Can this new hack for variable neutral density filters expand their usability in landscape photography and long exposure?
A couple of months ago, we reviewed the H&Y Revoring VND+CPL in terms of how this new kind of mounting mechanism can be cost-efficient. In testing it, many limitations are generally found in most if not all variable ND filters applied to it. While the filter has good glass that is shock- and moisture-resistant and has good color performance, the biggest limitation is the appearance of cross-polarization or the “x artifact” when shooting with wider lenses and using it at six stops and beyond. This imposed a limit on doing long exposures with wider lenses, which, in general, made it less usable for landscape photography, just like most other VND filters.
H&Y then came up with a solution to get past this. While the limitations of the VND still apply in the sense that you cannot go beyond 6 stops on a wide lens, H&Y made magnetic clip-on ND filters with 2, 3, 4, and 8.5-stop variants. This allows the user to combine the effect of the two filters to achieve more stops without getting cross-polarization. Alongside this, H&Y also released a new Revoring with a bare CPL on it. This video was shot with the CPL filter on the video camera, and demo shots were done with the variable ND in combination with the clip-on filters.
