Heliopan 72mm Variable Gray ND Filter- Heliopan 707290
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Product Feature
- High quality solid brass rings.
- Black anodized rings with stops at both ends of the ND range.
- ND variable from 1 to 6.6 stops.
- Color neutral regardless of ND value.
- Calibrated, repeatable settings.
Product Description
The Heliopan ND filter which is adjustable from 1 to 6.6 stops of ND by simply turning the calibrated rim on the filter. The Heliopan Vario ND filter is totally neutral in color, it is mounted in a black anodized brass ring that is calibrated for ease in repeating a desired density.Heliopan 72mm Variable Gray ND Filter- Heliopan 707290 Review
First and foremost, I actually own a 77mm version not a 72, but since the 77mm version is not on amazon right now I wanted to put up a review since there are none others for any sizes. This is an extremely expensive filter by the renowned Heliopan of Germany, which automatically gives you Schott (Carl Zeiss) glass and brass rings which is a step above most other filter brands and all other variable ND brands. These ND filters are basically just two stacked polarizer filters with one reversed and linear and the other being circular. Because Heliopan polarizer filters are of outstanding quality, this variable ND has very good resolution, and more importantly has no visible color cast which many cheap filters are plagued with. Another nice feature is the marked and calibrated numbers on the side so you can dial it to a specific value with hard stops to prevent you from rotating it past its set maximum.This filter is not perfect though; the polarizer filters result in images having heavy blotches when the filter is dialed up, especially with wider angled lenses. I would even say that the advertised 6.6 stop max is actually unusable, so realistically 5-6 stops is what you can expect as far as getting good images. Another con for this filter is that it is very thick compared to a regular ND filter, and will probably cause vignetting on a lot of lenses, so this may reduce your options of when you can use this. The price is also an obvious thing to consider, as this is extremely expensive and it might not be worth it for most people since you do have to work around a lot of its inherent flaws. On a side note, for a filter that costs over $400 the packaging presentation is abysmal; the plastic case was beat up and scratched badly, and the filter had a lot of powdery residue on it that needed cleaning before I could use it.
Overall I would say it would be unfair to knock Heliopan as they did an outstanding job with this filter, and I doubt that it could be made any better. Also I have heard terrible things about the importer of Heliopan products (HP Marketing) and they may be responsible for it arriving in poor condition. These filters have inherent flaws due to being stacked polarizers, and if you decide to work with/around these flaws, this is without a doubt the best one to buy.
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