You know what I love about you guys?
You never just let me make one video
on a topic. You always have suggestions
for a follow-up video, or six. For instance,
one of the most frequent requests, after the variable
ND round-up video, was what solid ND filter I was using
for comparison, as well as requests for the SIMMOD filters,
and what I think about the Haida system.
Well today we're going to tackle two of those three topics.
Let's get Undone.
[offbeat music]
♪ Gerald Undone ♪
♪ He's crazy ♪
What's happening everybody? I'm Gerald Undone,
and this episode was sponsored
by my hero, my longtime friend,
and my personal shoulder to cry on, Reba McEntire.
So, a fun coincidence occurred with those filter requests,
the solid ND filter that I was using
for comparison in the variable ND round-up
was actually from Haida, because I've been testing
the M10 system for a little while now.
So, for those of you that don't know anything about it
I'll give you an explanation and a demo, and for those
of you that requested my opinion on it,
well, I'll give you that too. The M10 is a filter
holder system similar to others that you might have seen
but it does have a couple clever features.
The first is that this is a drop-in filter system.
It's not only about the 100mm filters that go in the front
because Haida actually make some pretty great
circular filters as well. For instance, the fixed ND
that I used in that comparison as the control
was this Haida three stop drop-in ND filter.
[repeated clicking]
And I've been pleasantly surprised with the quality
of these Haida filters, because I wasn't exactly sure
what I was going to get when I was testing this M10 kit
because the information is kind of limited on them.
This ND filter, for example, comes in just
a simple white box with no specs,
no information on it other than the power
of the filter, and no manual.
I don't even know what it's made out of,
but it's very light, very easy to clean
and when I dropped it in I was impressed
by its rendition and sharpness. Now the M10 system
comes in a few different kits if you want different
filters bundled with it, but the base kit for the holder
doesn't actually come with this fixed ND but instead
comes with a circular polarizer, which is also quite good
and has a convenient dial on the top for adjusting
the polarization angle. It too is very light.
In fact, this whole kit is surprisingly light,
especially when compared to something like the Wine Country.
The kit will come with whatever step-up ring
you choose to be paired with it,
but you can order more adapter rings separately,
and then those just screw onto your lens,
and then there's a lever on the side here that you pull and
then you can just take the whole filter system off like that.
Now this is a smart system and I like it because
it makes it easy to quickly remove the filters
once you get the hang of it. And I say that
because there is a bit of a learning curve.
It works by just having this little
notch that goes into the groove along the side
of the ring, but when I first started using it, I was never
quite sure if it was on all the way or how much
pressure I was supposed to apply in order to put it off and on.
It's actually quite easy to do once you get the hang of it,
but it will take a little bit of practice. On the front of
the filter holder are slots for two 2mm insert filters.
And then in the package, there's also mounts
and screws for a third.
I found upon first use that the filters
were a bit stiff to slide in and try and get them
into the specific position you want;
they'd kind of jump around a little bit,
but after a few hours of use
they've kind of broken in now
and they slide quite a bit more smoothly.
This is one area that's a little bit lacking though because
there's not really any buttons or safety clips
to control the movement or prevent the filters
from falling out the bottom, like you would find on, say,
the Wine Country system, but I suppose it's a bit
of a trade-off for keeping it smaller and lighter
and I'm not real-- I haven't really been afraid that
my filters were going to fall out the bottom
even though they can because it is stiff enough to hold them
in place, but just something to be aware of. The insert filter
that I've been testing is their medium grad ND
which goes from 1.2 stops to about four stops throughout
the gradient, and it's from the Red Diamond Series, which,
again, is really high quality. And it's with these grad NDs
that the filter holder systems like this really start to shine,
because the issue with typical circular screw on grad NDs
is that you don't actually-- you're not able to set
the horizontal position that you want
or where you want the framing to be relative to the density.
Basically, you just have to kind of like mid-frame
the horizon all the time, but often you might want to put
the horizon line on the first third or the second third
and so the advantage with these slidable ones
obviously is that you can choose where you want
the gradient to fall and the density of it,
so how dark you want your sky or whatever it is you're shooting,
but also where in the frame, you want your horizon line to be
and you have the flexibility with that which is great.
And then you also have the ability to rotate
and position them on funky angles in case
maybe you were, say, following a river which went on a bit of
a slope at the end of the frame where you can position
it that way and you can also use the filter upside down
as a bit of a reverse grad if you were shooting a scene
where the foreground was brighter or more reflective
and it's very easy also to switch into portrait mode.
Now those advantages are somewhat common
when it comes to filter holders.
I mean, that's the main reason why you would go through
the trouble of mounting this on the front of your camera.
But what the Haida gets right is when it comes to stacking.
Typically in most holder systems the filter
that would be on the inside would be a circular polarizer
and then you would put your grad ND in front.
But if you wanted to make the whole scene darker,
then the reason why there's two grooves is your first groove
would be for a solid ND, and then you would put
the grad ND insert filter in front of that.
But with the Haida, it's actually more economical
in a way because you can take out
the circular polarizer and put in a fixed ND
drop-in filter if you want and then you only need to add
just the grad ND insert filter, and as you can probably imagine,
the drop-in filters are significantly cheaper generally
than large 100mm insert filters would be.
