Reviews
Great ND Filter especially for the price.
I'm a full time filmmaker and I do use several K&D products. I own ND2-ND400 which is from 1 to 9 stops and I love it. Is it the absolute best ND filter out there? No, but cost benefit is unbeatable.
So when the ND2-2000 1 to 11 stops was released I got interested. I never actually sat down to do a camera test with my existing ND filter. Images always looked good to me, and I was fine with that.
How the test was conducted - I used my Sony A7IV mounted on a tripod with a Cine Rokinon DXS 50mm at f 5.6 which is super sharp at 5.6. I set shutter to 1/80 and used a remote shutter to avoid any vibration in the image. ISO was set to auto. I wanted to see how much ISO variation would happen as I increased the ND dial. Now thinking I should have used an automatic lens and set Aperture priority to see how many F stops the ND would actually trigger but only my cine lenses are 77mm and I don't have a step down ring yet. So, that said:
PROS - The filter maintains sharpness and color accuracy throughout it's full ND range, which is amazing.
CONS - It gives the image a slightly more red tone. Honestly for skin tones as you can see on the images attached to this review, I actually liked it better, but it does add a bit of color to the image, as expected, especially in this price range.
I also noticed that the first 4 stops did not seam to make much of a difference. The camera ISO remain at 800 from stop 1 to 3, and it goes SUPER dark from stop 10 to 11, really, really dark. I want to take a picture of the sun with this ND filter to test it out.
Overall for the price it is more than a no brainer. If you are shooting a cinema grade film with an ARRI and some $20,000 cinema lenses, no, not for you. But obviously you can afford the high end ND filters. For social media and smaller budget productions, this filter is PERFECT.
Great buy!
So when the ND2-2000 1 to 11 stops was released I got interested. I never actually sat down to do a camera test with my existing ND filter. Images always looked good to me, and I was fine with that.
How the test was conducted - I used my Sony A7IV mounted on a tripod with a Cine Rokinon DXS 50mm at f 5.6 which is super sharp at 5.6. I set shutter to 1/80 and used a remote shutter to avoid any vibration in the image. ISO was set to auto. I wanted to see how much ISO variation would happen as I increased the ND dial. Now thinking I should have used an automatic lens and set Aperture priority to see how many F stops the ND would actually trigger but only my cine lenses are 77mm and I don't have a step down ring yet. So, that said:
PROS - The filter maintains sharpness and color accuracy throughout it's full ND range, which is amazing.
CONS - It gives the image a slightly more red tone. Honestly for skin tones as you can see on the images attached to this review, I actually liked it better, but it does add a bit of color to the image, as expected, especially in this price range.
I also noticed that the first 4 stops did not seam to make much of a difference. The camera ISO remain at 800 from stop 1 to 3, and it goes SUPER dark from stop 10 to 11, really, really dark. I want to take a picture of the sun with this ND filter to test it out.
Overall for the price it is more than a no brainer. If you are shooting a cinema grade film with an ARRI and some $20,000 cinema lenses, no, not for you. But obviously you can afford the high end ND filters. For social media and smaller budget productions, this filter is PERFECT.
Great buy!
25/10/2023