Cokin Nuances Extreme Full ND Filter Kit From £229/$249

A brand-new ND filter kit from legendary manufacturer Cokin, available in a range of sizes

Cokin has been producing square filters and filter systems since 1978. Its current high-end range of Nuances Extreme filters is made from shock-resistant tempered mineral glass, with a new addition in the typically square shape of the ND8 three-stop filter. The new Full ND kit is launched off the back of this new offering, adding existing ND64 six-stop and ND1024 10-stop filters of the same quality.

Three sizes are available: medium, large and extra-large (or P, Z-Pro and X-Pro in Cokin’s terminology), with 84mm, 100mm and 130mm widths respectively. The size you need depends in part on the diameter of the lens’s filter thread, but Cokin also recommends that the shortest focal lengths for the three sizes on a full-frame camera are 24mm (P), 22mm (Z-Pro) and 18mm (X-Pro). That’s assuming you’re using the recommended Cokin Evo Filter Holder, which costs an additional £129/$105 in the Z-Pro size. The holder enables up to three filters to be stacked, although you can reduce the number of slots. Adapter rings cost around £30/$40, in a range of 49-95mm thread diameter sizes.

A problem with using square high-density filters in filter holders is that light can seep in around the edges and spoil the quality of the results. To guard against this, most high-power ND filters have foam or felt padding around the edges. In this kit, Cokin applies the padding to the filter holder instead; this means you need to be careful to keep it meticulously clean, otherwise debris can scrape across the filter as you slide it into place.

The quality of construction and handling characteristics are very good and the quality of the results is excellent, with a minimal cool-colour cast, similar to that of the Lee Stopper filters. It’s a very good buy at the price in Europe but, at this early stage of release at least, the kit is comparatively pricey in the USA.

Hoya is a legendary name in lens filters, but it has always focused on the circular screw-in style. This is a good format for UV and protection filters that you might leave attached to your lens most or all of the time, and works well for circular polarisers, but it isn’t so convenient for shooting with high-power ND filters.

The problem is that when you shoot with a DSLR, six-stop and 10-stop filters give you a very dark or almost black viewfinder image once they’re on your lens, so you’re shooting blind. It’s therefore easiest to frame the shot, set the focus distance and work out the exposure, then simply slot a square filter into a holder attached to your lens and take your shot. Repeatedly screwing in and unscrewing a circular filter is more time-consuming. For lenses in which the front element rotates during focusing, you also risk changing the focus distance while you’re screwing the filter into place.

That said, nowadays it’s perfectly possible to shoot with high-power ND filters in place on mirrorless cameras or while you’re using Live View; and also to adjust focusing, where the brightness of the preview image is automatically boosted.

There’s certainly nothing wrong with the quality of these Hoya ProND filters, which are available separately or as a three-piece kit with ND8, ND64 and ND1000 filters. The optical glass filter material has a metallic coating on the front and back, which aims for an even reduction throughout the entire light spectrum and into the infrared region. Accu-ND coating technology seeks to deliver a completely neutral colour balance. The circular frames are made from matte black anodised aluminium, which is both sturdy and avoids any unwanted reflections.

Although they’re relatively fiddly to use, the image quality delivered by these Hoya filters is excellent: the ND1000 gives the least colour cast of any 10-stop filter on test.

Lee Filters is a British company that has been going about its business of making premium filters and gels since 1967. The company has put all of its considerable know-how into its Stopper range of filters, which are available in 85mm, 100mm and 150mm options. They’re not available as kits, but as individual Little Stopper (six-stop), Big Stopper (10-stop) and Super Stopper (15-stop) filters, in the respective sizes. The SW150 Mark II system is noteworthy, as it comes with a variety of bespoke filter holders. These attach to specific ultra-wideangle lenses that have integral hoods and no attachment thread, normally making the use of filters impossible.

Taking over from its range of standard and ProGlass ND filters, which range from one-stop to threestop densities, the Stopper range ramps up the power. And while six-stop and 10-stop filters are relatively common in today’s marketplace, the 15-stop filter takes everything to another level. For example, where a 10-stop filter would give you an exposure of 30 seconds, the Super Stopper stretches the shutter opening time to an epic 17 minutes. You can get really long exposures in sunlight, without having to use a narrow aperture.

As with the lens filters, the filter holders and adapter rings are all sold separately. None of this gear comes cheap, but the quality is fabulous.

We tested the 100mm filters with the Lee 100 Holder (£79/$110) and the 72mm filter ring (£37/$67). The modular design of the holder enables you to easily add or subtract from the two filter slots fitted as standard, enabling you to set up filter combos, while a multi-function locking dial on the side enables quick and easy fitment, with optional rotation or full positional locking.

We detected a subtle blue cast from the filters, but colour correction is an easy job.

This new kit from SRB Photographic comprises a square filter holder with two circular screw-in filters. As counter-intuitive as that sounds, it’s an ingenious arrangement, as the filter holder can accommodate two square or rectangular filters with a width of 84mm (the same as Cokin’s P size), but it also has an 82mm diameter circular screw thread at its centre. The Elite Bundle kit is supplied with a screw-in circular polariser and a 10-stop ND filter, either of which can screw into the holder and effectively avoid any light seepage.

This might sound like a similar arrangement to the Hoya circular filters on test with an added layer of complication, but in practice it’s much easier to use. A quick-release catch on the filter holder lets you compose the shot, work out exposures and set the focus distance with the adapter ring on the lens, then simply pop on the filter holder to take the shot.

In addition to a circular filter, you can use one or two square or rectangular filters in the holder, including SRB’s ND64 six-stop rectangular filter, available separately for £30/$39. This is a more conventional high-density filter, constructed from glass like the ND1000 10-stop circular screw-in filter, but with foam strips around the edges to stop any light seeping through between the filter and holder. The only other thing you’ll need that’s not supplied in the kit is an adapter ring to suit the filter attachment thread of the lens you wish to use it with. As with the kit itself, and typical of SRB, the adapter rings are well-built and great value at just £8/$10 each, available in a range of sizes.

If you prefer to just stick with circular screw-in filters that fit directly to a lens, SRB makes both standard and rugged ND1000 options, the latter being easier to fit. They’re available in all popular sizes of attachment thread from 49mm to 82mm, and SRB offers step-up and step-down rings too.