Hi-ho...

Just a quick video of some test of the cheap plastic filters from phantomfilters.com



For those who don't want to watch the video:  Work OK, good value for money, but not the best filters you can get..

Good if you want to try out filters to see what difference they make, or you're on a budget.

Cheers, Chris H.

Thanks for the review.
The flare is a bit disappointing, but maybe expected.

Can you reupload or fix the editing of your video? It's kind of hard to see the smoothing effect since there are stuttering in the video.

Did you do any comparison on diffusion? (i.e. contrast reduction, or bleeding from bright areas, making black areas grey)

I thought the idea of ND filters for video was to set up strength/stop of filters based on EV and set shutter speed, while leaving in manual mode.. would explain some of what you are seeing, I think

Inspector_Tim Posted at 2015-8-1 22:24
I thought the idea of ND filters for video was to set up strength/stop of filters based on EV and se ...

Hi-ho....

Yup, you're right that in theory I should use manual mode, set off average EV for the shoot...  I just wanted to quickly show the shift in shutter speed & flare / contrast.

I don't do a lot of video work myself, as I'm a still guy, so to speak, but I know most of the theory, just lazy putting it into practice.

I also figured that most people only wanting to invest $24USD in a set of filters are more interested in just slapping them on and pushing go. :-)  Now that I've tried them I'll probably get a better ND filter as it happens, that reflection/flare is annoying!

aek Posted at 2015-8-1 20:51
Thanks for the review.
The flare is a bit disappointing, but maybe expected.

Hi....

Unfortunately I think Youtube compression is where the stutter is coming from... The file I uploaded looks fine viewing locally on the mac.  I'll have a play with some short clips and see if I can improve it by using a different codec for the upload.  I used the recommended settings in iMovie but it's a bit poos to be honest now that I watch it on youtube...

I did some quick comparisons of stills, and yes there is some diffusion, but not as bad as you'd expect for a plastic filter.  There is a bit of Chromatic Aberration introduced mid-frame by the ND16 as well, noticeable around small pin-points of light.

Could be newton rings too if the filter touches the glass.

aek Posted at 2015-8-2 08:40
Could be newton rings too if the filter touches the glass.

Ay....

I'd not thought about what it would be, going for generic 'flare'. It moves around depending on sun angle so suspect it's some sort of reflection issue, possibly reflection in the plastic -> glass gap, or as you say where the plastic touches down although I removed the ND16 between the first and last shots with that in so I'd expect the point of touch to change but the effect was pretty consistent?

I use Gel filters in clamps occasionally for my dSLR and get some similar effects when stacking those..  Just part of the game using cheap(er) filter materials I figure..