Patrick, thanks for comparing these. This saves the rest of us so much time, money and effort. I really appreciated it.

Finally, a good and subjective ND filter test! Thank you! Thumb Up!

Superb ! Great test. Finally someone tested ND's. Thanks

Great video! By far the best test for ND filters I have seen online.

love videos where they actually show results where you can make up your own mind. Good job.

Super thorough and helpful. Thanks so much for your effort!

Skip to 5 minutes to start the review. Holy cow.

@sbn415xoxo

5 жыл бұрын

Ty

@ryanwilson5936

4 жыл бұрын

Easy Rider Yeah, why learn something? I’d rather have the information regurgitated directly in my face.

@gerekappo

4 жыл бұрын

muuuuuuuuuh

@dovwatanabe9355

3 жыл бұрын

Thanks! I hate when these reviews just waste your time.

Thank you for you work on this. Appreciate!

Coating is very important for landscape's conditions, and B+W F-pro (blue one) is very well coated, i believe the best one here.

I have the Breakthrough 6-stop, had it for a few years, I’m very happy with it.

@chrisbanbury

3 жыл бұрын

I agree. I would say their X4 series rates much better than their cheaper lines.

Very informative! Gonna get the Breakthrough.

Thanks for the comprehensive and honest review....

Great video. Very informative and useful. Thanks.

This was very informative and helpful! (I saw the website version of this first.) I ordered two ND filters today.

Even though I use the Lee filter for easy mounting, I like the in depth look at what ND filters offer: pros and cons. A necessary filter second or tied with a polarizer. It is nice that we no longer need split grads and color filters.

B+W definitely looked far similar to the control in white balance test

@StuninRub

8 жыл бұрын

+ege ozsoy Nah, that's just your buyer's remorse talking. It is clearly warmer.

@egeozsoy

8 жыл бұрын

I do not own any of these filters, not even consider getting one. B+W is warmer yes, but it is overall far closer to the original than the others imo

@StuninRub

8 жыл бұрын

ege ozsoy Maybe in terms of being rated the correct exposure, but the TIffen and Breakthrough deviates far less from 5000k white.

@egeozsoy

8 жыл бұрын

Zhida Zhou The only way i could be sure is to get the raw files

@liangli31

6 жыл бұрын

ege ozsoy x

Good honest review thanks Mal

Thank you, just what I was looking for, because my ND400 had a few drops, so I need to get a new one. But I'll be looking for the ND1000. Hope they perform similar. Great video

I bought a couple of breakthrough filters when they were on kickstarter. They are great filters, and the textured grip is really handy...

Best testing i've seen so far... Finally someone who understand how to properly test this shit haha thanks man

Excellent Review.

It's worth noting that certain filters have brass rings, as opposed to aluminum, and this can help to prevent binding, particularly in cold weather. The B+W slim filters, for example, have brass rings, and this may be (minimally) reflected in the price.

Great video!! Nicely explained. Subscribed

@FStoppers

7 жыл бұрын

Thanks, you have a lot of content to catch up on :)

Awesome stuff. Subscribed!

Thanks this was very useful! Would like to see similar tests for polarizers and ND grads as well.

I like how you performed this test in studio 👍

great review!

Has a breakthrough photography filter. It's a thing of beauty. I've later learned about Haida and Zomei and enjoy those brands quite much as well.

This was a solid comparison/review video. I'm personally using cheap Haida variable ND (about 80€/$90) even though many dislike them because of the lower quality. But it's so handy for video and quality isn't too bad for my taste. I just tested it at f4 (i don't have studio strobes so it's pretty hard to shoot at f8). Drop of quality was definitely noticeable with 1:1 crop but for most of the stuff (and for video) you can't see the difference. WB was also a little off (towards warm green) but it's nothing that can't be fixed in post. Actually I had auto WB enabled and I got very similar results with&without the filter.

first time i hear about breakthrough filters, and according to your tests they are better than hoya, which i thought one of the best out in the market, wow ) thanks for this awesome tests Fstoppers

@441greenleaf

8 жыл бұрын

just i hope this was not an breakthrough advertisement test))

good work and very helpful... i have to say as others noted the B+W looked far similar to the control on my monitor.

GREAT VIDEO GUYS

Great vid!

Well made review ! Thanks a lot !! Phil (France)

Good review, I am using freewell ND filters they are good too.

Very helpful!

