Needless to say, I’m seriously
impressed by the Kase
Wolverine K9 100mm lter
system. It’s extremely well
designed and works without
any fuss, giving excellent
results with no nasty surprises
along the way. Optically, the
lters are as good as you’ll
nd, and they’re tough, too.
While the system is full
of neat little touches, the
magnetic polariser is probably
the best of these. With other
systems that use rear-mounted
polarisers, they tend to be
awkward to t or remove,
but Kase has solved that
problem at a stroke. It’s also
really easy to adjust from
behind the camera.
While high-end lter systems
are inevitably expensive,
Kase’s is competitively priced
compared to its peers. All of
the various kits make sense,
giving increasing creative
possibilities as the price goes
up. So you can either start
small and add lters as your
budget allows, or jump in
at the deep end with a
comprehensive kit. It may look
like a big
investment,
but you
won’t be
disappointed
with the
results. lter holder with two adapter
rings, two step-up rings, a
polariser, a 3-stop soft grad and
a 6-stop ND. In addition, I used
10-stop and 16-stop ND lters
worth £132 and £140
respectively, giving a total of
£637 of kit. In context, this is
similar to what you’d pay for an
equivalent Formatt Hitech
Firecrest Pro 100mm set-up,
while an out t from LEE Filters
would cost a bit more, mainly due
to its use of a much larger
front-mounted polariser.
What’s most striking when you
use the kit in the eld is how
simple everything becomes. All of
the components t into the carry
case, so you just grab it and take
it with you; with some other
systems you might be digging out
the holder, adapter rings and a
bag of lters separately. When
you get to your location, it all
works in a very uncomplicated
fashion. It’s really easy to pop the
polariser in place when you need
it, and straightforward to remove
it when you don’t; you just have
to remove the holder from the
adapter ring to gain access. The
rectangular NDs don’t need to be
positioned as precisely as square
ones do, so you don’t have to
worry about displacing them
when you’re positioning your
graduated lter.
One thing that Kase hasn’t got
quite right, though, is labelling
the lters. They’re marked at the
bottom, rather than the top, and
in rather small lettering, so it’s
dif cult to check quickly which
is which. I’d make a point of
establishing a speci c order for
loading them into the case, and
probably even add my own labels.
As always when using lters,
there are certain points of
technique to bear in mind to get
best results. It’s pretty much
obligatory to use a tripod and
remote release, and if you’re
using a DSLR, it’s usually easiest
to switch to live view rather than
use the optical view nder.
With the polariser, ND grad and
6-stop ND, chances are your
camera will meter and autofocus
pretty much as normal, but with
the stronger lters, things get
more complicated. They let
through so little light that the
metering system can assume
it’s night-time, at which point
many cameras will reduce
the exposure to match the
presumed perceptual brightness
of the scene. Autofocus may
well fail, too, meaning you should
set and lock the focus before
installing the lter. If you use the
16-stop lter, be aware that it
requires extremely long exposure
times, and that many camerasVerdict
GOLD
will then proceed to take an
equally-long dark frame for
noise-cancellation purposes.
Take all this into account,
though, and the Kase Wolverine
K9 system will reward you with
superb results. The NDs are
strikingly neutral, with even
the 16-stop lter giving no
problematic colour shift. I also
saw no vignetting using lenses
as wide as the Laowa 15mm F2
Zero-D on full frame. Crucially,
using the lters has no signi cant
impact on either image
contrast or resolution.Kase’s Entry-Level
Kit includes the
holder, three
filters, two lens
adapters, two
step-up rings and
a case for £365