Fun with filters 3…

Slot in filter systems.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Following on from the last post on CPL filters, I'm going to look at slot in square filter systems, and how they're used with your lenses. There are several square filter systems on the market (and countless cheap imitation filters made to fit the holders). The main differences are in the filter sizes as one manufacturers filters may not necessarily fit into the holder of another. 

The actual filters themselves are manufactures from high grade optical quality acetate resin sheets (not glass). These are then dyed to suit the requirement. Quality will vary greatly with price as usual.

The big players in the slot in system market are:

Cokin
This is a French company with a huge range of creative filters available. They have 4 sizes of system available:

• Cokin A series (67mm wide, for compact cameras)

• Cokin P series (84mm wide, designed for DSLRs. There are standard and wide angle holders available - on the wide angle versions the number of filter slots is reduced from 3 to 1 to help with vignetting.

• Cokin Z-Pro series (100mm wide - also designed for DSLR use, the larger filter size makes them more suited to wider lenses)

• Cokin X-Pro series (130mm wide, for video & cinema use)

Cokin filters are very reasonably priced, so offer a good first route into this kind of system. Their holders are robust but cheap and as a bonus, many other manufacturers work to the same sizes, so your options are plentiful. The P series filter  system is an excellent route into working with filters - it's the system I chose based on cost and availability. There are many cheap Chinese knock-off versions available at a fraction of the cost of the genuine product and – while the quality is in no way as good, it offers a good way to experiment without lashing out a lot of cash. I initially bought some filters and a holder from a Hong Kong supplier on Ebay – the quality wasn't fantastic, but I was able to practice with the system for under £20. Now that I have some experience under my belt - I've replaced all my filters for the more expensive and far better quality genuine parts, to ensure better image quality.

Kood
These are manufactured in the UK and are a good quality, well priced alternative to Cokin. Their filters are made to fit into Cokin P and Z-Pro holders, so they're a great upgrade - I've recently bought Kood replacements for all my cheap import filters.

Hitech
Again, these are manufactured in 2 sizes and to a good level of quality. They do however list the smaller size as 85mm (the larger is 100mm) - so I've not tried to fit these into a Cokin P holder. To avoid damaging either, I'd suggest buying a Hitech 85 holder just in case. One of the great things about Hitech's offering, is that they manufacture a much bigger range of solid Neutral Density filters, so it's a good cost effective alternative to the Lees "big stopper" filter, that's extremely popular. If you're looking to try that milky sea, super long exposure thing but are frightened off by the cost of Lee's product, Hitech is a good route for you.

Lee's Filters
These are universally lauded to be the BEST quality slot in filters that money can buy. Manufactured in the UK, sized at 100mm width, they're used by many of the top UK based landscape and travel photographers and have a deserved reputation as the best. The price on the other hand is extremely high and for this reason alone I wouldn't advocate this as a first route into working with filters. Even the most basic beginners sets on offer are very expensive and the filter holder alone is £55. They also don't offer the kind of range of creative effects filters that Cokin produce. That said, they are the best, so if money's no object - you will not go far wrong sticking with Lee's products. They've also recently introduced a smaller system (like Cokin A) for use with compact cameras, but it's incredibly expensive for what's offered. At over £100 you get only the holder and a single ND grad filter. Hopefully the price will come down if they become more popular and more filters are available, but it's difficult to justify the price.


One final point before winding up for this posting - we'll take a quick look at the holder systems and the way that the filters slot into them.

Universally, these holder systems, regardless of brand, are fitted to the front of your lens using a threaded adapter ring. this makes the systems enormously flexible, as you can buy rings cheaply to fit all your lenses, and you will only need the one holder. The rings are offered in all the standard lens diameters and the front holder section slots onto this, allowing it to be rotated so you can flip the camera over for a portrait shot or use a filter at an angle to suit your subject.

The front of the holders have one or more slots, that the square filters are then slotted into. This allows you to fine tune the position vertically - for example, to position a neutral density grad on the horizon. Also, you have the option to use more than one filter in combination to give an even bigger range of effects.

Top tip: placing a dark filter in front of your lens will confuse your camera's auto-focus system causing it to try and focus on the filter, so I find it easier to either switch to manual focus to begin with, or compost your shot and focus with no filters in the holder - then switch to manual to lock the focus and slot in the filters to suit. This prevents the camera from going out of focus when you depress the shutter.

Cokin holders are incredibly cheap and you can buy non-genuine versions for between £1 and £5, with individual adapter rings around the same price. Alternatively, there are whole sets available on Ebay with the holder and all the adapter rings. This is good if you have a lot of lenses and want the option to put the holder on them all. I originally bought a single 52mm ring for my kit lens and when I upgraded to a better wide angle, just bought a couple of 77mm ring adapters for that and used the same holder.

Other system holders will vary in price all the way up to the Lee's filter. Kood holders are just copies of the Cokin version, and are also cheap. Hitech's holder is more in line with Lee's. This is a more complex composite system where you can dismantle the holder to add or remove the slot holders to suit, which explains the higher cost.

Whichever system you favour, slot in filters can offer you a huge range of creative opportunities - far greater and more flexible that screw in filter types, so I heartily recommend them if you're looking to get more from your photography and develop your technique and style.

In the next post I'll be looking at Neutral Density filters and how you can use them to balance your exposures and get great artistic effects.


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