A few months ago, I saw a Nick Page video about the new Maven color-coded magnetic photo filters and the Kickstarter campaign for them. The review was very positive, so I decided to back the campaign.

Fast forward to the week before last when I received the filter kit and some add-ons.

The filter kit consists of a circular polarizer, 3-stop, 6-stop, and 10-stop ND filters, a “splash guard” protective filter, a lens adapter, a magnetic lens cap, and a plastic case to hold the filters. They also tossed in a soft case.

In addition to those, I added an extra lens adapter, two more magnetic lens caps, one filter back cap (in case I want to stack filters for carrying), and a Night Sky filter, all in 77mm filter size. I also added their “Q” case to hold accessories like the adapter rings and caps. (Maven also sells step up rings in case you have lenses with different filters thread sizes)

First impressions

These magnets are strong! I don’t think I’ll have to worry about the filters easily falling off.

These filters are thin. The filters, by themselves, are thinner than any thin-mount filter I already own. Pairing them with the adapter ring, they are comparable to other thin mount filters. I only own one threaded ND filter that is thinner than the Maven ND filters when combined with the adapter.

I love the color coding. It makes it so much easier to find the filter you want (especially if you need to put reading glasses on to read the teeny, tiny print on a filter). In addition, each type of filter is “touch coded” as well. Each filter has a certain number of grooves: three grooves for the 3-Stop ND, six grooves for the 6-Stop ND, and ten grooves for the 10-Stop. And if you do wish to read the printing on the ND filters, the filter strength is written in stops, not ND and not x factors. So the 6-stop filter states 6StopND rather than ND 1.8 or 64x. About time someone did this.

The polarizing filter is grooved all the way around and the splash guard also had grooves (much wider) going all the way around.

And the filters feel well-built.

Using a lens hood with Maven filters

I use a lens hood on all my lens nearly all the time. It protects the front lens element from falling rain and accidental bumps into a rocks or something. Mainly I use them to help prevent lens flare.

I found that on some of my lenses, the lens hoods fit just fine with the polarizer or nd filter attached. But for others, the lens hood either won’t fit over an attached filter, or it barely does (the hoods fit easily over the adapter ring). For one of those lenses, I will need to place the lens hood on before adding the filter, or not use the lens hood at all. For the other, I can attach the hood with a little difficulty.

The danger is that I’m used to quickly removing a lens hood, adjusting the polarizer, and then putting the lens hood back on. If I try that with a hood that doesn’t initially fit, I’ll accidentally knock the filter off the lens. Even with those lenses where the lens hood fits over the attached filter, I stand a chance of knocking the filter off when removing the lens hood, especially if I go too fast and pull the lens hood off at an angle rather than straight off.

In fact, when first testing all this out in the comfort of my home office, I removed a lens hood and the filter was indeed pulled off the adapter. But the magnet is so strong that instead of falling off the adapter, it reattached itself with no harm done. I’m not going to count on this happening every time.

So I’ll just need to adapt my way of working in the field.

And to be practical about it all, I usually need to get an extra hand out in front of some lenses to add shading anyway, so the lens hood becomes superfluous at that point. And for lens/filter protection while walking with the lens on the camera, I’ve got several of the Maven magnetic lens caps.

It is my understanding that Maven is also developing lens hoods to use with their filters.

Vignetting

Nearly all filters I’ve ever owned have caused a vignette at the widest setting of my wide angle zooms. I think the only filter I have that does not vignette on my Nikon 16-35mm at any focal length is a 10-Stop ND thin mount made by Haida.

So it came as no surprise that the Maven filters will cause a slight vignette on that lens between 16mm and about 20mm. And about out to 22 or 24mm if I stack two filters. (Curiously, I see more vignetting in the viewfinder of my Nikon D810 DSLR than I do in the viewfinder of my Z6, which shows little to no vignette.)

If I don’t use a small aperture opening (f/16 – f/22) then the vignette is rather soft edged. At f/22, it will be a hard edge. But it’s usually only noticeable when the sky is included, and it’s easy to remedy using content aware fill feature in Photoshop or the Spot Healing brush in Lightroom. Basically, I’m working within the same limitations I always have been when it comes to filters causing a vignette on wide angel lenses.

Side note: one way to get past this is to use larger filters on a step up ring. I’d rather save the money and save the hassle, not to mention having to give up on using any lens hoods.

Pricing

I got my filters as part of a Kickstarter program, so they were already less than what the eventual retail price would be.

Comparing the Maven retail price to a Kase magnetic filter set, the prices are comparable. The Maven includes a “splash guard” filter that the Kase set does not. And from what I’ve read and heard, the Maven magnets are stronger than the Kase magnets. Plus, the Maven magnetic photo filters are color and touch coded. I can’t emphasize enough how much I like this feature!

In the field

Ahh…that testing is still to come. I’ve not been able to get out to our local waterfall yet to give these filters a go. I’ll update when I do.