15 Dec Written By Michael Clarke
I have been using the Kase magnetic filter kit for a fair few months now so I feel I can give my view on these filters but again this is just my view always do your research and get your information from a few sources.
A bit of a backstory I originaly started with circular filters which were the fairly affordable GOBE filters, which i found were great for there price, So being a landscape photographer I was bracketing my shots if I had a high dynamic range image I couldn’t capture in one single shot and then blending in post, Then I think as a matter of curiosity and wanting to try using graduated filters I bought myself a square filter kit, After doing a lot of research i settled on the H&Y magnetic filter system and at first i really enjoyed using it but then a few things started to irritate me.
The faff of fitting and unfitting the filter holder onto the lens was the first thing , Yes it only has two screws but when your hands are freezing cold, your getting absolutely hammered by the wind standing on the coast and your thumbling about to unscrew the holder I just found it a bit annoying, Also I found out I wasn’t that keen on graduated filters I am aware many people love and enjoy using them and I get why and that’s fine you just have to find what works best for you and your workflow, Unless you have a flat horizon I found you can get more natural results bracketing and merging in post especially using methods like luminosity masks, Also I have been pleasantly surprised by how much dynamic range my Fujifilm X-H! has got and how many shots I am able to capture in one by slightly underexposing to protect the highlights, Obviously it has its limits but thats where bracketing comes in. Another issue I had was when stacking filters with that system I had problems with light leakage, I know that’s a specific problem to that system but it was another negative, And finally pure and simple the size and weight of the system! compared to the Kase system its night and day especially as I wanted to do more hiking and wild camping.
So I kept seeing youtubers using this magnetic circular filter system by Kase and it looked so easy to use, compact and light, It didn’t take me long to decide that I was going to give it a try, What I decided to do was look at the fuji line up of lenses and see if there was a lens that I might want to upgrade to in the future and went for that filter thread for the filters then buy the magnetic step down rings for each of my lenses and the beauty of this system is the adapters stay on the lenses, You can buy magnetic lens caps that fit onto the adapters so it makes it so much more enjoyable to turn up to a location whip the magnetic lens cap off stick your filter on and your good to go!.
Because these filters are so slim you also get no vignetting or at least I don’t with my XF 10- 24 at its widest, Another plus point is there isn’t any colour cast that’s something that I wasn’t keen on with the Lee filters neutral density filters.
One of my favourite features of these filters is how easy they are to clean and wipe away water, I shoot a lot of seascapes and waterfalls and find water beads up on the surface and can be quickly removed without smearing, I also shoot a lot of long exposures and obviously these filters can be stacked with no risk of light leakage .
In the kit I bought I got a 3 stop ND , 6 stop ND, 10 Stop ND, Polariser, Adapter ring and lens cap
The case it comes in I wasn’t to keen on but its growing on on me and it’s actually pretty decent and with the clip it has makes attaching to your tripod straight forward, all in all its a great kit and I would thoroughly recommend it if your in the market for a filter system .