Tags: Filters landscape photography Review
Sometimes it’s the naming that annoys me. Call your product after a notoriously ferocious predator, as filter maker Kase has done with its Wolverine range, and it just seems like you’re trying too hard. My natural, perhaps overly cynical instinct is to dismiss them on the spot, as likely to be sheep in wolves’ clothing. Thankfully, though, I gave these filters the benefit of the doubt, and agreed to try them out. Because as it turns out, they’re the real deal. Indeed as high quality, easy-to-use filters go, they’re absolute monsters.
Adapter rings are available in all sizes from 49mm to 82mm
The concept is deceptively simple. You screw an adapter ring into the front of your lens, to which the super-slim filters snap firmly into place magnetically. The circular polariser can be rotated freely on this magnetic mount, negating the need for a rotary frame. Once you’ve got it positioned how you want, an ND filter can simply be stacked on top, again holding firmly in place. Cleverly, the filters can’t be mounted the wrong way around; the magnets will repel each other if you try, so the filters won’t hold in place.
The polarising filter rotates smoothly on its magnetic mount
It’s difficult to convey just how quick this approach is, compared to laboriously screwing filters into lens threads. It makes filters so much quicker and easier to use, which in turn will encourage you to use them creatively. The design means that there’s no chance of light leakage ruining your shots when using strong neutral densities, either.
Filters stack together neatly with no chance of any light leakage
Optically, the filters are absolutely superb, with barely any discernible impact on image quality. Indeed the only artefacts I saw from their use were some small additional flare spots when shooting directly into the sun. The ND filters are as neutral as they could possibly be, meaning you won’t have to correct any unpleasant colour casts in raw processing. I didn’t see any troublesome vignetting when stacking a polariser and ND either, even on the Laowa 15mm F2 Zero-D ultra-wideangle prime.
Stacked polariser and 6-stop ND. Sony Alpha 7 III, Laowa 15mm F2, 30sec at F11, ISO 100
Kase’s Magnetic Circular kits come in three sizes; 77mm, 82mm, and 95mm for use with ultra-wide lenses. Stepping up to the Professional kit adds a 10-stop ND filter, but at a significant premium. Prices range from £220 for the 72mm Entry Kit up to £395 for the 95mm Professional Kit.
Sometimes an idea comes along that’s so clever you wonder why everyone else isn’t doing it already. Kase’s Wolverine circular filters fit right into this category, as they’re just so quick and easy to use, while giving excellent results.
Stacking the polariser, 3-stop and 6-stop NDs gives no discernible colour cast. Sony Alpha 7 III, 24-105mm F4, 4sec at f/11, ISO 100
As always there are compromises: the adapter rings add awkward bulk to small lenses if you choose to leave them attached, block the use of hoods and your lenses’ original caps, and don’t accommodate graduated filters. But if you can live with that, they’re a really excellent option, particularly when you want to carry minimal kit. Indeed the question isn’t so much ‘should you buy them?’ as ‘which kit, and which size?’.
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