Best 100mm filter holders for landscape photography

[vieri]

Hello everyone! Following to my Best Filters for Landscape Photography review, I went and tested 6 filter holders from those same brands as well. Filter holders are an extremely important piece of equipment for me, finding one that is as easy as possible to carry, that makes my workflow as easy as possible and that works well in keeping stray light off my images is paramount. This review proved truly interesting for me first; here are my results, hoping you'll find them interesting as well:

https://www.vieribottazzini.com/2021/08/best-100mm-filter-holder.html

Enjoy the read, and if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask. Best regards,

Vieri

 

[MGrayson]

Vieri,

Kase lists a 95mm adapter ring for the K9 holder. Do you think that this would be reasonable for vignetting? I now have two lenses with 95mm threads. The Leica S 24mm and the Hasselblad 300mm. I'm not so much worried about the telephoto as the wide angle, of course. I know we discussed the Lee push on, but I have been unable to find one.

That the drop in filters for the K9 are 90mm, makes me a bit suspicious.

There is always their circular magnetic system...

Thank you,

Matt

 

[Paul2660]

Thanks for the review. Lots of good info. BTW love your photo in the review of sunrise and waterfall.

Paul C

 

[tcdeveau]

Thanks Vieri!!!

I’ve actually been filter shopping as I want to get a new ND setup for my own tech cam, so this helps me out a lot

All the best,
-Todd

 

[vieri]

Vieri,

Kase lists a 95mm adapter ring for the K9 holder. Do you think that this would be reasonable for vignetting? I now have two lenses with 95mm threads. The Leica S 24mm and the Hasselblad 300mm. I'm not so much worried about the telephoto as the wide angle, of course. I know we discussed the Lee push on, but I have been unable to find one.

That the drop in filters for the K9 are 90mm, makes me a bit suspicious.

There is always their circular magnetic system...

Thank you,

Matt

Hey Matt,

I believe that it would not vignette with the H 300, whereas I can only say I think (or I hope!) it wouldn't with the Leica 24mm. Out of my experience with the Lee holder pushed down, and as far as I remember in terms of thickness of the adaptor, the Kase might work, feels thin enough. Sadly I don't have the Leica 24mm S anymore to try it on, sorry about that!

Thanks for the review. Lots of good info. BTW love your photo in the review of sunrise and waterfall.

Paul C

Thank you very much Paul, happy you enjoyed the read and glad you liked the images in it!!

Thanks Vieri!!!

I’ve actually been filter shopping as I want to get a new ND setup for my own tech cam, so this helps me out a lot

All the best,
-Todd

Hey Todd, you are very welcome! Always happy to help! For tech cameras, I am very happy with the H&Y system - genius holder, top notch filters, no vignetting with any combination with my XT and 23mm, 32mm, 50mm and 70mm, shifted or otherwise. Hope this helps! (disclaimer: following the reviews, and after starting to use the H&Y system for my work, I have been contacted by H&Y and offered an Ambassadorship; it's not yet announced on my website but I accepted, and I feel it's correct to let the forum know).

Best regards,

Vieri

 

[Paul2660]

Question for Vieri:

On the H&Y filter holders, it appears that they have a "top and bottom" that attach to the middle which is holding the filter. Did you find any issues with the bottom coming loose? so that the filter would drop out?

I agree that the Wine Country design allows for a not solid fit, thus the filters will wobble in the holders. A simple way to fix this would have been for Wine country to put a strip of felt or similar material on the holder. As they are a enclosed design, I choose to put a strip of electrical tape on the edge of the filters. I guess their reasoning would be that not all of the 100mm filters on the market have the same depth and can vary.

Also did you try to fit filters from Nisi or HiTech into the H&Y holders. I believe you mentioned that the Blackstone 100mm fit OK?

It appears that Adorama has most of the H&Y system in stock, and at a good price currently $180.00 for the basic set, which is $229.00 most other places. B&H appears not to carry them as they have special order by most of the products. I ordered from the H&Y site, which appears to be a overseas setup (China?), so not sure when anything will arrive.

Paul

 

[vieri]

Question for Vieri:

On the H&Y filter holders, it appears that they have a "top and bottom" that attach to the middle which is holding the filter. Did you find any issues with the bottom coming loose? so that the filter would drop out?

I agree that the Wine Country design allows for a not solid fit, thus the filters will wobble in the holders. A simple way to fix this would have been for Wine country to put a strip of felt or similar material on the holder. As they are a enclosed design, I choose to put a strip of electrical tape on the edge of the filters. I guess their reasoning would be that not all of the 100mm filters on the market have the same depth and can vary.

Also did you try to fit filters from Nisi or HiTech into the H&Y holders. I believe you mentioned that the Blackstone 100mm fit OK?

