- We've talked about ND filters before,
and how they're a critically important piece of gear
for keeping consistent production value in your videos.
And I love helping people figure out
how to make better videos,
but part of that really is navigating the world of gear,
and how expensive it can be.
And sometimes something comes along
and it seems like,
this is the thing you have to have,
to make good videos.
Is that true or is that not true?
That's pretty much what we're gonna talk about today.
So ND filters give you more control
over the look of your projects,
and they make certain styles possible,
that would otherwise be impossible.
This is the PolarPro
Peter McKinnon Edition Variable ND Filter,
and this is not a sponsored video in any way.
In fact, most of the reviews of this filter
came out months ago and I was curious to find out
for myself whether or not this filter is worth the price
'cause it is a little bit expensive
and they make quite a few pretty big claims about it.
So, just to spoil the rest of this video...
Yes, this filter is absolutely the best ND
I've ever used.
It's actually kind of insane,
how good this filter is.
So, that's the video...
But (laughs) no...
No.
Here's why I think that:
up until now I've been using a pretty inexpensive ND filter
from a brand called Zomei, that I've found on Amazon.
And, I got this filter a long time ago
so I kinda forgot how much I spent on it.
The Peter McKinnon Filter usually sells
for about 250 dollars
and comes in a 3-5 Stop version
and a 6-9 Stop version that you can get them
both in a pack, for about 450 dollars.
I forgot how much I paid for my filter,
and when I looked it up
I realized it usually sells for about 30 dollars,
So...
It's a pretty big difference,
between (laughs) 250 and 30 dollars,
but I think that's a realistic comparison
because I got this filter when I didn't have any ND filters
and I just wanted one
so that I could use wider apertures,
and slower shutter speeds outside.
And I didn't have a ton of budget.
I even didn't know if ND was going to be worth it
so I just kind of went with a decent reviewed one
that was inexpensive.
Now, for that price the Peter McKinnon Filter
comes in this like incredible packaging,
it's huge and beautiful,
and there's images all over it,
it comes in this magnetic case
with Peter's signature on it,
and it's actually really satisfying
cause it's held together really strongly with magnets
and the filter fits right in here perfectly
and then it closes
and real... Everything is really satisfying about this
it even comes with this PolarPro Slim Defender
so when the filter is mounted on your lens
you've got this hard lens cap to protect it
and everything just fits in here
and it's just so nice this...
(taps the case)
This is actually made out of metal or aluminum,
or, I guess aluminum is metal,
so it, it's a whole thing,
just for the price you get a whole thing.
My filter came in plastic...
But realistically,
it's not about the unboxing of the packaging,
that's something that lasts a few minutes,
Using the filters hopefully as tools
is something you're gonna do for years and years,
if they're decent.
So, let's look at the difference between these two filters.
The Peter McKinnon Filter is made
from PolarPro's Quartz material
that they use on some of their other NDs.
Now, I have had a few of the Non Variable,
PolarPro QuartzLine Filters, for about a year and a half,
and these things really are amazing.
The Quartz on them is this super strong material
that is shockingly resistant to scratches
and fingerprints and moisture.
If you've ever used a filter,
in like rain or wet weather,
you'll kind of know what a nightmare it can be
and the reason that I don't use these
for a video is just that I've found
using Non Variable NDs can be really tough for video.
They're just stuck at whatever they are.
Like this one right here is a ND8,
so it's just ND8 no matter what,
and when you're doing video that's tough,
because your situation can change pretty often,
and a fixed filter loses the versatility
for photography it's terrific, but for video,
I really do recommend a Variable ND.
And as much as I love good, inexpensive gear,
there is something that seems a little bit futile
about spending all this money on a really nice camera,
and a really nice lens and you just put
this cheap piece of glass in front of it.
That's where the Peter McKinnon Filter steps in,
and maintains that really high quality level of glass
and material that's gonna do justice to the expensive lens,
on the expensive camera that you're using.
So really though, what is the difference
between these two filters?
To break it down a little more simply,
when comparing an inexpensive filter
to an expensive filter,
here's what I've learned:
the expensive Peter McKinnon Filter
is just much tougher,
it maintains your image quality,
it doesn't produce that cross polarization pattern,
sometimes when you're using an ND filter,
especially if it's a cheaper one,
you'll get this X pattern,
'cause you've basically have two pieces of glass,
that are moving within the filter,
and when they cross at a certain angle,
it puts this dark X across your image.
It happened all the time
when I was using this filter in Iceland last summer
and it actually kinda ruined a lot of photos,
and a lot of video.
But the Peter McKinnon Filter doesn't do that at all.
If you look on the side of the filter,
it actually has the stops just written on it.
And the filter has a hard stop
that's not gonna let you go beyond that,
which basically means it prevents you
from having those pieces of glass cross
in a way that's going to give you
that cross polarization pattern,
whereas on my cheaper filter it does have stops,
but there is so much more movement between them,
that it, it gives you that effect.
Now the cheaper filter, it gets the job done, like I said,
I have been using it for like
a year and a half or two years.
A bigger thing about this filter is that
it does scratch and smudge easily
if it's rainy or wet, you're just kinda totally out of luck,
fingerprints, moisture, scratches.
It's just not really as durable and even
just holding them in your hand,
they don't, they feel entirely different.
But that doesn't mean the cheap filter is not worth it,
I would 100% recommend this cheap filter over no filter
because at its very core,
using an ND filter opens up a lot of creative options,
that you wouldn't have otherwise.
So I think that makes it worth it.
And aside from just being made out of nice materials,
the McKinnon Filter does have a few other things
that I have found enjoyable
as I've been using it out and about.
The ring feels really good.
When I first took this out of the box,
it was kind of rough, but as I used it
for you know part of the day,
that quickly wore in.
And now it's just so smooth and easy to use,
it also has a really grippy ring on the side
to put it on and off off your lens.
When I put my filter on my lens
sometimes I actually have trouble taking it off
because it's just sort of gets there
and if your hands are sweaty or wet,
or it's just on really tight,
it can kinda be hard to get off, off the lens,
whereas this one has this really nice little grippy ring
that sticks out and it's so easy
to just grab onto it, twist it,
add it, take it off your lens anytime.
So it's clearly a well thought out,
really well made tool.
And I'm borrowing this filter which is a 2-5 Stop version,
I'd love to get my own one day.
But when I do it,
I think I'm gonna go for the 6-9 Stop version,
since I'm weird and crazy and I love
filming at a wide open aperture,
like 1.4, pretty much whenever possible.
This one sometimes I have it cranked
all the way to 5 Stops of ND
and it still not quite dark enough
and I have to bump up the aperture
to like 2.8 or 3.2 to use it
and I'd really love to be able to get down to 1.4.
But in the end I've been wanting to play around
with this Peter McKinnon Variable ND Filter for a while
and I wanted to spend some time with it
and see if it lived up to that hype.
And I'm really happy to say that it totally did.
I'm shocked at how great this filter is.
It is expensive but in the world of camera gear,
and filters, and lenses,
it's actually a fairly reasonable price,
if you're able to make that investment,
and like I said the QuartzLine Non Variable NDs
are really some of the best filters I've ever used.
I actually made a video last summer about them
when I was on that incredible trip
to Iceland and Switzerland.
So if you want to learn more about these filters,
and why ND filters are an important thing to use,
check out that video and I'll show you
how these can really help save your footage.