this is the freewell variable magnetic nd filter system something they're just
launching on indiegogo there's a link in the description if you're interested
in checking it out but basically the idea of this is that you can magnetically swap
several different variable nds several circular polarized filters and a mist filter if you want
or a missed variable nd and basically by swapping combining flipping them around you get a whole
lot of options built into one somewhat some small compact package and by the way freewell did send
this to me for free but they're not paying for this review they don't get input on this video
they don't get to see it before it's launched or anything like that so this is my opinion about
these i like freewell products quite a bit i buy quite a bit of them and they send me some as well
first let's go over what's in and what you get with this first there's the case which is a
pretty nice filter case actually there's a quite a bit of pouches inside different things you can
put in there and then you get the system now i went for a 72 millimeter filter thread size
but most of my lenses are 67 so i am using an adapter ring here but uh yeah you get whatever
you need to if they don't sell your particular size you'll just have to get an adapter ring and
not a big deal so then there's also this the new magnetic lens cap which is pretty cool it's glass
in the center and freewell the freewell word is clear after that is a six to nine variable
nd depending on how it's installed now if you flip it around and i'll show you how to do that
in a minute it's also an nd32 circular polarized filter which can be very useful for photography
or working with things around water like this after that is the two to five stop variable nd
and if you flip that around it's a circular polarized filter as well but not a nd 32 or
nd 16 or anything it's just circular polarized if you flip it around and then we come to the
base which is the part of this system that makes everything work so this base is magnetic and will
work with freewell's other magnetic filters so if you have them you can use it use them with
this provided you have the right sizes for this particular system and this is the vmd base now the
vmd base is one stop of light reduction by itself but then when you combine it with the two to five
stop or the six to nine stop you get whatever those particular uh stops are of reduction
and the way it works is pretty simple you line it up the free wall symbol the free well symbol
and it snaps into place and then on top of that you place whichever variable nd filter you want to
place but there is a way you need to put these together correctly in order for them to work
right and for the magnets and everything to work properly and the way free will has done this is
they have put an a and an a so if you line up the a's it will snap in and then you have a two
to five stop and that gives you the most amount of magnetic now if you don't line it up correctly
it it will store the stick but it won't be very strong so if you're in doubt turn it you
should hear it kind of click in and then you should have your variable nd with hard stops
as you're turning it and that's the way it works with all of the filters all the things you
you put on this on the outside now if you're just putting something on the inside you can line it
up with this here just like this so you see the freewell symbol the freewell symbol it lines up
kind of snaps into place nice and flush and it's ready to go depending on which way these are
facing they do different things so if you have the nvnd base or the vnd mist base in here that's part
of what you need to use to make the variable nd filter work because variable nds are essentially
two polarizing filters working against each other to limit the amount of light coming in and then
the way to tell what you're using is whatever the writing is on the outside or facing away from your
camera that you can see is what you're using at the moment so this is the two to five stop you can
see here as i hold this in my hand and turn it it gets darker and i go the other way it gets lighter
does have hard stops turns easily feels nice and the same thing with the six to nine stop filter
but freewell didn't stop there they also made it because this is a circular polarized filter that
if you take the vnd base out of the magnetic ring and you put this on the other way where it says
cpl circular polarized on the outside same thing it locks in nice and tight and then as you turn it
it will polarize the light that's coming into the camera that's really useful for dealing with
reflections off of water especially or if you want more saturation or maybe a little less saturation
in blues and greens specifically because it deals with how the sunlight is reflected off of those
materials so as you can see here it makes a huge difference on the surface of the water how much
shine or reflection is on water it works the same with glass if you're trying to film through glass
a circular polarized filter will help cut the reflections off the glass a tremendous amount
and the nice thing is you have it all built into this single filter system here that you can just
use anyway now in use these filters work really well they work much like my other vnd filters
the hard stops works great i have always noticed that especially on wider lenses like 16 17
millimeters if you go to the extreme of the filter right before it gets to the dreaded x pattern if
you don't have hard stops as you will notice maybe some vignetting on the outsides it's no different
with any other filters i've used the only way to really overcome that is to get a much larger
filter than what your lens requires in order to keep the image that you're getting into your lens
just in the center of the filter which is the furthest away from the edges which is where the
x pattern starts and it always hits right at the very hard top edges of the variable nd filter but
all in all performance wise these filters perform very very well now there is one more filter that
is a very specific use case scenario i don't really have a use for it that much but i could see
certain areas where you might and that's the mist filter and the variable mist nd filter and just
like the variable nd you have a base that you swap out with this and the same thing you line up the
freewell symbol it snaps right into place just like that and so now you have the same one stop
of light but also with a fairly heavy highlighting effect or blooming of the highlights now that can
be useful in certain situations this feels pretty heavy for me and for what i use i like to stay
about an eighth or so if i'm going to use one but i could see where this could be useful in
certain scenarios especially if you want to set a certain mood with what you're filming depending
on if you're doing short films or something like that if you want to set a mood like you're
filming memories of olden days or days gone by this would certainly give an effect
and set your footage apart from anything else you filmed it does really soften the footage
and so whether or not that's something you would use is really up to you for me i wouldn't use it
that much it's just a little too strong but you know depending on the use case scenario it might
be something that you find very useful overall i found the image quality of these to be really
really good not a lot of color shift not a lot of image degradation degradation i can say that
word uh and really really produces some nice nice stuff it's built with free wells coatings which
are really scratch resistant and handle a lot of abuse i can say because i've had other filters of
theirs for years now that have taken daily abuse and they're still standing up and holding up great
no scratches no chips no dings or anything like that one thing to note though is that if you're
using the circular polarized side instead of the nd filter side the variable nd filter side
is because this is magnetic it won't stick on the proper way it'll push away so you have to
flip the lens cap around if you want to put the lens cap on the uh the circular polarizer side it
still works as a lens cap it's just not as secure and as tight because it doesn't have the lip ring
around the front side now there are a few places that i wouldn't recommend using this and that's
if you're filming stuff from moving vehicles in high vibration settings anything that's
going to be jolting and jarring your camera a lot because these are magnets and they're they only
have a certain amount of strength but for things like street photography or things where you're
not really pushing your physical limits a little bit by you know jumping it out of an airplane or
flying 100 miles an hour and filming out a window these filters would work really well
and essentially you only have to carry these with you to be able to use a lot of different
functionality and a lot of different options when it comes to your filter system now if you
want to see other accessories that i think are essential for people who do what i do which is
explore create by yourself solo creator then click or tap right here i put together a short playlist
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wednesday nights 4 p.m alaska time 8 pm eastern i will see you again soon in the next video cheers