strong to allow disassembly. The CPL is shockingly slim and at first I thought that they had forgotten to mount the 2nd layer of polarizing glass but it seems that the inner part of the CPL is held by the magnets while the outer part can be turned. Still the polarization effect (subjectively checked by the darkening of the blue in the sky) is stronger then that of my old screw-on CPL (also from K&F concept but much thicker).
One more observation: my old VND filter is specified from ND2…ND400 but is - at it´s maximum position - way darker then the new ND1000 which leads me to believe that the old one was only supposed to be used until ND400 as afterwards the dreaded X-effect kicks in real hard.
So far my observations.
