www.kase.ie
Background
For quite a few years now, I had been muttering to myself at the thought of setting up my existing square filter system which was both time consuming and frustrating, especially with cold fingers in winter. I will however note I had no issue with the quality of the filters, just the set up process.
This process involved too many steps with screwing in the polariser, screwing on adaptor ring(s), squeezing in and adjusting position of the square filters and when finished shooting, disassembling same. A process that on occasion, unless critical, often deterred me from even using them just for the hassle involved in setup and the fear of missing that moment of good light. I often resorted to bracketing and blending images instead.
Groundbreaking system
After watching a few positive reviews on Youtube from Nick Page and Nigel Danson on the new magnetic filters from Kase, my eyes lit up! Could this be the groundbreaking invention I have been waiting for? I was therefore very keen to test same and contemplate moving to this significantly ease-of-use setup. I got in touch with the Kase Filters Irish distributor and received a professionally packaged and tailored assortment of magnetic circular filters to test for durability, quality and ease of installation while out in the field. I was looking forward to this to see would they live up to the reviews and could they be my new setup going forward?
Kase product packaging and Wolverine Magnetic Circular filters and accessories below.
Wolverine Magnetic Circular Filter kit
For my requirements I chose the Kase Wolverine Magnetic Circular Filters 95mm Professional Kit. The kit consisted of the Wolverine ND8 (3 Stop), ND64 (6 Stop), ND1000 (10 Stop), GND 1.2 (4 Stop) Polariser, 82mm Magnetic Adaptor ring, all in a durable leather carry pouch. Also included in my package from the rep were 67mm and 77mm adaptor rings, a cleaning solution and magnetic lens caps for front and back of the stacked set if you chose to stack them together in your camera bag. I preferred to keep them in the concertina sleeves in the pouch in an order I would become familiar with for deployment.
Kase Wolverine glass filters are made from clear B270 optical Schott glass. A vacuum coating technology is used for both sides of the glass filter to produce a hard wearing , scratch and shock resistant filter which yields a true neutral colour with no cast. The filters also have a mildew and corrosion resistant coating all while rendering high definition results.
Made from the same shock proof, hydrophobic, colour neutral glass as the Kase Wolverine square filters, the perceived revolution in design for the magnetic system is the removal of the need for any filter holder and the speed in assembly by reducing the process to only requiring an adaptor ring to be screwed on your lens of choice.
Upon trialing, the installation process was pure bliss and actually a very enjoyable experience as the filters themselves (including the high quality polariser) just grip on magnetically to the adaptor. To add even more design evolution and ease-of-use, you can leave them on your lens and cover with the magnetic lens cap. This is a great design in filter technology and first impressions were great, but would the filters stand up to testing and provide the professional quality required?
Testing in the Field
The mission at hand was to test the new filters in the field under all types of shooting conditions. As stated at the beginning of the review, I was content with the quality of the previous filters I had, just frustrated by the cumbersome method of installation as with most common square filter holder systems.
The installation process had now been revolutionised by the magnetic approach but it would be worthless if the filters did not perform on the quality front. What better place to start testing than shooting some seascapes during Storm Ellen at the famous Hook Lighthouse, Co. Wexford.
Kase 95mm adaptor with Wolverine magnetic Circular Polariser (CPL ) + Graduated Neutral Density (GND) 1.2 (4 Stop).
Nikon D850 + Tamron 24-70 G2 | Exposure: 2.0 sec at f/11 ISO 100.
Results
As you can see from the image above, conditions were extremely rough that evening, actually the worst I have ever shot in with lashing rain and sea spray giving my camera gear and the new filters the ultimate workout. I had to wipe both the camera and filters down every few seconds during shooting.
In tandem with the ease-of use-installation of the magnetic filters on site, I can only give serious credit to the performance and quality of same. In these conditions you would normally be wiping sea spray and salt around on the filter surface causing smudging but the new hyrdrophobic coating is an excellent layer of quality and strongly add to the fact that these filters are of the highest standard for photographic use. Importantly, I noticed no colour cast, the filters are completely neutral and regarding the shock proof durability, well, that will only have to be seen as I’m going to try and avoid dropping them!
I have since used the Wolverine Magnetic filters on location on various shoots, testing further for woodland and waterfalls which rely heavily on polariser, ND’s & GND’s, also, landscape and seascape sunrise/sunset shoots and the filters have excelled across all aspects.
Pros:
- Quick setup with less installation processes involved to use the magnetic system.
- Professional glass, no colour cast or vignetting* and hydrophobic coating is a major bonus.
- Small carry pouch fits in your bag easily with no need for a filter holder, reduces gear load compared to other systems. The filter pouch also clips easily to any caribiner on tripods.
- Filters can be left stacked together on the lens or stacked together using front/back cap.
Cons:
- Nothing at all significant but due to the circular filters and placement of the filter product writing on the rings it takes a look through the graduated filters to ascertain where the central line is for correct placement. I would recommend Kase to include a simple white notch on the filter rings to show the centre point. I’m not sure why they didn’t place the writing top centre either to solve this in the first place.
- As the circular filters attach magnetically to the adaptor ring, there is no allowance for adjusting the gradient up or down to suit the composition. This may be a hindrance for some!
* Regarding vignetting it is recommended by Kase to purchase the 95mm filters to add extra width over your lenses e.g. 67/77/82mm and avoid any slight vignetting encountered with equal size filters. It is always worth getting the largest sizing in filter systems so all your lenses are covered.
Conclusion
As you can tell from above, I really do like gear setup to be fast and efficient while on location in the field and any evolvement in camera gear will certainly be researched and adopted quickly but carefully.
I am well and truly satisfied that all the products from Kase and in particular, this new magnetic system I have tested and am now happily using, are a godsend for ease-of-use and are most importantly backed-up by durability, colour rendition and performance. This can be justified by the many other photographers professional and amateur also recently making the switch across the world.
I would like to thank the Kase Ireland representative Brian Hopper for his in-depth knowledge and advice on assisting me in moving to the magnetic system. Contact Brian through the Kase Ireland website here.
Some more example images below using the Kase Magnetic filters.
