Reviews
Practical filter set with some color cast and vignetting
really like the convenience of this magnetic filter system. All you have to do is thread onto the base ring and magnets do the rest. Makes it less likely to damage your lens' threads if you don't have to put on and remove a filter every time you need to use it. I use this with a full frame 24-105mm lens and the base ring works with the lens cap and hood, although you'll probably have to remove the hood to snap the filter or your fingers will get in the way. Each of the filters themselves are slightly heavier than the bolt on K&F versions, probably because they have to make the filter ring out of a magnetic steel instead of aluminium. Whatever the reason, they feel a lot more premium than the regular K&F version. In terms of performance, it's a bit of a mixed bag. I don't have tremendous experience with CPL and ND filters (this is my first set) so I don't know what would be considered good performance in a given price range. Let's start with the ND: it seems close if not a full 10 stops, which is great; the previous K&F screw 10 stop ND which I returned with only about 8 stops in practice. The ND has a noticeable color cast (see: in-camera photos of the sea). The ND image that brought the raw files into Lightroom had 26 more dots of magenta tint and was 1000K warmer than the unfiltered image. This cast was relatively easy to correct, although the colors weren't exactly the same. Less correctable was the 24mm vignette, which needs to be cropped out. With my lens at least, a quick crop test indicated I lose about 1mm of focal length to the vignette. Note that because the filter is magnetic, there is a small amount of float between the filter and the lens, so the vignette is not always symmetrical or consistent from use to next. In aggregate, the CPL filter (photos looking out the window) has a similar vignette to the ND filter at 24mm, but seems to reduce some reflections in my windows. Not much for me to point out ours here, it seems to do the job. The set comes with a UV filter, but I don't plan on using it unless I'm in a rainy/dusty environment where my lens needs a bit more protection, so I haven't tested it yet. For both the ND and CPL filters, I didn't notice any noticeable decrease in sharpness caused by using the filters. However, due to the burst of color with the ND filter, I recommend either shooting in RAW or setting your white balance before putting on the filter. For the price ($110), I think the performance of these filters is acceptable. I'm a little disappointed with the vignette, but I've heard of much more expensive filters that have similar issues, so I don't want to be too harsh on this set. All in all, for someone like me who does this for fun, I think it's a great system to learn the basics until I can justify upgrading to something premium. If you're a pro and making money from your photos, then maybe look into something more upscale like Freewell, or invest the time to create a preset to fix the color cast.
19/10/2023