BackdoorArts
Senior Member
I saw these when I was at the Photoplus Expo...
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Very simply idea - one ring mounts on the lens, one on the filter, magnets hold them together making it incredibly easy to pop the filter off and, if you want, put a different one on. For someone like me who likes to use a 9-stop ND filter this makes things so much easier in terms of popping the filter off for metering and recomposition (I find myself partially screwing the thing on and off and have had many a moment where my heart lept out of my chest as an expensive filter almost fell into running water or onto rocks. The magnets are fairly strong and I'd almost be comfortable walking around with it on my camera while it hands on my side, but I'm convinced a good knock would pry it loose, with or without my knowledge. The reps there assured me otherwise.
Cons, or at least potential cons?
1. Other than the possibility of it getting knocked off, apparently a lens cap will not mount to the lens when the lens-side magnet ring is on, so you either have to take it off all the time, mount the cap to the filter on the other end (making it susceptible to getting knocked off as mentioned) or buy a separate ring for the cap and leave it permanently attached and always use the magnetic attachment.
2. It pushes the filter out another couple millimeters which, they admit, may cause vignetting on lenses that do not have a lot of play in that area, and specifically with wide angle zooms at the wide end. The guy I spoke with told me that 95% of their returns are because of this and not for any other reason.
My brother, always the thinking, told them what they should have done differently to allow the mount to be closer to the lens front (essentially a step-up ring design without requiring the step-up), to which they countered that it would squash their ability to co-exist with a lot of lens hoods. Point taken.
Anyway, I liked it enough and feel I'd find it useful enough that I've ordered one 77mm set specifically for use with my ND. For those of you who use a clear/UV filter for protect who would like to be able to pop it off more easily and frequent when actually shooting this might provide a great option. If I had a full spectrum converted IR camera I'm thinking this would be a perfect way to swap between the various filters required on that. Not cheap, but very utilitarian.
Home Page
Very simply idea - one ring mounts on the lens, one on the filter, magnets hold them together making it incredibly easy to pop the filter off and, if you want, put a different one on. For someone like me who likes to use a 9-stop ND filter this makes things so much easier in terms of popping the filter off for metering and recomposition (I find myself partially screwing the thing on and off and have had many a moment where my heart lept out of my chest as an expensive filter almost fell into running water or onto rocks. The magnets are fairly strong and I'd almost be comfortable walking around with it on my camera while it hands on my side, but I'm convinced a good knock would pry it loose, with or without my knowledge. The reps there assured me otherwise.
Cons, or at least potential cons?
1. Other than the possibility of it getting knocked off, apparently a lens cap will not mount to the lens when the lens-side magnet ring is on, so you either have to take it off all the time, mount the cap to the filter on the other end (making it susceptible to getting knocked off as mentioned) or buy a separate ring for the cap and leave it permanently attached and always use the magnetic attachment.
2. It pushes the filter out another couple millimeters which, they admit, may cause vignetting on lenses that do not have a lot of play in that area, and specifically with wide angle zooms at the wide end. The guy I spoke with told me that 95% of their returns are because of this and not for any other reason.
My brother, always the thinking, told them what they should have done differently to allow the mount to be closer to the lens front (essentially a step-up ring design without requiring the step-up), to which they countered that it would squash their ability to co-exist with a lot of lens hoods. Point taken.
Anyway, I liked it enough and feel I'd find it useful enough that I've ordered one 77mm set specifically for use with my ND. For those of you who use a clear/UV filter for protect who would like to be able to pop it off more easily and frequent when actually shooting this might provide a great option. If I had a full spectrum converted IR camera I'm thinking this would be a perfect way to swap between the various filters required on that. Not cheap, but very utilitarian.
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