Breakthrough Photography 67mm X2 6-stop Nd Filter Review
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Recently I shopped around for three-terminate ND filters. I browsed B&H, Amazon, Adorama, YouTube, and read countless reviews. In the end, I felt more dislocated and indecisive about neutral density filters than when I started.
I decided the only way I was going to figure out which ND filter to own was to endeavor them all. So, I purchased viii three-finish, 82mm ND filters from name-brands priced between $36 and $180.
ND Filters Tested
Each ND filter volition be tested for color cast, color accuracy, vignette, and overall user feel. Which ND filter will win? Let'southward observe out.
ND Filter Tests
Color cast
Colour cast occurs when colors are tinted with an unwanted hue. Color cast tin can touch an entire prototype or only reveal itself in particular areas (eg, shadows and highlights). Colour bandage tin usually be fixed with a white residue eyedropper, only more severe color casts can be trickier.
To examination for colour cast, I'yard using consistent lighting from a continuous 5600k LED light. I've set my Canon 5D Mark Four to the same white balance (5600k), Manual exposure, with fixed values for aperture, shutter speed and ISO. The filter is then the only variable between each RAW paradigm.
Here'southward a RAW, straight-out-of-camera image captured without an ND filter. We will employ this image as a command for comparison purposes.
Next, I'll capture the same image again with all the ND filters. Because of the concealment effect of the ND filters, I'1000 slowing the camera'due south shutter speed downward to match the exposure of the control image. Other than that, the setup will be exactly the same for each shot.
Equally you can see, some ND filters contributed quite a bit of color cast while others contributed barely whatsoever at all.
The effect? The ND filters which contributed the most colour cast were the Tiffen, Gobe, Hoya, and Breakthrough Photography X2. The ND filters which contributed the least colour bandage were the B+W, Breakthrough Photography X4, Freewell, and PolarPro.
Colour accuracy
What event (if whatsoever) do ND filters have on individual colors? Meaning, volition the cerise swatch at the superlative of the X-Rite ColorChecker Passport Photo 2 be the exact aforementioned hue of ruby in both the control and filtered image? Or volition the ND filter shift cerise to a slightly different hue? This can be difficult to see using the naked heart, so I'm going to employ a quantitative approach using Photoshop.
To begin, I'one thousand using Adobe Camera RAW's eyedropper tool to color correct each RAW image. The results will be consistent because I'm correcting each image by targeting the aforementioned neutral swatch in the ColorChecker Passport.
With each RAW image corrected, I'll at present layer all the images together in a single Photoshop certificate with the control image at the bottom of the Layers panel. 1 by one, I'll select each image captured with an ND filter, set its layer alloy mode to "Divergence", then bank check the RGB value of each color in the Passport to meet if there is a numerical departure between the control and the filtered image.
The result? Similar to the color bandage examination from earlier, the B+Due west, Breakthrough Photography X4, Freewell, and PolarPro ND filters performed best. Their colors were the most accurate when comparing their RGB values to the control epitome.
But what about shooting video—outdoors—where three-finish ND filters are near oft used? Let's take a trip to a local park and discover out.
Outdoor ND filter video test
For this exam, I'll visit a local park on an overcast mean solar day. In this environment, information technology would be impossible to take 100% consequent lighting between each shot, but at least we tin can see the character of each filter when used in this setup.
For this test, I'll set the Canon 5D Marking Four to 1080 HD, 24fps, ane/50 second shutter speed, ISO 400, 5600k white residue. With these settings, the largest aperture I tin can use in the control epitome is f/eleven. With the three-stop ND filters, nonetheless, I can open the aperture upward to f/4 for a more visually pleasing shallow depth of field.
Here's a side-by-side comparison of a control video without an ND filter (left) and the same scene shot with each ND filter (right). Note that the tree over my shoulder is blurrier when using ND filters because of the larger f/4 aperture.
The result? As expected, the results were pretty much the same as earlier, with the B+Due west, Breakthrough Photography X4, Freewell, and PolarPro ND filters displaying the least amount of color cast. Every bit for the residuum of the ND filters, the Tiffen has a particular grapheme and "await" which makes the footage announced colour graded (in a good way).
Vignette
Vignette is a darkening consequence that occurs in the corners and edges of an prototype. Like earlier color tests, the goal here is for each filter to take piddling outcome on the image by contributing lilliputian-to-no additional vignette.
I'll be shooting the Passport on white paper with a wide-angle, 16mm lens, for at this focal length vignette will exist more pronounced and the edges of the filter (protruding from the front of the lens) may be problematic.
To start, I captured a RAW image without an ND filter for use equally a command. Here'due south the image.
As you can meet, my 16mm lens is contributing a fair amount of vignette without a filter. This vignette effect can exist corrected fairly hands even so using lens correction profiles in post. However, those profiles are designed for lenses without ND filters, so any additional vignette created by an ND filter will exist more challenging to gear up.
Alright, let's capture the same prototype with all the ND filters.
The result? Once again, the Tiffen, Gobe, and Breakthrough Photography X2 filters did not perform as well as other ND filters.
Which ND filters performed best with the least vignette? PolarPro Quartzline, Breakthrough Photography X4, and the B+W XS-Pro 803.
All-time ND filters
Winner: B+W XS-Pro MRC-Nano 803 0.9
In the end, the B+W XS-Pro 803 came out on top. This ND filter had the least corporeality of colour cast, was the near color accurate, and its ultra-slim profile contributed footling-to-no vignette when attached to a wide-angle lens. Yes, this ND filter also happened to exist the virtually expensive (at the fourth dimension of this article), but perchance sometimes you lot actually practice get what yous pay for!
Runner-ups: Breakthrough Photography X4 3-End / PolarPro QuartzLine ND8 (Tie)
2d-place is a tie between the Breakthrough Photography X4 and PolarPro QuartzLine. Both ND filters exhibited very little color cast, were most as colour accurate as the (winning) B+W ND filter, and contributed little vignette. Overall, the qualitative difference between these ii ND filters and the B+W was slim. From a usability perspective, I actually prefer the notched-ring design of the Breakthrough Photography and PolarPro ND filters, for they're easier to turn when wearing gloves. Final simply certainly not least, they're cheaper as well. Either one of these ND filters would be fantastic.
Updated option: Kolari Vision solid ND
After publishing this comparing, Kolari Vision sent me one of their neutral density filters. Optically, the filter is very accurate, with picayune-to-no colour bandage added to photos and videos. The hardware design is also top quality, with perfectly notched grooves effectually the band for like shooting fish in a barrel threading on and off a lens. The filter also comes with a durable, padded, protective example. Check out my video review of the Kolari Vision solid ND to learn more.
Source: https://dominey.blog/2020/02/14/best-solid-nd-filters-for-2020/
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