Breakthrough Photography Filters

[PedroL]

I was following discussions about filters here and got very enthusiastic about members of this forum commenting on Breakthrough filters. Decided to try it on our workshop in Iceland next week and as well to let our attendees to try and compare with other filter brands. I will post few samples of comparison pictures after we return . From my quick testing in studio this morning those filters are better than anything I tried in 60 years of photography. Practically no color cast, totally amazing. I was not using filters a lot in digital era exactly because of color casting and it is very difficult to properly eliminate it. I have high hopes that Breakthrough Photography is getting a breakthrough with eliminating color cast.
Will follow up after the workshop.

Peter

 

[PedroL]

I was following discussions about filters here and got very enthusiastic about members of this forum commenting on Breakthrough filters. Decided to try it on our workshop in Iceland next week and as well to let our attendees to try and compare with other filter brands. I will post few samples of comparison pictures after we return . From my quick testing in studio this morning those filters are better than anything I tried in 60 years of photography. Practically no color cast, totally amazing. I was not using filters a lot in digital era exactly because of color casting and it is very difficult to properly eliminate it. I have high hopes that Breakthrough Photography is getting a breakthrough with eliminating color cast.
Will follow up after the workshop.

Peter

Hello from Iceland. Cold, windy, rainy, snowy, anything but South Florida. Perfect way to test Breakthrough filter system. H6D, H5D, X1d, GFX, X H1 - we had here and the magnetic system from Breakthrough Photography is totally priceless. In Icelandic conditions, fact that the filters are from tempered glass - we had them dropped a few times, not a scratch. Wiping the rain drops left no streaks. The only problem I had was that I had not enough filters as everyone was trying to use them. I have no comparison with other filter brands, because magnetic application is unbelievably easy and fast so I was not using other brands. I am not concerned about color cast on Breakthrough filters, as after day one I compared color of no filter and Breakthrough filter and colorcast wise there was no difference. I will be back in studio in Florida on Tuesday and anyone wishing to see full rez image using Breakthrough filter, please contact me and I would be glad to dropbox it to you.
In spite of the cold and rainy weather, Iceland is a paradise for photography. I will be back.

 

[MGrayson]

I don't see a magnetic holder system on Breakthrough's site. Is it a rebranded XUME from Manfrotto?

--Matt

 

[hcubell]

Hello from Iceland. Cold, windy, rainy, snowy, anything but South Florida. Perfect way to test Breakthrough filter system. H6D, H5D, X1d, GFX, X H1 - we had here and the magnetic system from Breakthrough Photography is totally priceless. In Icelandic conditions, fact that the filters are from tempered glass - we had them dropped a few times, not a scratch. Wiping the rain drops left no streaks. The only problem I had was that I had not enough filters as everyone was trying to use them. I have no comparison with other filter brands, because magnetic application is unbelievably easy and fast so I was not using other brands. I am not concerned about color cast on Breakthrough filters, as after day one I compared color of no filter and Breakthrough filter and colorcast wise there was no difference. I will be back in studio in Florida on Tuesday and anyone wishing to see full rez image using Breakthrough filter, please contact me and I would be glad to dropbox it to you.
In spite of the cold and rainy weather, Iceland is a paradise for photography. I will be back.

Hi, Peter. The Breakthrough Filters sound pretty durable. I bought an expensive set of Formatt Hitech Firecrest filters before my recent trip to Iceland. I could not believe how easily they scratched. What a waste of money.
Very curious as to how the various camera systems handled the weather conditions in Iceland. I used an H2 with a Phase IQ180 in Iceland two years ago and both the H2 and the Phase back failed after two days, despite my efforts to shield them from the wind driven rain with protective plastic coverings.

 

[cerett]

Hi, Peter. The Breakthrough Filters sound pretty durable. I bought an expensive set of Formatt Hitech Firecrest filters before my recent trip to Iceland. I could not believe how easily they scratched. What a waste of money.
Very curious as to how the various camera systems handled the weather conditions in Iceland. I used an H2 with a Phase IQ180 in Iceland two years ago and both the H2 and the Phase back failed after two days, despite my efforts to shield them from the wind driven rain with protective plastic coverings.

