Cinema ND filters are an absolutely vital part of our cinematography now as we all know and as equipment continues to improve then so too should ND filters
The Formatt Hitech Firecrest Ultra filters cinema ND filters are constantly being improved upon and right now we are on version three of their Ultra filter range. So even that amazing Ultra filter you bought two or three years ago now has already been improved on and possibly even twice since then. Yes not many people know that but they keep improving their range.It’s one of the reasons I love their products they just don’t produce a good filter and wait for people to buy them they keep pushing the envelope and stretching the boundaries of what’s possible with a filter which in turn helps us create the best content we can.
So why buy Formatt Hitech Ultra cinema ND filters?
That might seem like a hard question to answer but once you know exactly how these filters are made then I think you will agree it’s easy to see why you should buy them.
Now before anyone says a filter is JUST a filter after-all
To understand filters there are two things we need to really look at when we talk about filters firstly and they are…
Colour Neutrality
Colour neutrality on the Ultra range of filters is simply amazing, the best compliment you can ever make to a filter is when you look at two sets of footage afterwards and you simply can’t see an difference in colour neutrality in the footage shot both with and without ND filters in place (other than the shutterspeed or Aperture of course). Of course any glass element introduces an absolutely minute colour tint and yes I mean minute in the same way as different lenses give slightly different colour characteristics
Optical performance
Now again this might a bit of a strange one as most people think glass is glass, well it’s not that simple and these filters are made of optical grade schott glass and crazily they are made of two pieces of glass, yes you read that right there are actually two pieces of glass bonded together with the ND coating sandwiched in between the two plates (I am going to get back to that again further on in the post). Now this already makes these filters really good and while most companies
Every little tiny hump and hollow that other filters are sold with as normal have now been smoothed
They don’t just copy other brands they innovated, they improve and they do it all quietly without massive advertising budgets instead they pour the money back into the products.
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I should also add I get a slight commission for any sales made with my discount code but this commission helps me write posts like this and it doesn’t cost you anything in fact you save 10% by it so it truly is a win win for everyone. There is one last aspect of these Ultra Cinema ND filters I want to talk about before you go…
Durability
We all know filters aren’t cheap but also how absolutely vital they are when filming so the last thing you want to do is scratch or damage your filters coating on a shoot.
This is where the Ultra filters really come into their own as they are made in an incredibly unique way and are the only bonded filters currently available with a rare earth metal coating that is in between two sheets of hardened glass. This means the coating is impossibly to scratch as it is protected by glass on both sides unlike the cheaper coated cinema filters that can have their coating easily scratched and before you say some filters have a scratch resistant coating on them then I will simply say I honestly wouldn’t like to test that one out as I have seen numerous filter coatings get scratched over the years
The other slight advantage of having the bonded filter construction is that they are slightly more drop-proof than regular filters as a result of their construction. Now I wouldn’t like to test that one too often either and would never recommend
Some more Formatt Hitech filter reviews you might be interested in….
Formatt Hitech Black Supermist Diffusion filter review here.
Formatt Hitech soft silver diffusion filter review here
Formatt Hitech Soft Gold Diffusion filter review here.
Formatt Hitech Firecrest Ultra Cine superslim filters review here.
SmallRig Lightweight Matte box versus the Tilta Mini Matte box here.
Or my DJIRS2 review here with the pro combo kit also.
Check out my Topaz Video Enhance AI Review here.
Thank you for taking the time to read my thoughts on Cinema ND filters and why I believe the Ultra filters are the best cinema filters out there. If you have any questions then please do feel free to reach out to me and ask, I am only too happy to answer any questions you may have.
See you out there,
Kieran.