| sent on July 08, 2015
Pros: Cokin brand name, quality of the filters, cheaper than Lee filters - Amazon (UK) very good price
Cons: Holder is too big and protrudes too far out, causing obscuring the image edges, resin filters cannot handle very bright sources that well, cumbersome, stupidly over-big bag to carry the kit in. Adaptors expensive
Opinion: Buying the 'Z' series (Pro, 100mm large) graduated grey kit, in 1, 2 and this 3 stop filters, they are a major step up for me for serious landscape photography, since I used to use 'P' grad greys in my days of transparency film, over ten years ago, but not since. Intended for use with mainly my DX 10-24mm Nikkor and Tokina 16-50mm f2.8, both with 77mm filter thread, possibly also on my FX Nikkor 17-35mm f2.8, with my FX D700. Firstly, the filters are nice, long and are very good quality, for a resin filter. The holder isn't so nice and this is widely reported, but with anything, you have to make the best of it. The supplied carry case is far too big for what it needs to be, but you get felt pouches to put each filter in. Vignetting - you can get my 10-24mm down to 11mm before the front of the holder intrudes, which is pretty good and still a very wide angle of view (eqv to 16mm on FX, though I'm sure it would vignette at 16mm on the Nikkor FX 16-35mm). The gradation between light and dark areas is nice and smooth, which you can alter by f-stop, of course. Images have a well balanced, slightly softer (in contrast) look, which suits many landscapes. Tried it with two filters with the full moon, which was at the edge of the frame. The bright light reflected off between the filters, causing a bit of a mess. Not recommended! The moon smeared slightly, with just one filter, though. I'm still trying out the filters in different conditions. So, overall, yes, the kit is a bit of a compromise, but far better than what I had before (nothing!) but at 92 pounds sterling on Amazon for the whole kit, it is a bit of a bargain. The adaptors though, at around 20 pounds sterling each, mean that having as many lenses with the same filter thread as possible is a good thing. So, for value, at the price I paid, and for the filters themselves, 9.5/10, but the fiddly holder and general packaging, 7/10. So, have rounded this up to 9/10, as the first two criteria are more important than the third, at least with the quality of the final image. |
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