I used my H6D-100c and Sony A7rII extensively in Iceland last fall. This included several rainy days. I did use a plastic cover, but there were many times when this was unsuccessful and the cameras did get wet. I had no problems with either systems.

 

[PedroL]

I don't see a magnetic holder system on Breakthrough's site. Is it a rebranded XUME from Manfrotto?

--Matt

Hi Matt. It is not. It is a brand new, as good as it gets. The Breakthrough system is something wonderful.

 

[PedroL]

Hi, Peter. The Breakthrough Filters sound pretty durable. I bought an expensive set of Formatt Hitech Firecrest filters before my recent trip to Iceland. I could not believe how easily they scratched. What a waste of money.
Very curious as to how the various camera systems handled the weather conditions in Iceland. I used an H2 with a Phase IQ180 in Iceland two years ago and both the H2 and the Phase back failed after two days, despite my efforts to shield them from the wind driven rain with protective plastic coverings.

Hi Howard. This trip was quite an experience. In any day we got beautiful sunshine, cold rain, snowstorm, 50 mph wind. Fuji GFX was totally HEAVY RAIN resistant. The he camera got wet every day so bad water was pouring and dripping everywhere from camera. Practically was dunked to bucket full of bloody cold water. Half an hour later, still wet, kept on shooting. Real energizer bunny....
X1D was safe as well, got pretty wet many times, no protection from rain. We with had no failure with X1D. H system was never totally unprotected, all H camera had a cover some better, some not that good. But all worked fine. We had no single camera failed and had every day at least 1 location with rain pouring down.
I am talking on behalf of all attendees, 9 shooters and no one was worried about rain, snow, cold, anything.
I was shooting mainly with Fuji GFX and X H1 and let them get wet to see how much they take. Both passed with flying colors.
Breakthrough filters we were using were wiped over and over, I witnessed 2 being dropped, but have no idea how many other times the were dropped. Amazing think is they still looks like new. Love the product. And I am not surprised they are warranted for 25 years.
Have a great day, Peter

 

[PedroL]

Hi Matt. It is not. It is a brand new, as good as it gets. The Breakthrough system is something wonderful.

Forgot to mention that system will be on they web site shortly. Well worth waiting for.
Peter

 

[MGrayson]

Hi Matt. It is not. It is a brand new, as good as it gets. The Breakthrough system is something wonderful.

Cool, thanks!

I'm a big fan of their filters, but have only used the screw-on 95mm 6- and 10-stop.

--Matt

 

[JohnBrew]

Hi Howard. This trip was quite an experience. In any day we got beautiful sunshine, cold rain, snowstorm, 50 mph wind. Fuji GFX was totally HEAVY RAIN resistant. The he camera got wet every day so bad water was pouring and dripping everywhere from camera. Practically was dunked to bucket full of bloody cold water. Half an hour later, still wet, kept on shooting. Real energizer bunny....
X1D was safe as well, got pretty wet many times, no protection from rain. We with had no failure with X1D. H system was never totally unprotected, all H camera had a cover some better, some not that good. But all worked fine. We had no single camera failed and had every day at least 1 location with rain pouring down.
I am talking on behalf of all attendees, 9 shooters and no one was worried about rain, snow, cold, anything.
I was shooting mainly with Fuji GFX and X H1 and let them get wet to see how much they take. Both passed with flying colors.
Breakthrough filters we were using were wiped over and over, I witnessed 2 being dropped, but have no idea how many other times the were dropped. Amazing think is they still looks like new. Love the product. And I am not surprised they are warranted for 25 years.
Have a great day, Peter

Thank you. All this is good to know. I have a mix of Breakthrough and Format and find them about equal, really hate it when they get stuck together though!
(And yes, I now know the solution!)

 

[beano_z]

A friend introduced me recently to this brand and I'm stoked to find that they have some very interesting products, but I'd like to hear your guys' feedback first before I go and order some:

1) Has anyone used the dark polariser? There's a combination of a polariser and 6-stop ND which looks very interesting but not sure about real usage though, it looks like it can only work with live view, am I right?