Dear sir . Thank you for show us this video. Pls give me an advise for which one is best for stop? 6 or 10 stop better ? What would your choice ?

thanks, great video. i am just purchasing a few nd filters and am wondering if color and sharpness are affected by sensor stress as much as nd optical properties. also, the fact that most use of 6-stop nd appears to be at extreme apertures (f11-f22) where diffraction is an issue can't be favorable to any nd filter. generally, would you expect better performance with less density and shorter exposure through a combination of faster shutter speed and wider apertures?

All in all, with how close the Formatt Hitech was to the breakthrough filter on every aspect, and the Formatt Hitech being at about half the price of the Breakthrough filter I would have to say the cheaper option would definitely be most peoples best/first choice and not the (more expensive so I can tell people I have a more expensive) filter.

Interesting video!

I backed 'em on Kickstarter and they have been super cool folks to support with great products and care. Glad to see 'em coming out on top here, since they were my up from really really cheap Fotga filters. If you could, get your hands on some ZOMEI filters, they sell them themselves on AliExpress for example. They seem a pretty decent option if you're looking for good value (~30 USD); something between super cheap and super good. That is, atleast, the ones that have the imported Schott glass in 'em, like the SLIM PROII MC ND that kinda looks like it could've been a Breakthrough Photography filter? Neways. The more interesting of tests might be a variable ND filter test (like the Dave Dugdale shootout, but updated for 2016 offerings).

Great video. I would really have liked to see a generic cheapo filter thrown in the comparison, though.

I'm I the only one here that thinks the B&W looks the best nearest to the Control on the first test?

@davidspearman9686

8 жыл бұрын

You are right! I saw that and immediately came down here to the comments section. I'm trying to figure out whether or not I'm going to finish the video at this point.

@harveylouis445

8 жыл бұрын

I was wondering the same thing. How about more objective, and less subjective, testing by fstoppers, in this case?

@brianalanvideo

7 жыл бұрын

I was wondering the same thing, could he be a bit color blind?

@michaelbartello6121

6 жыл бұрын

It can’t be color blindness; he’d see both the with and without using his same color blindness

@mavfan1

6 жыл бұрын

No, but all the others that already paid for a B&W gave you a thumbs up.

Was thinking of getting one for my Sigma 18-35, but didn't want to buy something expensive that would turn out to be crap! Yay! Watching now.

@StephanEilert

8 жыл бұрын

+Alex Crane its awesome, dont be afraid.

@japanesecactus

7 жыл бұрын

Hi! Which did you get for that lens? Unsure on the Tiffen (for £95) or Hoya (for £79)... any tips?

I like your controlled test on these ND filters. One thing to consider is when I use add-on lens, I do get vignetting when more lens are stacked... say UV + ND + PL .. and so yes.. vignetting is really bad thing.. Color wise, Im not too particular because I believe most photographers would go through some form of image editing prior to locking up the final picture. Vignetting is difficult to remove though. OK.. dont ask me why I love stacking lens though.. :)

Thanks for doing that. I would have liked a really cheap filter in there, like the cheapest (glass, not plastic) filters you can get. Are those usable?

b+ w winning the color test lol.. Are this video sponsored by breakthrough?

very interesting

Thank You!

Would be good to see more filters in this 'test' - IRIX Edge filters, Lee, Haida, Nisi... cheers!

As always, excellent presentation!

do you have any kind of test with telephoto lenses and nd filters? like 200mm or above?

Great video nice job

which stop ND filter is most suitable for portrait in (outdoor) day time...? is it nd8...?

One test noticeably missing: Coating and incidental light handling. What happens when light hits the filter from an angle instead of from directly in front? How does each filter handle that? Might coating be related to any of the other tests made? For example, will a multicoated filter vignette more? Is a non-multicoated filter, if there were any in the test, show less of a color shift? All in all, an interesting, comparison. In the past, I have purchased B+W filters without thinking much about it. In the future? I don't know.

Paul McCartney circa Let it be?

what about the genus-tech eclipse ? i hear it's highly recommended, especially for the bucks

Would like to know how they perform regarding flare...

Have you tried the Tiffen 77mm XLE Series apeX Hot Mirror. I have the 10-stop IRND. Very nice.

Hi i have a doubt. Do we get distortion on wide angle lens with ND filters?

Дуже цікаво! Дякую.

