The new Sirui Australia Professional Landscape 100mm Filter Kit, RRP $499 AUD
Over the last month, I have been lucky enough to test the new Sirui Professional Landscape 100mm Filter Kit. In the Starter Kit I generously received from Sirui Australia, I received the 100mm filter holder, three adaptor rings (77mm, 72mm and 67mm), a CPL, ND1000 (10 Stop filter), and a Soft GND (4 stop).
What’s in the box and first impressions
The first thing that struck me about the new Sirui filter system was the speed of shipping. Overnight courier straight to my door is a great way to access gear quickly and safely.
Opening the box, I was impressed by the compact nature of the kit. As a landscape photographer who often finds herself off the beaten track, weight is always an issue and room in my bag is at a premium. The Sirui kit is packaged well and fits nicely into my Lowepro backpack for easy access when the light hits just right.
Unlike the filter system that I currently use (and have used for around a decade), the Sirui system has the CPL (circular polarised) filter built into the holder. For a landscape photographer, this is a dream - a CPL will give you deeper, richer colours in your shots - straight out of the camera. It’s perfect for urban and architectural photography, as well as shooting anything with water (especially waterfalls) - the CPL is the best tool to reduce any glare.
Putting the kit to the test
The first shoot with the Sirui kit didn’t quite go to plan! There is a little more setup required with the kit than there is with my current system, and I found myself struggling at 4am in my caffeine-deprived state to get a handle on how everything went together. That’s probably the first good lesson when you buy the kit: spend some time with it well before heading out to location to ensure you are comfortable with how everything pieces together. Being new to Australia, I think there will be a few additions to the Sirui kit that we can look forward to, such as a cap that sits over the CPL so that it can be left on your lens. This will greatly reduce the amount of fiddling around when you are standing on the edge of a cliff in 35km/hr winds!
The Sirui CPL attaches directly to the filter holder - simply screw in and let the magic begin!
Once I had the kit set up - and the first light of day began to hit the location - using the kit was both simple and familiar for me. A Soft GND (graduated neutral density) filter is a go-to for me on every shoot, and the sturdiness of the glass Sirui model was a dream to use. There was no colour cast - an added bonus for every landscape shooter - although using a CPL meant that the colours were a little more saturated out of camera than I was used to. The ND (neutral density) filter is a 10-stop; for the uninitiated, this type of filter reduces the amount of light by 1000x. With less light reaching your camera’s sensor, you can shoot for longer periods of time or with a wider aperture (depending on the effect you are going for in your final image). Like all ND filters, it was important to focus and compose my images with the filter off, but the drop-in system that Sirui use makes that easy: simply pull the filter out, compose and focus, then put the filter back in to shoot away. The Sirui ND1000 leaves a slight blue cast on final images, but it was both easy to remove in post-processing and not as severe as other ND1000 brands that I have used. I am keen to compare the ND1000 with the ND64 (a 6-stop filter) to see if there is any colour cast with this more popular filter for landscape shooters.
The Sirui filter holder
The filter holder is one of my favourite aspects of the new Sirui kit. It is made of high-grade aluminium, which makes it feel both sturdy and lightweight. The side clip makes attaching the holder to your lens a breeze: once you have screwed the adaptor and CPL to the front of your lens, the filter holder simply pops over the top. On my second shoot, I could do it easily with one hand - a necessity when shooting in remote places in the dark! On the other side of the holder is a slider to rotate the CPL. It is a smooth system, and it doesn’t move too quickly, so it is easy to be precise when composing your shot.
Final thoughts
It can be challenging adapting to a new system, but it only took one shoot to get used to the Sirui Professional Landscape Filter Kit. The CPL was a fantastic addition to my overall kit, and the solid nature of the holder was great to use. I look forward to Sirui adding more options to the package, including a filter cap, and am pleased to be a convert!
What does a month with the Sirui Kit look like?