2) Has any of you used their brass step up rings? How's the build quality and does the edge profile help with grip?

Thanks in advance!

 

[PedroL]

A friend introduced me recently to this brand and I'm stoked to find that they have some very interesting products, but I'd like to hear your guys' feedback first before I go and order some:

1) Has anyone used the dark polariser? There's a combination of a polariser and 6-stop ND which looks very interesting but not sure about real usage though, it looks like it can only work with live view, am I right?

2) Has any of you used their brass step up rings? How's the build quality and does the edge profile help with grip?

Thanks in advance!

We had a 3 stop dark polarizer on workshop, and it was very useful for waterfalls. I am not sure whether it works only with live view, as I was using it little, but always with viewfinder. I am shooting mostly panoramas, so for me polarizing part was not that important, but I think that 6 stop regular ND is a better choice.
And the brass step up rings are magnificent, ease to use and beautifully made.

You can not go wrong. Go for it. Peter

 

[dj may]

Peter,

Did you encounter shots that would demonstrate how the filters respond to flare? I use Firecrest 10-stop and on several occasions the flare from the filter was evident. The flare was definitely due to the filter and not the lens.

Regards,
Jesse

 

[PedroL]

Peter,

Did you encounter shots that would demonstrate how the filters respond to flare? I use Firecrest 10-stop and on several occasions the flare from the filter was evident. The flare was definitely due to the filter and not the lens.

Regards,
Jesse

Hi Jesse. I did process only few images, but I did not see any flare. But I really was not looking for a flare either....Peter

 

[tcdeveau]

Thanks for the feedback. I've been looking into replacing my little and big stopper, and the breakthrough filters seem to be at the top of the list
-Todd

 

[stevenfr]

I replaced my Big Stopper with the Breakthrough filters. Very pleased with the better image quality and neutral colour balance.

Steven

Thanks for the feedback. I've been looking into replacing my little and big stopper, and the breakthrough filters seem to be at the top of the list
-Todd

 

[cerett]

I certainly agree with all the good things said about Breakthrough Filters. One additional thing that really impressed me about the company is the passion of Graham Clark, the founder of Breakthrough. He really believes in the quality of his filters and completely stands behind them. I'm glad to see these positive comments.

 

[Tim Ernst]

A friend introduced me recently to this brand and I'm stoked to find that they have some very interesting products, but I'd like to hear your guys' feedback first before I go and order some:

1) Has anyone used the dark polariser? There's a combination of a polariser and 6-stop ND which looks very interesting but not sure about real usage though, it looks like it can only work with live view, am I right?

2) Has any of you used their brass step up rings? How's the build quality and does the edge profile help with grip?

Thanks in advance!

1 - I've been using their dark polarizer since last fall and like it - so much thinner than having to stack so less potential for vignetting. I don't use live view much, but do have to look carefully through the viewfinder to see the polarization (Pentax 645z).

2 - I've also been using one of their step-up rings - got it stuck to one of their polarizers first time I put them together and can't get them apart. So now I have a 77-82 polarizer, ha, ha. The step-up is heavier and thicker than what I normally use, and while I like their filters, I probably won't buy any more of their step-up rings.

(And from another post in this thread - I've been using Xume magnets for years and had mixed success with many of them coming apart, so it will be great if these new ones from Breakthrough are better - terrific concept that makes life so much easier!)

tim ernst in Arkansas

 

[Smoothjazz]

The Breakthrough website is very informative; I highly recommend the video on long-exposure photography- a great must-see resource. I just ordered the 6 stop ND filter to start. I see other people are mentioning a magnet system, but I do not see this on the web site. Is there any info on this I am missing? Thanks.

John

 

[PedroL]

The Breakthrough website is very informative; I highly recommend the video on long-exposure photography- a great must-see resource. I just ordered the 6 stop ND filter to start. I see other people are mentioning a magnet system, but I do not see this on the web site. Is there any info on this I am missing? Thanks.

John

Hi John, yes you are right. The magnet system will be on their web site shortly, as I believe they might be finalizing the pricing.(?)