It appears that Adorama has most of the H&Y system in stock, and at a good price currently $180.00 for the basic set, which is $229.00 most other places. B&H appears not to carry them as they have special order by most of the products. I ordered from the H&Y site, which appears to be a overseas setup (China?), so not sure when anything will arrive.

Paul

Hey Paul,

when buying filters from H&Y, filters will come directly assembled in the frame, and it looks like the assembly is extremely solid. That's the way I got them for the test, I didn't have to assemble the frame around them but, as far as I can see, I don't think there is any way the bottom can come out if you assembled a frame around a different brand of filter yourself (assuming the assembly is done properly). Incidentally, I dropped a filter thrice, on rocks, and nothing happened to the filter (except for a small scratch during one of the falls) nor to the frame.

About trying other filters into the H&Y frames, I did not, and I don't believe I mentioned the Blackstone fitting in the frame.

About ordering, here in Italy we have a local distributor, which makes things easier in terms of getting supply fast; I am not sure if there is a US distributor though. Adorama / B&H would probably be the fastest options there, I think.

Hope this helps! Best regards,

Vieri

 

[dchew]

@Paul2660,
Hi Paul, I’ve been using H&Y for a few years now. One of the things I did was make a dark frame filter and an LCC filter so I could do those two things without removing the holder. I bought two bare frames and mounted black ABS and an LCC card into them. I have not had any issue with the top and bottom getting loose. A while ago the frame tabs had some QC issues, but those seem to be long gone. The fit seems good and reliable as of late.
Dave

 

[Smoothjazz]

Awesome work Vieri! I have tried many of these filters, and agree that adding and removing the polarizer is a critical detail. There have been moments of extreme frustration in the field trying to remove a stuck on threaded polarizer. On your advice I have now tried the Kase filters, and like them very much. The magnetic polarizer is the best solution for ease of use in the field. I bought two Kase K9 systems, and that gives me two polarizers, just in case, and adapters for each lens, kept ready and in place- so no screwing or unscrewing of any threads in the outdoors.

 

[Paul2660]

One thing I have discovered, obtaining H&Y's 86mm adapter ring is not an easy thing to do. No One has it in stock in US and I only found 3 in stock in the UK at Park Camera, but they will not ship overseas. Most if notl of H&Y's filter components are "special order" status at B&H, even though H&Y lists them as a regular distributor. This leaves Adorama, which I prefer not to order from as they don't have a credit card option like B&H to handle sales tax. Adorama does not even stock the 86mm adapter ring, thus it can't be special ordered.

I have ordered one from H&Y, which is I assume in Hong Kong, shipping is $30.00 for a $10.00 ring, but I would like to have one so I can use it on the Rodie 32mm and not have to bring along two setups, Wine Country and H&Y.

H&Y is not very good at responding to questions either, at least to the [email protected] email address. I have sent them two in the past week, one in regards to when the 86mm ring will ship (it's been on order 4 days and showed in stock), and if they will consider making an option for the Sigma 14-24 lens (mirrorless).

It's strange, after reading this review and others, H&Y has a excellent solution one that I had over looked totally. Their use of CL-PL and ND in one filter (drop in) is great. But finding the gear and getting responses from them are less than stellar at least for me.

Paul C

 

[dchew]

One thing I have discovered, obtaining H&Y's 86mm adapter ring is not an easy thing to do. No One has it in stock in US and I only found 3 in stock in the UK at Park Camera, but they will not ship overseas. Most if notl of H&Y's filter components are "special order" status at B&H, even though H&Y lists them as a regular distributor. This leaves Adorama, which I prefer not to order from as they don't have a credit card option like B&H to handle sales tax. Adorama does not even stock the 86mm adapter ring, thus it can't be special ordered.

I have ordered one from H&Y, which is I assume in Hong Kong, shipping is $30.00 for a $10.00 ring, but I would like to have one so I can use it on the Rodie 32mm and not have to bring along two setups, Wine Country and H&Y.

H&Y is not very good at responding to questions either, at least to the [email protected] email address. I have sent them two in the past week, one in regards to when the 86mm ring will ship (it's been on order 4 days and showed in stock), and if they will consider making an option for the Sigma 14-24 lens (mirrorless).

It's strange, after reading this review and others, H&Y has a excellent solution one that I had over looked totally. Their use of CL-PL and ND in one filter (drop in) is great. But finding the gear and getting responses from them are less than stellar at least for me.

Paul C

Paul,
Another source is https://handyfilters.com. I have not ordered from them in a year or two, but Tom was very responsive and helpful when I did. I'm not sure how easy it is for them to price and ship to the US. I remember some back and forth about VAT, but might be worth checking out if the traditional sources don't work.