As a person who uses a sony camera, from the tests I've done so far, the breakthrough blows my tiffen nd variable out of the water. I will say, if you're thinking of going over to this, be wary that the breakthrough actually darkens the whole image unlike the tiffen vari, so maybe consider 3 stops first. This filter really helps lessen the yellow/greenish cast you get from a sony camera (if you know how to use the white balance controls). No more extra nasty green tint to that sony sensor :P

I appreciate this test and I know it took a lot of work to compile all those information but it's not a complete test I'm using a Fotga 49 mm on my Sigma 19 mm micro 4 thirds lens. I got it on eBay brand new for $10 and change with free shipping and it works great. You can't do a test like this without including something like that. Great channel you got though

I am pretty sure the flash test video was done after this, but I remember a test for that ProFoto flash had a couple stop variation between flashes when set to max power. I am curious if the results would change with the flash set to 5 or 6 stops, which had a much smaller variation in brightness with each flash. Anyway... crazy to see how the some review videos withstand the test of time.

Would have been nice to see a Firecrest ND from Formatt-Hitech. They are the same price but should be more neutral.

I may be wrong, and slightly tired but is this Zach Galifinakis ? Parks and Rec? great vid btw.

Great test, but unfortunately Breakthroughs are not available on any UK sites.

Thank-you👍

ls the Formatt HiTech a Firecrest? l have a Firecrest 10 stop and it's awesome.

Thanks for this video. I almost went with B+W but I'm definitely going to spend the extra on Breakthrough, I never even heard of them before

It would have been interesting to see the results of shooting a colorchecker passport or something similar. I found that my cheap Cameron variable ND had trouble accurately reproducing warmer tones (oranges, yellows, reds), ie: skin, while it exaggerated greens and cyans. This was after white balance adjustment via LR; the colors still seemed off. I had minor issues with my Hoya and B+W NDs as well, but not as pronounced. Now that I've upgraded to B1's I'm finding myself using HSS in lieu of ND+ high power whenever possible, just to avoid the color mess in post.

Well done ....

That's a nice objective test. Quite disappointed with the B+W performance. But yeah, I had a gut feeling that it was all hype anyway.

With ND filters, the only thing that matters is sharpness, color can always be adjusted in post, plus if you can find one that is an adjustable ND filter even better, you saved yourself a ton of cash.

@FStoppers

8 жыл бұрын

If you knew though that a similarly priced filter was the same sharpness but also had more neutral color and less vignetting wouldn't you prefer that one? You can't as easily fix problems on video as you can stills so for many videographers these tests are important.

@Bobster986

8 жыл бұрын

Neutral color is achieved by white balancing with the filter on the camera and vignetting only happens if you stop all the way down with the iris and it is most unlikely since you want the lens open as much as possible. As for video, the most likely reason you use a ND filter is to slow down your shutter speed, reducing choppy looking video and rolling shutter, creating a more natural blurred effect (ie the 180 rule).

@FStoppers

8 жыл бұрын

Sometimes WBing out the color on video is a bit trickier than stills. With a raw file you can edit every color shift in post. If you shoot DSLR video that doesn't have raw video, many times you can only change the red/blues and not the magenta/green shifts. It isn't nearly as precise as fixing it in Lightroom. So I still would recommend finding the most neutral colored filter to save a my of headache down the road.

@FStoppers

8 жыл бұрын

One last thing, with a 6 stop filter or more, it is near impossible to color correct the WB with the filter on the lens because the video will be nearly black. This is important for timelapses and stills since you need a correct exposure in video but with 30 second exposures your camera doesn't do well showing the WB real time.

@Bobster986

8 жыл бұрын

Near impossible? I don't think so, as long as light is passing though the lens the camera should still be able to make a WB, it might take longer, but still possible. I have used ND8 filters and have had no problem, I would also shoot with a color patch with no filter to do any tweeting it post, because as we all know, the picture isn't made just in the camera, processing the image afterwards is equally important.

What I'd like to see in a test like this, is the IR pollution compared with the amount of stops ND.

Glad you guys have stepped up your color grading since this video was made. Skin tones are so bad. So bad. Nice test though

i guess the only thing missing was the IR pollution. I recently learned about it this year and I think companies recently brought out newer versions (IRND)

Maybe it's because I'm on this huge IPS screen (that isn't calibrated btw), but the B+W and Control look the closest in color comparison to me. The breakthrough looks cooler, and somehow brighter.

2nd best in ur opinion?

I believe that a standard flash cannot be taken as a reference in such a test. There maybe variation in power and color in each consecutive fire of flash which may influence the results. Furthermore changing 6 stops in flash settings is also no guarantee especially if the max setting is used.

would be good to see this redone with newer gear and filters

I know this video is two years old, but where did you get your pricing on B&W filters? 82mm B&W filter runs from $134 to $199 depending on how expensive you want to go. Also, B&W uses Schott glass by Schneider, not cookie cutter plate glass.

