Photography News Issue 63

Photography News | Issue 63 | photographynews.co.uk

First tests

Without grad filter

1 Twomagnetic adapter rings come with the K8 kit, 77-86mm and 82-86mm. Each comprises two rings; one fits on to the lens and the other rotates for polariser use. 2&3 The polariser can be fitted while the holder is in place – or you can fit it straight onto the adapter ring. 4 Secure the holder onto the adapter by tightening the large knurled knob. Loosening the knob slightly allows the holder to be adjusted. 5 To fine-tune the polariser, use the red serrated edge cog, whichmeshes with the cogs on the polariser rim. This is easy and comfortable to do whether on a tripod or handheld. 6 The slimline polariser allows the user of an ND or grad filter in the nearest slot to the lens. To remove the polariser you have to take off the holder first. The process is simple and can be managed even with cold fingers. The matt areas are baffles to stop light leaks when using extreme ND filters

With 0.9 soft grad

Verdict

Filters are coated on both sides to reduce reflection and I had no flare or ghosting issues

Pros Optical quality of filters, magnetic rear-placed polariser, K8 kit great value, toughness of the filters Cons Not much Filter users are spoilt for choice nowadays and, while the case for Kase is not necessarily open and shut, it’s pretty powerful. Very fine- quality glass filters, a top-quality holder and a cog drive rear polariser that is practical and very usable. The K8 kit at £110 is excellent value for money to get you into the system and it includes a circular polariser so, assuming you don’t already own some 100mm filters, you need to budget for an extra filter or two to suit your needs. Glass filters are more expensive than their resin equivalents, but there is no denying the optical class of these Kase products.

Above There is no doubting the optical quality of the Wolverine 0.9 soft grad and it is neutral too, not adding any colour cast to the sky. Shot taken with a FujifilmX-E3 with a 18-55mm f/2.8-4 with an exposure of 1/100sec at f/8 and ISO 200 in manual mode and AWB

I’d use the manual 5300K on the X-E3 and 5560K on the D850 – or the daylight preset. Filters are coated on both sides to reduce reflections and I had no flare or ghosting issues. The filters also have a hydrophobic coating, which makes cleaning easy without smearing, so ideal when shooting in sea spray and when it is raining. Overall, optical performance, as you can see from the shots here, is first rate, which iswhat you’d expect as they are not cheap filters. For the final part of the test, I explored the filters’ physical toughness. Kase grad and ND filters are made from toughened B270 Schott glass and the Kase website says filters will survive a drop from 1.2m – obviously, a 1.2m drop on grass or sand will be

different from rocks or concrete. I was supplied some sample plain glass filters, so I had the chance to perform my own drop tests. From a height of 1.2m, I performed drop tests on carpet, laminate floor, a gravel drive and on to concrete pavement. On pavement, the filter didn’t shatter or crack and just one corner chipped very slightly, and the filter remains perfectly usable. I also did the water drop test where I let awater drop evaporate on the filter surface and then cleaned the resulting residue. This can be a real issue and I had polarisers permanently marked from this simple test. No such issues with these Kase filters, though. All round, I’m happy with the physical and optical performance of the Kase filters. WC

magnetic adapter ring even with cold digits. The attraction is powerful so strong fingers and nails still help and I couldn’t do it with gloves on (not even liner gloves). But removing the polariser is possible, so you shouldn’t be in the position of having it stuck on when it’s not needed – a thumbs up fromme on this. For non-polariser photography, grads and ND are slipped into place as normal. For extreme ND shooting, the closest slot to the lens is used. The holder’s front fascia is finished with fine foam across the top and bottom

of the holder and during this test the 1000X ND was used. I had no light leak issues with exposures running into the several minutes. I tested the extreme ND using the camera’s AWB settings and then at Kelvin presets on a Fujifilm X-E3 and a Nikon D850. With AWB on both cameras, the results were on the warm side but this is marginal and not an issue for landscapes where a touch of warmth is often preferred. Of course with Raw, there is no need to fret too much, but if I needed neutral out-of-camera JPEGs

With polariser

No polariser

Above The polariser does a fine job reducing glare and enhancing colour saturation. As with the other filters tried here, neutrality and all-round optical performance are impressive. Shot taken with a FujifilmX-E3 with a 18-55mm f/2.8-4 with an exposure 1/100sec at f/8 (left) and 1/60sec at f/8 (right) and ISO 200 in manual mode and AWB