Chris S.
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 p.3 #18 · Fotodiox 14-24 hood filter. | |
Sorry for the delay! It’s been busy. So I'm knocking out a response; I apologize that it's long--I don't have time to write a short one.  And I still have not tested this setup optically, other than to confirm that it does not vignette on a full-frame D700 at 14mm.
The delay in reviewing has been entirely my fault. I wrote Fotodiox last Monday morning, and Kelvin Luo, the company’s owner, called me that very day. It was a lengthy, constructive and interesting conversation. Kelvin addressed my issues directly and candidly, and the flavor was more like talking with a very competent colleague than with a vendor—my impression was enormously positive. Fotodiox seems very receptive to user feedback and recommendations, and dedicated to solving the problems of photographers and filmmakers. While Fotodiox, like any company, needs to make a profit on the items it sells, its philosophy is by no means universal: They would rather price things for a moderate profit and sell many copies, rather than price a huge markup gained across few copies. This is an approach I admire.
A few quick things:
The polarizing filter is not multi coated. Kelvin said he tried to source multi-coated glass, and found it prohibitively expensive ($300 glass cost to him). One thing I’ll be looking for when I test is how much this appears to matter.
Fotodiox will be introducing split neutral density filters to work with this lens hood system. They will be rectangular and positionable, via a holder that will mount on the hood.
On the whole, the assemblage strikes me as very solid and well-balanced. It seems to offer additional, and very welcome, protection to this lens. I don’t see myself taking the hood off my lens often, if ever. Nikon should have made an item like this—I find it surprising that they left it for the aftermarket. My concerns are in some of the details.
My first concern is rather picayune: The anodizing shows small but noticeable imperfections. These won’t affect performance, but if I were selling my copy used, I’d want to disclose them to potential buyers, and provide close-up photographs so that nobody would be disappointed. I was a bit chagrined to find them on new items. That said, these are tools, not jewelry.
Less trivially, the threads are not easy to work with. When I first attached the hood, the threads that clamped it on didn’t easily grab—they seemed a bit too fine and perhaps a bit burred. However, after a few tries, I did get the items threaded and after working them back and forth a bit, they got somewhat smoother—but not completely smooth. This is not a big concern, because, as I say, I’ll likely leave the hood on full time. Hood on lens, and lens on camera, the rig fits in the appropriate Pelican case very nicely. Unlike many photographers, I don’t just use Pelicans to protect my gear on the way to the destination; I very often shoot from them. Anyone who has spent six weeks photographing in the desert winds, with 40mph winds blowing fine Moenkopi sand, will understand while I do this. So there is always a section of one Pelican sized to hold a camera with large lens.
Of more concern are the pernickety threads where the filter attaches to the hood, and where the lens cap attaches to the filter or hood. This will bother me more because I expect to be attaching and removing both rather frequently. Again, each of these items was finicky at first, and after placing and removing them a few times, is less so, but still not easy to thread. I can see this being a substantial annoyance.
The first issue here may lie in the fact that the circ pol’s metal components are made of aluminum, rather than brass. I’m used to brass threads on polarizing filters. Kelvin said that he had been investigating the production of a brass version of the circ pol filter, and will expedite that. He and I both suspect that brass will permit a smoother thread.
The second issue is probably something we’ll have to live with: The filter uses a 1mm thread pitch—by necessity, at least according to Kelvin’s report of his nine-months of testing prior to retail introduction. Prior to writing Fotodiox, I’d wondered if big filters were unavoidably finicky to attach and detach, and as a quick experiment, checked out the Nikon-made 160mm filter on my 600mm f/4 lens. It was much, much easier to work with—and it is obviously bigger than the 145mm filter that the Fotodiox product uses. Kelvin responded that my 160mm filter probably has a 1.5mm thread pitch, and that the rule of thumb is to use a thread pitch that is one percent of the filter diameter. I haven’t checked my 160mm filter, but he’s probably right. He said that in early prototypes, he started with a 1.5mm thread pitch, but found that with this wide-angle zoom, it made the corners of the filter show. By moving to a 1mm thread pitch, he eliminated this vignetting. This makes sense; Kelvin said that he wanted to have three threads bite for a solid hold, and this would add up to 4.5mm. Add 0.5 mm for mechanics, and you need 5mm on the camera side of the filter. Indeed, the 160mm filter with my telephoto is thick—something that probably doesn’t matter for a telephoto, but probably does for an extreme wide angle.
So Kelvin had tested this aspect pretty thoroughly, and decided that having more finicky threads is preferable to vignetting. I can’t disagree with that.
This thread choice also affects the lens cap. Putting the lens cap on takes me a frustrating minute or two. “Big deal,” one might think. But imagine me in the blowing Moenkopi mud—I tend to set up a shot on the tripod and wait for the light to get good (if it ever does). I do that waiting with the lens cap on. If I get a bit of good light, off comes the lens cap, and I shoot. Then the lens cap goes back on, and I wait some more. In a long session, I might have that lens cap on and off 50 times. No way do I want to face an aggravating minute or two each time.
Kelvin is justifiably proud of the Fotodiox lens cap that comes with this setup. It is visually very attractive and mechanically sturdy. It does the lens proud, Fotodiox proud, and, incidentally, protects the lens very well. But frankly, it’s a PITA. I’d prefer a pinch-type cap that would attach and detach in, well, a pinch. Kelvin explained to me that in the quantities that this item will likely sell, it would be difficult to amortize the cost of the mold necessary to make such a cap, and that a machined, threaded cap is—in production runs of the projected size—actually cheaper. So we discussed a simple “field lens cap” similar to the kind supplied by Nikon for the 14-24mm lens. Not that I’m a big fan of this lens cap, but it is very easy to quickly place and remove in the field. Kelvin responded that he will look into producing such a cap as an accessory—supply the nice metal lens cap for when the lens is put away, and also offer an inexpensive push on lens cap for field use. I would welcome this approach.
So I’d say that so far, I think this product is a big step forward, and for me, fills a photographic need. I still must optically test the filter. I don’t see any problems photographing a white wall, but want to get it into the field. If a brass filter becomes available, I will likely trade up. And if a push on cap becomes available, I’ll almost surely buy one. If it doesn’t, I’ll make one.
Incidentally, according to Kelvin, Fotodiox has its own factory about 200 miles west of Shanghai. It employs about 50 workers. Kelvin and the rest of the design team (currently three design engineers, five at full complement) are headquartered in Illinois, north of Chicago. Kelvin struck me as the best kind of entrepreneur—dedicated to doing well by offering solid products at a fair price, and with a rich understanding of photography, industrial production, mechanical engineering, metal coatings, etc. Given the talents involved and the company structure, I’d expect Fotodiox to respond quickly and skillfully to needs we face, and to incorporate feedback very rapidly and effectively.
My apologies for this long, rough, and almost certainly flawed initial review. I hammered this out quickly, as I’ve been remiss not to have posted sooner.
Thanks, and very best regards,
--Chris
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