Thanks for being honest, except maybe the breakthrough 🤔

Hopefully Hoya. Hoya is my go to filter for cp, nd and uv

No Lee? I'm rocking with tiffen but Hoya and breakthrough are always another good choice . But I always here Lee being another popular Choice surprised you didn't have them in here.

What if you put the ND filter on and then set your white balance with a white/grey card? I guess you can mitigate the color shifting cannot you?

@FStoppers

5 жыл бұрын

Absolutely! Color shifting isn't really that big of a deal especially if the filter shifts the colors throughout the entire filter. It's just a simple edit in PS or LR....but people always want to know which one is most faithful so that's what this test was about. -P

5:45 How is that the most similar? Am I missing something. Other than that part, the whole review was very well done, I think. Very thorough.

@spoolindsm127

4 жыл бұрын

Lol I know I was totally confused by that too

Any advice on how much stops I should get for midday urban landscape long exposure? Would 6 be enough, or would I need more? I have a cheap variable ND filter for a lens I don't use much anymore but it was cheap, had bad glass, and broke--but I did like having the option to change the stopping power based on time of day.

@FStoppers

8 жыл бұрын

I think a variable is super convenient and we used a few on Elia's tutorial for daylight timelapses with the blurred traffic/people look. The quality will suffer a bit but nothing that can't be fixed in post. Otherwise I would get a 6 stop or more for bright daylight shots where your shutter might start at 1/1000. You really need a lot of stops to get to a long shutter from that starting point and ideally you wouldn't go beyond f8.

@StuninRub

8 жыл бұрын

+Eric Rose Variable ND filters are only good for video, they don't really have enough light stopping power to do long exposures mid day. How many stops you need depends on how bright it is and what aperture you want to use. Now is it Sunny 16 bright? Brighter? Less bright? Also how long do you want these "long" exposures to be? But there's a good chance, 6 stops is not enough.

Best is "Control" imo

Where are your $5 filters? They are, or were available when FILM was used.

Hey Buddy--- you cannot put a colored frame around your samples as that makes the mind see it in the sample.

I would love to see a variable ND filter comparison!

@NikolajFreiesleben

5 жыл бұрын

Dont get a variable. Mine is a heliopan (not cheap) and it has fungus between the glass.

What the name of the song at the beginning of this video?

Have you looked wine country black stone filters

What was the song at the beginning?

You should test it with a fast lens @f1.4. Then you will notice significantly more differences . I have a cheap Green L nd filter on my Samyang 85 f1.4 , its ok above f2.8 but @f1.4 its a horror.

@marcossantana1164

7 жыл бұрын

I just bought the 85mm Rokinon 1.4 (same brand as samyang), paired with a Hoya 3 stops (NDX8) filter, used a color checker, all came out fine. Color was my concern since I've had issues with cheap nd filters and colors before.

I am very happy with Haida ND filters and do not see any difference to my Hoya ND filter.

There’s something about the production that seem kind of mid 80s but I just can’t put my finger on it

Good marketing for Breakthrough P.

Has anyone used a step-down ring converter to go from 82mm to 77mm on a ND filter?, I changed gear and now my lens has 82mm diameter and I still have a 77mm 10-stop ND that I'd like to use, would I get too much vignetting or dark edges even if I shoot at f/5.6 to f/11?

@TheChopperUnderground

8 жыл бұрын

+Kyser Soze If you had a 82mm filer on a 77mm lens, it would be fine. But a 77mm filter on a 82mm lens? I'm betting with 99.9% certainty that it will not only vignette, but have black rounded corners. I'm not even sure they make step down rings. Vignetting from filters has nothing to do with aperture, it has to do with focal length, FOV, and filter thread thickness. Vignetting caused by aperture is actually shading caused by the barrel of the lens itself.

@kysersoze739

8 жыл бұрын

+Chopper Underground It is a 82mm lens and I have a 77mm 10-stop ND, I plan to use it on a Sigma 24-105 at 24mm on a full frame D750

@FStoppers

8 жыл бұрын

We do this with our filters. We bought all 82mm for our Tamron and then bought a 77 step down for every other lens. There should be less vignetting with a larger filter on a smaller lens

@ThePokiman

8 жыл бұрын

+Kyser Soze The easiest way is, to buy a step down ring from a chinese produktion for 5 bugs and test it out!

@johnkosterimages

8 жыл бұрын

+Kyser Soze I use one all the time. Yes, there is a fair amount of vignetting, but nothing that can't be dealt with in post.