First test
PRICE: FROM£63
KENRO.CO.UK
NDs are a vital part of any photographer’s kitbag, and having different strengths gives youmore options Marumi DHG Super ND filters
We previously looked at Marumi’s DHG Super ND filters in PN , which included SND500, SND1000, SND4000 and SND32000 options, but the range has just been updated with four new options – a three-stop ‘SND8’, a four- stop ‘SND16’, a five-stop ‘SND32’ and a six-stop ‘SND64’. These screw-in filters come in 67mm, 72mm, 77mm, 82mm, 86mm, 95mm and 105mm sizes, ranging from £63 to £265, and we took the newmodels on a seaside test to check their usability and optical quality. If you’re unsure of whether you need NDs: you do. They’re indispensable for controlling bright light and therefore allowing a wider choice of shutter speeds or apertures than you’d get without a filter, and that’s an effect that can’t be duplicated in software or using
Raw image quality. These new strengths prove a very useful set, so while the ND8 would allow a drop from 1/8sec to 1sec, the ND64 would take you from 1/8sec to 8secs. Higher strengths are really useful for ultra-long exposure work alone. Nomatter what their strength, though, NDs need to produce neutral colours if they’re going to be useful. So we started by testing each of the filters with bothmanual white-balance settings and, to see howwell the camera coped shooting through them, with auto white-balance. Shooting in Raw and comparing results, the camera, a Nikon D850, coped well in AWB; on the strongest six-stop filter, the Adobe Camera Raw interface showed a shift of only -100K between filtered and
unfiltered images, and though there was a +12 magenta correction it shows you can shoot in AWB without worrying about unrealistic colours. The three-, four- and five-stop versions showed similar traits, lessening as the factor dropped. Shooting inmanual white-balance and setting it to 5500K gave a more visual representation of this, showing a fractionally warmer tone to the filters, with a slight green cast. This was almost impossible to see in isolation, though, and only apparent on direct comparison. Overall, it’s a very good performance in terms of neutrality. Next we measured the strength of the filters to see if they were accurate. Testing on a cloudless morning and setting the exposure tomanual, we shot
SPECS
test images, then fitted the filter and altered the exposure by the approproate amount of stops. The filters each gave accurate results, with only very minor shifts in the expected light levels evident in the six-stop filter, which was about 1/3stop lighter than expected. Using the filters in a semi-automatic mode, like aperture-priority, they gave no problems at all, and exposures were right on the money. Nor did we have any problem focusing through them, though we were shooting in bright sunlight. The filters also showed no softness so details weren’t affected, and with anti-reflective coatings and a matte finish there were no problems with flare, either. The filters are quite thin but feel very strong, with a knurled front to the aluminum frame, which helps give grip when screwing them in. They also have a water, scratch and oil resistant finish. Shooting near the waves I got several water droplets on the front of the filters, but these cleaned off easily. The thinness means no vignetting was noticed, even with a 20mm lens, and having a front screw threadmeans they can be stacked; for instance, I stacked the five- and six-stop filters to get a 25sec exposure, which again had nice natural colours, no loss of sharpness and no vignetting. KS “USING THE FILTERS IN A SEMI-AUTOMATIC MODE, LIKE APERTURE- PRIORITY, THEY GAVE NO PROBLEMS AT ALL”
› Availability 67-105mm › Prices 67mm, £63; 72mm, £68; 77mm, £77; 82mm, £95; 86mm, £147; 95mm, £168; 105mm, £265 › Coating Anti-reflective; scratch,
oil and water repellent › Contact kenro.co.uk
Verdict These are top quality NDs, and well worth investing in. Build is good and features like the water and oil repellent coatings make them easier to use in demanding environments. Image quality is great, too: there’s very little colour shift, and they worked fine with autoexposure andAWB in our tests. Front filter threads mean
they’re stackable, so you can create even longer exposures.
PROS Great image quality and build
means value for money is spot on CONS No smaller sizes than 67mmmeans you’ll need adapters for smaller lenses
IMAGES The Marumi DHG Super NDs performed with great credit, showing accurate filter factors and minimal colour shift. Optically, they were very impressive, and didn’t degrade the performance of the lenses they were used on
Issue 72 | Photography News 77
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