Photography News Issue 66

Photography News | Issue 66 | photographynews.co.uk

First tests

Marumi DHG Super ND4000 from£47 &ND 32,000 from£50

Specs

Prices ND 4000 77mm £78.24, ND 32,000 77mm £93.96 Availability ND 4000 49mm to 82mm, prices from £46.56 to £107.76 ND 32,000 49mm to 82mm, prices from £49.50 to £115.98 Coating Scratch coating, oil and water repellent Contact kenro.co.uk

Filter brand Marumi recently made headlines with its 100mm magnetic filter system. Its latest introduction is a pair of round extreme neutral density (ND) filters with filter factors of 4000x and 32,000x, which in f/stop terms is 12EV and 15EV respectively; so designed for very long exposures. Extreme long exposure ND filters – popularly known as ‘big stoppers’ – are employedby scenic photographers to give interesting effects like smooth water and blurry skies. For such work, the most popular ND strengths are 64x and 1000x giving exposure time increases of 6EV and 10EV respectively. For most situations that is plenty enough but having that extra density up your sleeve is very handy, giving you options in terms of aperture and shutter speed choice that weaker NDs don’t. On a sunny day, for example, your metered exposure might be 1/60sec at f/22 at your lowest ISO setting. Adding a 10EV ND gives a shutter speed of 15secs, butwithnowhere to go in terms of aperture and ISO and that time might not be enough to produce the effect you’ve pre-visualised. Add a 12EV ND filter, and that 15secs becomes one minute; while adding a 15EV ND you get eight minutes. For slow-moving water or sky, that extra exposure time makes a huge difference. Or you might want to shoot a busy street scene apparently free of pedestrians and an extremely

long exposure can help you do that, as people moving while the shutter is open will not record. If, as an example, your unfiltered exposure time is 1/8sec, add a 15EV ND and that now becomes 64mins. Another thing to consider is the option with apertures. Shoot at small value like f/16 and f/22 and your pictures will not be as sharp as if you had used f/8 or f/11. Every lens suffers from diffraction at tiny apertures. Small apertures also reveal every tiny bit of grot on your sensor which means editing time. Using wider apertures gives a more shallow depth- of-focus, so sensor marks are less obvious or might not even be visible at all, so no cloning is needed. Using stronger NDs gives you that flexibility. Using our 1/60sec at f/22 example, set f/8 and the shutter speed without any filter is 1/500sec. Use a 12EVND filter and that becomes eight seconds and you get one minute with a 15EV ND. These extreme Marumi NDs come in a slim frame to avoid vignetting with wide-angle lenses and have a blackened, satin finish to cut down on internal reflections, which can be an issue when shooting very lengthy exposures, particularly in strong light. There is a coating to repel oil andwater and another to combat scratching and scuffing. A scratch could mean more light entering the lens and resulting in blown-out hotspots. I had 77mm samples and the filters are lightweight for glass filters and come in slim plastic cases. I tried both filters in auto white- balance and manual Kelvin settings in sunny and overcast conditions, using actual scenes as well as a colour test chart. First thing to say is that the quoted filter factors are accurate as quoted, although samples do vary so it is always worth doing your own tests before venturing out with new kit. In terms of sharpness, shooting images with and without the filter showed no image degradation; so all that money you spent on classy glass is not compromised by adding a Marumi ND filter. Extreme ND filters often add a colour cast to images and

Shooting images with and without the filter showed no image degradation; so all that money you spent on classy glass is not compromised by adding a filter

might need a manual white-balance setting or editing in post to get a neutral shot. My test shots on a Nikon D850 in auto white-balance mode showed that both Marumis added a tinge of warmth, something akin to adding an 81B or maybe an 81C warm-up filter. If anything, the 4000x ND gave a stronger warmth compared with the 32,000x filter, but this is marginal; I’d be happy using my camera’s AWB setting with both filters. For a more neutral, straight-out-of-camera look I would set a manual Kelvin setting of 5260K. This is what I found with my samples and my set-up and is likely to vary from camera to camera. WC

Verdict

Marumi DHG Super filter series is highly respected and its latest additions are as I’d expect and deliver an impressive performance. They are neutral, do not degrade image quality and work as you’d expect. Nicely priced too.

Pros Neutraility, oil and water repellent coating, slimmount, lightweight Cons Nothing

No filter, auto white-balance

ND 4000, auto white-balance

ND 4000, sunnyWB

ND 4000, 5260K

ND 4000, 5560K

Images Test pictureswere shot on aNikonD850and 24-70mmf/2.8 lens. The exposure for the unfiltered imagewas 1/250sec at f/7.1 and ISO 200. Exposure timewith the 4000x filter was 15secs and 120secswith the 32,000x, both at f/7.1. The test shotswere processed through Lightroomwith nowhite-balance or exposure changes

ND 32,000, auto white-balance

ND 32,000, sunnyWB

ND 32,000, 5260K

ND 32,000, 5560K