Dave

 

[vieri]

One thing I have discovered, obtaining H&Y's 86mm adapter ring is not an easy thing to do. No One has it in stock in US and I only found 3 in stock in the UK at Park Camera, but they will not ship overseas. Most if notl of H&Y's filter components are "special order" status at B&H, even though H&Y lists them as a regular distributor. This leaves Adorama, which I prefer not to order from as they don't have a credit card option like B&H to handle sales tax. Adorama does not even stock the 86mm adapter ring, thus it can't be special ordered.

I have ordered one from H&Y, which is I assume in Hong Kong, shipping is $30.00 for a $10.00 ring, but I would like to have one so I can use it on the Rodie 32mm and not have to bring along two setups, Wine Country and H&Y.

H&Y is not very good at responding to questions either, at least to the [email protected] email address. I have sent them two in the past week, one in regards to when the 86mm ring will ship (it's been on order 4 days and showed in stock), and if they will consider making an option for the Sigma 14-24 lens (mirrorless).

It's strange, after reading this review and others, H&Y has a excellent solution one that I had over looked totally. Their use of CL-PL and ND in one filter (drop in) is great. But finding the gear and getting responses from them are less than stellar at least for me.

Paul C

Hey Paul,

sorry to hear that - I just became Ambassador for H&Y, via their Italian distributor, and they are incredibly responsive, active and friendly. I don't have yet the 86mm ring myself, but the Italian distributor ordered it for me and I'll find it when I'll pass by Milan (am currently traveling leading Workshops).

Here in Italy, I have been extremely impressed by H&Y, but of course I can't say for the US market.

Paul,
Another source is https://handyfilters.com. I have not ordered from them in a year or two, but Tom was very responsive and helpful when I did. I'm not sure how easy it is for them to price and ship to the US. I remember some back and forth about VAT, but might be worth checking out if the traditional sources don't work.

Dave

Hey Dave,

happy to hear that you found a good H&Y source. Hope it'll help Paul!

Best regards,

Vieri

 

[Paul2660]

Hi Vieri
I did finally find a 86mm ring, it has not arrived as of yet, but hopefully soon. If you have a chance to pass a message on info to H&Y, I would appreciate it. They have been totally non responsive to any of my emails which is surprising. I am using the “[email protected]” email address, which is the one they list on their main website. As far as I can tell anything ordered from their site is shipping from Hong Kong, and via Federal Express. In my first order, I asked for (4) of the magnetic frames, and received only (1). I have emailed them 2 times asking for either a refund or new shipment for the balance of the 3 frames, but have not heard anything back. As they only take paypal for payments, I will have to eventually go to paypal court, something I don‘t prefer to do. Their shipments have to through customs and during shipment someone may have taken the 3 extra frames, but I have no way of knowing this. Their filters seem to be excellent quality, but so far for me their customer support from the website is less than stellar at least for me.

Sincerely
Paul

 

[Jacob Buchowski]

Paul (and others),

Based on Dave's and Vieri's experience, I also took the plunge and bought a set of H&Y filters. To buy everything I needed, I ended up having to use 3 separate vendors: Adorama (for things they had in stock with included empty frames that I'll need to make an LCC and black frame), hyfilters.co (for some things that Adorama didn't have but with the same pricing as Adorama), and hyfilters.net (for the 86 mm adapter rings which no other vendor had). Interestingly, the price of the filter holders and filters was higher on hyfilters.net than Adorama or hyfilters.co. Now I just have to see if I get everything I ordered!

It would be nice if everything was available through a single US-based distributor.

Jacob

 

[vieri]

Hi Vieri
I did finally find a 86mm ring, it has not arrived as of yet, but hopefully soon. If you have a chance to pass a message on info to H&Y, I would appreciate it. They have been totally non responsive to any of my emails which is surprising. I am using the “[email protected]” email address, which is the one they list on their main website. As far as I can tell anything ordered from their site is shipping from Hong Kong, and via Federal Express. In my first order, I asked for (4) of the magnetic frames, and received only (1). I have emailed them 2 times asking for either a refund or new shipment for the balance of the 3 frames, but have not heard anything back. As they only take paypal for payments, I will have to eventually go to paypal court, something I don‘t prefer to do. Their shipments have to through customs and during shipment someone may have taken the 3 extra frames, but I have no way of knowing this. Their filters seem to be excellent quality, but so far for me their customer support from the website is less than stellar at least for me.

Sincerely
Paul

Hi Paul,

great to hear that you found an 86mm ring, and I am sorry for the rest of your experience with H&Y in the US. I just forwarded your message to the Italian distributor, kindly asking them to let the mothership know about the issue - not sure how their distribution structure is, in terms of what the Italian distributor will be able to do, but I hope this will help!