That being said though, you can actually get from Haida
their solid ND insert filters.
From two stops up to 15 stops for about $169.
So, more expensive but not crazy expensive
Now I've got some sample images here to give you an idea of what
you can do with the different combinations of filters.
So, this first shot here is a shot
with no filters on. Oh, by the way, something else
that I really like about the Haida system that I forgot
to tell you is that if you want to shoot with no filters--
let's take out the grad ND and then take out the fixed ND.
Then they give you this empty drop in filter.
There's nothing in it and you can pop it in here
and then the advantage is that the light leakage
that would typically come on the sides is now stopped
so you're not going to lose any light intensity,
it seals it up for you.
Thought that was a clever inclusion and I appreciated it.
Anyway, so here's that shot with no filters
and then here it is now with the drop in solid ND.
Nothing spectacular, just darker, but the quality
and clarity is there. But now here it is
with the circular polarizer dropped in
and dialed in to a setting that I liked
and the grad ND insert filter slid to a position that I liked.
we get a great combination of effects here.
The sky is darkened, but we still keep the saturation
in the trees and the reflections on the water
are better controlled. And despite stacking filters
we're not actually losing any detail
If anything our detail is increased because the trees
aren't encased in a hazy overexposed bloom.
Now in order to create this look using typical screw-on filters,
you'd have to stack them, which would lead
to more vignetting, but you'll notice in this image
using the Haida system that there is almost
no vignetting, even in the extreme corners.
Here's a couple more examples of the same effect.
The greens stay vibrant but the sky is reeled in.
And then this sample here
is to give you an idea of the angles you can pull off
but also how much the grad can change the image.
Look at how blue the sky is on the left and how blown out
it is on the right. But this technique allows you to maintain
the exposure on the tree to maximize its detail.
Lastly, if you want to go bananas and use a polarizer
and a solid ND and a grad ND on a funky angle
you can take long exposure photos of moving water,
but also control the intensity
of the reflections on the moving water.
For a fun, almost abstract image.
This one also lets you see what your maximum expected flare
should be when using the filters that I tested because this was
a pretty flare heavy configuration and angle
and yet it managed to control it quite well.
When I took the filters off for that same shot, it looked
like the Bifrost from Thor was streaming across the lens.
Packaging and accessories are good.
The holder comes in a nice leather case
and the build quality is quite nice as well.
The holder is made out of aluminum.
So, like I said earlier it manages
a nice balance between lightweight but durable
and I also like the lens range that's available.
You can adapt all the way down to 37mm
and then up to 82mm. I don't know why I'm holding
this one up, it's a 58mm, but you get the point.
Pretty much all the lenses
I can imagine you would have you can
get adapter rings for this filter. So, that's pretty great.
Overall, I really like the system.
I think it'll be my go-to now
for any landscape shots that I'm doing
but if we take a quick note to compare it for value,
I would say that anything that comes in
at its price point,
the Haida wins. I like the system better
than the Lee system and some of the other ones
that I tested, and it's definitely better
than the discount systems that you would get.
So, the only real comparison I would say something maybe
a little bit more higher end, like to the Wine Country,
but it comes in a little bit more affordable and it's
significantly smaller and more compact than the Wine Country.
If you get just the holder system from Haida, it's $195
for the circular polarizer and, you know, one adapter ring
of your choice and the drop-in filter and all that stuff.
But if you get the same thing from Wine Country
with a circular polarizer included, it's like $449.
So, definitely significantly cheaper there.
Now the majority of your money is going to be spent on filters
more so than the holder and, like we talked about, the Haida
filters aren't cheap, but I would say that they're on par
with something like Wine Country and the quality is really great.
It's probably more economical though to buy, like filter kits.
So, if we look at the Enthusiast Kit, for instance, from Haida,
its, I think, $600 and that comes with
pretty much everything we talked about here.
You got a solid ND, you get the circular polarizer
you get a grad ND, and obviously the holder system itself,
and all the cases and that kind of thing.
And that's about $600.
Now the equivalent kit
from Wine Country, I think, is about $800.
So, you save a little bit of money and in my opinion,
you know, for the smaller, lighter size,
save a few dollars,
I would probably go for the Haida system overall,
even though I do like a couple of the features
on the Wine Country, but mainly because I don't have
any issues with the quality of the Haida filters at all.
The Wine Country might have had a little bit of better execution
when it came to the buttons and the controls
but the Haida filters have no colour cast,
they're easy to clean, and this whole drop-in idea
is that you can stack your NDs in a different way
than you'd be able to with the Wine Country
is a really smart idea.
And as you saw when I compared this
to the variable NDs, there's basically
no lost quality overshooting unfiltered.
So, if you're into shooting landscapes, and you've been
looking to get into some of the larger 100mm filters,
I highly recommend that you check out the Haida M10 system.
Overall, I give it four and a half
abstract river sunsets out of five.
But that's gonna be it for me. I hope you found this video
helpful or at least entertaining and if you did,
make sure you leave it the old thumbs up
and consider subscribing if you haven't already.
But if you did not find this video helpful or entertaining,
feel free to hit the dislike button twice.
Alright... I'm done.