Another company making filters, but wait Sirui filters have a twist or a pull.
Where will it end? It seems nowadays all major and even boutique photographic companies are dipping their toes into making filters. This time it is Chinese manufacturer Sirui, better known for making Tripods and Tripod heads. Having launched their own range of filters that will cover the needs of most photographers.
It seems that the majorority of manufacturers are using the same type of glass and that is precision ground and polished, German manufactured Schott Plate Glass B270. This is where the difference begins between manufacturers with the glass colouring or dyes used to tint the already proven Schott glass.
So how as a filter company do you make your product different from all the rest?
Pricing is good around 15 -20% cheaper than its competitors, this will make Sirui Filters attractive to those wanting to venture into the filter market and those that want to replace a system. Too cheap and people won't buy, too expensive and people will not purchase as the market is already saturated with filter makers and as Sirui is relatively new to this segment, they have set their pricing structure accordingly.
1. SIRUI Filter Holder kit contians:
* Filter Holder Body (100mm) x 1pc
* Adapter Ring (for 82mm filter onto 67mm camera lens) x 1pc
* Adapter Ring (for 82mm filter onto 72mm camera lens) x 1pc
* Adapter Ring (for 82mm filter onto 77mm camera lens) x 1pc
* Circular Polarizing Filter (82mm) x 1pc, that can be used together with Square Filters.
2. Fits on wide-angle lenses with focal lengths as wide as 16mm or lenses with filter diameters up to 82mm.
3. Aluminum main body makes the Filter Holder lightweight and extremely strong.
4. Strong and flexible Filter Holder can hold Square Filters with thicknesses between 1.7 ~ 2.3mm, and the oversized opening eliminates vignetting.
Square Neutral Density Filters 100x100mm 10 stop - 2mm thickness can be used with Sirui and other brands of 100mm filter holders.
2. Sirui Filter Holder (NDH-001, Spec: 100mm) lets you attach Sirui ND Square Filters onto full-frame camera lenses as wide as 16mm and filter diameters up to 82mm.
3. German manufactured Schott Plate Glass B270 with exclusive lens coating process, allows many ultra-thin layers of coating to be placed on each glass surface to ensure perfectly linear, uniform reduction of light from edge-to edge, maximum light transmission, reduced reflections and precise color rendition.
4. Protection Coating (waterproof, oil-resistant, scratch-resistant, anti-reflective, anti-static) for easy cleaning and superior lens protection.
Rectangular Graduated ND 100x150mm Filter Soft grad 102 .- 2mm thickness can be used with SIRUI and other brands of 100mm filter holders.
2. SIRUI Filter Holder (NDH-001, Spec:100mm) lets you attach SIRUI GND Filters onto full-frame camera lenses as wide as 16mm and filter diameters up to 82mm.
3. Precision ground and polished German manufactured Schott Plate Glass B270 ensures the highest resolution and optical flatness.
4. Exclusive nano lens coating process allows many ultra-thin layers of coating to be placed on each lens surface to insure perfectly linear, uniform reduction of light from edge-to-edge, maximum light transmission, reduced reflections and precise color rendition.
5. Protection Coating (waterproof, oil-resistant, scratch-resistant, anti-reflective, anti-static) for easy cleaning and superior lens protection.
Unboxed and unpacked, the filter holder has unique 2 spring - loaded clips. This will suit left and right handed individuals as it can be locked on to the CPL single handedly. A little addition but very usefull addition. just pull the arrows apart in the direction shown and lock them on the CPL.
Lets get this out and tested in the real world, the location I chose was a sunrise spot with foreground interest and a jetty. I shot a series of images and have one to demonstrate how the image looks straight out of the camera and secondly one image that has been edited. The filter used for the test was the ND1000 10 stop filter.
In the image above, no adjustments have been made and this image was shot on a Nikon D810 with a 16 -35mm F4 Nikon lens at F9 ISO 100 for 93 seconds. Very slight vignetting in the corners at 16mm, very easy to crop in post production.
Above is the same image but this has been edited in Lightroom for demonstration purposes and the same results will be achieved with other software I have increased the exposure slightly to bring more light into the whole image and especially the foreground where it has made the rocks now stand out. Very little editing required to bring the image to life.
Conclusion on initial tests are as follows.
The holder is a great design being able to clip on one handed, although I do recommend until you are confident using two hands.
The pricing structure will be a big winner for most people as the price versus quality ratio is excellent compared to competitor products.
Very little colorcast throughout the image. Slight vignetting at 16 mm.
Useful carrying pouch for the filters and for the CPL and filter holder
Individual soft suedette padded filter cases with filter ID tag on the sleeve of each case for easy selection.
Are they any good? Yes they can match the more expensive filters on the market and so far colour casting has been very easy to rectify. So if you are looking for good quality and excellent pricing, take a look at the Sirui range.
Sirui have a full line up of filters from the 100mm filter holder kits with Neutral density and the 150mm graduated filter range to the Ultra Slim S-Pro Nano MC Circular range that are very competitively priced in the market.
The full Sirui filter range is available now to purchase in store at any of the 2 dedicated stores at Photogear or through their online store.