Paul (and others),

Based on Dave's and Vieri's experience, I also took the plunge and bought a set of H&Y filters. To buy everything I needed, I ended up having to use 3 separate vendors: Adorama (for things they had in stock with included empty frames that I'll need to make an LCC and black frame), hyfilters.co (for some things that Adorama didn't have but with the same pricing as Adorama), and hyfilters.net (for the 86 mm adapter rings which no other vendor had). Interestingly, the price of the filter holders and filters was higher on hyfilters.net than Adorama or hyfilters.co. Now I just have to see if I get everything I ordered!

It would be nice if everything was available through a single US-based distributor.

Jacob

Hey Jacob,

That would definitely be great - sorry to hear that the US distribution is so complicated. Here in Italy we have one distributor, and everyone in the EU can use that as well, which makes things easier on the one hand, but on the other hand if they don't have something is stock, then we need to go outside EU which makes things much slower and more expensive in terms of duties etc. At least, you guys seem to have various options to check to find things!

Best regards,

Vieri

 

[Paul2660]

One additional note, the 86mm H&Y ring, has trouble with the Rodenstock 32mm lens, in that it will not screw in 100%, and binds after about 1/2 way in. If you use this ring on this lens, be careful not to over tighten it as due to the light weight construction of the ring, odds are it will not come out and instead bind on the mount. Not a good thing.

This has something to do with the course threading of the Rodenstock lens for filters, as I believe the H&Y uses fine threading, and it fits fine on all my other lenses with 86mm threading.

Paul C

 

[vieri]

Interesting, thanks for what looks like a hell of a lot of time and effort.

I am using the Breakthrough stuff but only for graduated ND’s and it seems to work great for that. If I need to use a 6 or 10 stop ND, I have one that is Bay 60 for my Hasselblad lenses and then put the graduated ND array on the front of it. It may be a bit more work to do it but I manage fine. I don’t use Polarizing filters much and when I do, I’m not messing around with grads or ND’s.

I also don’t think the straight cut of soft or hard edged grads really work all that well for a fair number of shots so I put the 6 or 10 stop on to give me enough time to use my black glove in camera dodging trick which works killer for those odd shaped areas to hold back light in.

I end up shooting a bit more film that way to make sure I nailed it but it is always worth it on shots I absolutely need to bring home.

That’s my way of doing professional landscape photography, your mileage may vary…

You are very welcome, happy you found the articles useful. As you said, everyone has their own ways of solving problems; mine is to use Grad ND filters, Soft Edge only, with various strengths. I always have a polariser handy, and often leave it on for all my shots if the focal length allows for it (deactivating its effect if I don't need it). For wides and ultra-wides, of course, I decide whether to use it according to the subject matter and the sky, to avoid the "black blob of death" of uneven polarization on a blue sky. Since moving to Phase One, I don't use ND filters anymore, replaced by Frame Averaging instead.

As you said, that's my way of doing professional landscape photography, and obviously YMMV.

One additional note, the 86mm H&Y ring, has trouble with the Rodenstock 32mm lens, in that it will not screw in 100%, and binds after about 1/2 way in. If you use this ring on this lens, be careful not to over tighten it as due to the light weight construction of the ring, odds are it will not come out and instead bind on the mount. Not a good thing.

This has something to do with the course threading of the Rodenstock lens for filters, as I believe the H&Y uses fine threading, and it fits fine on all my other lenses with 86mm threading.

Paul C

Hey Paul, thank you very much for the heads-up, much appreciated. I will definitely pay attention to the threading of the 86mm filter! When I'll put my hands on it, that is...

Best regards,

Vieri

 

[Buttsc7875]

Hello everyone! Following to my Best Filters for Landscape Photography review, I went and tested 6 filter holders from those same brands as well. Filter holders are an extremely important piece of equipment for me, finding one that is as easy as possible to carry, that makes my workflow as easy as possible and that works well in keeping stray light off my images is paramount. This review proved truly interesting for me first; here are my results, hoping you'll find them interesting as well:

https://www.vieribottazzini.com/2021/08/best-100mm-filter-holder.html

Enjoy the read, and if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask. Best regards,

Vieri

This was very helpful. I just received the Kase K9 system and it appears to work fine with my Lee Filters which I did not want to replace since moving from Canon Lens to Rodenstock. Thank You.

 

[Paul2660]

I heard back from H&Y this morning and they are shipping out the missing frames.

Paul

 

[Buttsc7875]

Just FYI. The Lee Fitlers 86mm adapter ring is in stock. I just got one from BH.