Comparing 5 Neutral Density Filters1 min read
Reading Time: < 1 minuteNot all ND filters are created equal.
Even though they’re all designed to reduce the amount of light that hits your sensor, neutral density filters can vary quite a bit in terms of what effect they have on your final image, including color casting, vignetting, and exposure changes. But Patrick Hall of Fstoppers decided to test 5 different brands of ND filters, ranging in price between $100 to $250, to find out which ones performed the best.
Hall tests 5 different 6-stop 82mm filters:
- Hoya
- Tiffen
- Formatt Hitech
- B+W
- Breakthrough
To test these filters effectively and accurately, Hall needed to control over the lighting in the studio, so using a single monolight, the Profoto D1, he was able to maintain the same lighting condition throughout the entire test.
Here are the results of the different tests:
White Balance
This test is designed to determine which filter is the most color neutral, that is, doesn’t bring any additional color to the image.
Photo credit: No Film School
