Amateur Photographer - UK (2020-12-05)

Andy Westlake investigates a top-quality square- lter

set-up that’s easy to use and delivers superb results

F

or landscape and

cityscape shooters, a

high-quality  lter system

provides signi cant

creative potential. The ability to

manipulate light before it even

enters your lens, through the use

of polarising, neutral-density (ND)

and graduated  lters, is an

extremely powerful tool. There are

plenty such systems available,

but (spoiler alert) Kase’s

Wolverine K9 system must lay

claim to being among the very

best on the market.

Features

So what makes Kase’s system so

good? At this point, I’m tempted

simply to say ‘everything’. The

 rm has clearly paid a great deal

of attention to examining how

photographers use  lters, and

has been perfectly happy to cast

aside conventional wisdom to

make things easier. In the

process, it’s got almost

everything right.

First there’s the holder

itself. On one level, it’s pretty

conventional; it’s made of

aluminium alloy and clamps on to

adapter rings that screw into the

lens, locking in place via a bright

red screw. By default, it’s built

with two 2mm-thick slots, with

the expectation that one will be

used for a neutral density and the

other for a graduated  lter. But

the design is strikingly pared

back to minimise size and weight,

without feeling anything other

than premium in terms of build

quality. A thick felt layer covers

its entire front surface, to prevent

stray light from penetrating past

a neutral-density  lter and

reducing image contrast.

Secondly, there’s the polariser.

Uniquely, this doesn’t screw into

the holder or the adapter ring, but

instead clips magnetically onto

the latter, which makes it

super-quick to install or

Kase Wolverine K9

100mm fi lter system

FILTERS TEST Testbench

At a glance

● 100mm filter holder system

● Lightweight aluminium build

● Polariser mounts magnetically

● Kits from £130 to £745

Kits and pricing

Kase’s basic K9 filter holder kit

includes the polariser, 82mm and

77mm lens adapter rings, and

step-up rings for 72mm and 67mm

threads, for £130. The Entry-Level

Kit adds a 3-stop soft grad, a

6-stop ND and a soft carry case for

£365. The next step up is the

High-End Kit, which gains a 3-stop

reverse grad for £495, while the

top-end Master Kit additionally

includes a 4-stop soft grad and

10-stop ND for £745. A wide range

of graduated and neutral-density

filters is available, at prices from

£137 to £143 each. See

kasefilters.com for full details.

Lightseal

Thefrontsurfaceof the

holderis coveredin thickfelt

to preventstraylightgetting

pasttheNDanddegrading

theimage

Polariser

Thisattaches

magneticallyto thelens

adapterring,andis

adjustedusinga geared

controlwheelonthe

sideof theholder

Screwlock

A redscrewis usedto fix

theholderonto the

adapterringandlockit at

therequiredangle