Photography News | Issue 42 | absolutephoto.com
93 First tests
ManfrottoXume system From£36.90
Specs
Prices Filter holder 49mm/52mm/58mm/62mm £9.95; 67mm £10.95; 72mm £11.95; 77mm/82mm £12.95 Lens adaptor 49mm/52mm/58mm/62mm £24.95; 67mm £26.95; 72mm £27.95; 77mm £28.95; 82mm £29.95; 77mm lens cap £13.95 Material Aluminium Thickness: filter holder 3.1mm Thickness: lens adapter 5.3mm Thickness: together and screwed into lens 5mm Contact manfrotto.co.uk
Filters are really useful accessories and can improve your photographs at a stroke. The benefits are clear but if you find using them a fiddle the Manfrotto Xume systemmight be just the thing for your camera bag. Simply, it is a magnetic filter- holding system. You need an adapter ring that screws onto the lens’s accessory thread and then you need an adapter that you screw the filter onto. To use, all you do is offer the filter adapter up to the lens adapter and let magnetism take over; the filter is then firmly held in position. Simple and quick. You might be thinking the Xume system offers no benefit and is just as fiddlyasusinganormalscrew-infilter because you have to screw the lens adapter into position then the filter has to go onto the filter adapter before joining the two together ready to take a picture. The clever bit, however, is that you can buy an adapter for each lens, so it can be left in situ, and then one filter adapter for each filter so that they can be left partnered up too. Then when you want to use a filter just offer the filter up to the lens and you’re ready to shoot. When you’ve finished shooting, just pull off the filter and you’re done. In principle, the concept is a good one but it won’t suit everyone. One issue is whether the magnetic force is powerful enough to securely hold a filter in position. You don’t want your expensive polariser parting company andmeeting its deathon the pavement. I tried the Xume system with a screw-in polariser, the heaviest one I could find in my collection. Shaking the lens quite vigorously didn’t manage to dislodge the holder from the adapter, so I ventured out. I decided not to push my luck to start with so I just attached the filter, took a few shots and then took the filter off. Incidentally, the adapter/ filter combination was too thick for the filter’s original case and it is also worth mentioning that should you want to detach the filter – especially if it is a polariser – from the holder ring it can be tricky. So far, so good, and my confidence grew so I decided to risk leaving the
filter partnered with the lens with the camera hanging from around my neck as I walked around. That was okay and I managed not to catch the filter and knock it off. Now happy that the filter is held firmly in position I took my ambition a significant step further and used the filter-adorned camera/ lens combination hanging on a BlackRapid strap so the camera was hanging loose by my waist. This is obviously much more risky but again I had no problem and didn’t hear the sound of breaking glass. To be honest, though, I was only doing this as part of a test and it’s not something I’d recommend. However, the fact it worked is to the Xume’s credit and the magnetic attraction is impressively powerful. The thing is, though, the Xume is not a system to suit everyone and it’ll be interesting to see who buys it. It might not appeal to those with a bagful of lenses especially if those lenses have different filter sizes. You’ll need an adapter ring for each lens or pairs of lens/filter adapter rings depending on what you own. It’s potentially expensive. Then there is the question of which filters and lenses Xume will suit. It adds about 5mm to the front of the lens and that is before adding a filter so there might be vignetting issues with wide-angle lenses. You wouldn’t use a protection filter in this manner because it’d normally be a permanent fixture to do its job effectively. And single colour filters aren’t that popular nowadays – unless you are shooting mono film. It’ll certainly hold no interest for those using graduate filters in their Cokin or Lee systems, so that leaves the polariser and screw-in extreme NDs. There’s potential with both. With the polariser it speeds up its use and you don’t even have to rotate the polariser in its mount because the Xume filter holder can be rotated in the lens adaptor. With screw-in extreme NDs it means you can add the filter after you have focused and composed without any risk of disturbing the camera or focus. That is a practical benefit. WC
In principle, the concept is a good one but it won’t suit everyone
The Manfrotto Xume is an interesting and potentially good idea but only if suits your needs, kit and capture workflow. If you use just one lens or perhaps a couple that share a common thread size and like to quickly add a polariser, then the Xume will suit you well and if this is you check the system out. Pros Quick to use, strong magnetic attraction Cons Suits few filters, risk of vignetting with wide-angles, costly with several lenses/filters magnetism does the rest. The grip is good too. Attaching the Xume lens and filter adaptors adds about 5mm to the lens front – and that’s before any filter is attached. A polariser will add a fewmore milimetres, so with wide-angle lenses there is the risk of vignetting. Popular filter thread sizes are covered in the Xume range, from 49mm to 82mm. A set of 77mm rings will cost £41.90. Verdict Images, fromtop to bottom The Xume is easy to use. Screw the lens adapter into the lens, attach the filter to the filter holder, offer the latter to the former and
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