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World's 1st Versatile Magnetic VND, CPL & Mist Filters Review // 7-in-1 system from Freewell
Today Freewell introduces the wold's first magnetic Variable ND (VND), CPL & Mist Filters system! In this review, we will take a how these magnetic filters perform and when to use the VND, CPL and Mist filters for both photography and video.
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- Startrails Tutorial https://youtu.be/zceHyYOH0lQ
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📖 CHAPTERS 📖
00:00 - Intro
00:15 - Unboxing
01:10 - How does the magnetic system work?
01:52 - Setup VND Filters
02:56 - When to use VND Filters?
03:37 - VND test & results
05:05 - Why use this system for photography?
05:49 - Setup CPL Filters
06:37 - When to use a CPL Fitler?
07:24 - CPL test results
07:47 - Mist Filters
09:06 - Freewell Magnetic vs Non-Magnetic Filters
09:50 - Final thoughts
10:35 - Conclusion
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- 0:00 Intro
- 0:15 Unboxing
- 1:10 How does the magnetic system work?
- 1:52 Setup VND Filters
- 2:56 When to use VND Filters?
- 3:37 VND test & results
- 5:05 Why use this system for photography?
- 5:49 Setup CPL Filters
- 6:37 When to use a CPL Fitler?
- 7:24 CPL test results
- 7:47 Mist Filters
- 9:06 Freewell Magnetic vs Non-Magnetic Filters
- 9:50 Final thoughts
- 10:35 Conclusion
Okay, so a few days ago I got this mysterious package from Freewell. I know it's some lenses but that's pretty much all I know, so let's roll the intro and unpack it together! Okay, so we have a nice box. Now I think we can just cut through here. And now for the big reveal let's pull this out. So we have the World's First Versatile Magnetic VND, so that's variable ND. And they also have a few inside. So they also have a CPL filter, mist filter, variable ND and Mist filters. So yeah a lot of thing to test out. So now let's open this second box. Oh, okay then we have a nice little pack. So if we come here and open this. Oh this is nice! This is really nice! So they have everything nicely organized inside of here. And yeah so I'm gonna actually have to try that. Let's start by talking about how this system works. So right now on my DSLR I have an old variable ND from Freewell on my camera that I bought last summer with my money and the problem with this filter is that you have to unscrew it to be able to take some pictures and then I have to screw it back on to continue taking some videos. So this is just very annoying when I'm on a trip or something like that to always have to screw it and unscrew it all the time to be able to take photos and video at the same time. Now With this new system from Freewell all you have to do is put the adapter right here and once the adapter is on your camera you actually don't have to put it and remove it anymore because everything is working with magnets from now on. Let's talk about how to set up your VND filter. So the first thing you want to take out is your VND base. So it's written at the bottom right here and then you want to make sure to align both Freewell logos on side of the adapter and the filter here and simply drop it and the magnetics are gonna make sure that everything is perfectly aligned. The next thing you need to decide is whether you're gonna use the 2 to 5 ND filter or the 6 to 9. So 2 to 5 is great when you don't have too much light but a 6 to 9 is great for a day like right now where it's a full sunny day. So two very important things when you're putting on the filter is first of all to make sure that the 6-9 or 2-5 indication is actually facing outwards of the camera. So when you put it on it needs to be outwards and the second thing is to make sure that when you put the lens on that you align right here you have a little "A" on the filter and a little "A" on the adapter you want to make sure that these two are perfectly aligned because this can allow to have some hard stops on the variable ND to make sure you don't go too far and get some weird artifacts in the end when turning around the filter. IIf you don't know what are VNDs they stand for variable ND filters and they're basically like sunglasses but for your camera. And the variable means that you can actually simply turn around here the ND to get different strength of ND without having to remove the ND from your camera. The reason why you would want to use this is actually to get some natural motion blur inside a video or to get some long exposures for photography. But I think that the best reason to use ND filters is actually for the blurry backgrounds when you're taking videos like right now for a vlog to get nice blurry background by using a wide aperture like 2.8 like I'm using right now on my DSLR. Okay, so now let's go test these out and see how they actually perform in a lot of sun right here to see if they're good or not in reality. I just had time to review [the] footage from these ND filters and overall I'm very satisfied with the results. So first of all if we look at the sharpness there's no loss of sharpness. Just remember that my Canon DSLR is only 1080p, so we're not getting 4k footage that is much sharper. Then if you look at a small problem we have that the color cast is a little bit more on the warm side but that's not a huge problem because you can simply bring down the cooler temperature inside of your editing program and it's a pretty easy fix. What is a little bit more of a problem it's the vignetting. So from 1 to 4 stops and also 5 and 6 stops there isn't a problem at all you barely don't see it at all that the vignette is there but once you get to 5 stops or 8 and 9 stops it's very visible. So if you're gonna be using it more at these extremes you're going to get a lot more things inside of the corners. So that's definitely something to keep in mind if you want to have a nice even image but just remember that all ND filters or at least all variable ND filters always have a color cast and lots of vignetting. It's impossible to make one that is perfect but overall it's not a huge problem, it's pretty similar to the other ND filters I used in the past. Now let's talk about why this filter kit can be really useful if you're doing more photography. The first thing you might not be thinking about is that you can use ND filters to make people disappear inside of your shots. So this is really great if you're in a setting like right now where I am with people passing all around and you just want to make them blurry and less distracting in your photos. This is a really great trick when you're taking pictures of touristy spots to get some much more interesting photos in the end. Another reason why to use ND filters is for when you're taking water to get super smooth water, especially when you're taking waterfalls. The last reason why this filter kit is really great for photography is because of its CPL filter that allows to get more green and blue inside of the shots which is really useful when taking pictures of landscape for landscape photography. Let's talk about why this system is so great. If you want to be switching between your ND and CPL filter all, you have to do is take off this ND filter, flip it around, put it on top and now you have your circular polarizer. And now you can turn it around and get different strength of polarizing. This also brings me to the biggest down point of the system and is that if you want to use multiple filters one on top of the other you can't. So you cannot use your 6-9 stop filter on top of your CPL filter. That's also why on the second side of the second filter you have a ND32 and CPL filter. ND32 is about 5 stops of ND, so it's still good for most cases when you need some CPL and also a ND filter but it's not variable in the end for the ND and the CPL filter at the same time. If you're not sure what CPL filters, CPL stands for cross polarizing linear filter and this is a fancy way of saying that it can do two things. The first one is that you can use it to remove reflections inside of objects. So whether you're taking a picture through a window, taking pictures of photo frames, taking pictures of a car, this filter can help remove annoying reflections. The second really great thing about CPL filter is it allows to get more colors and more saturation inside of the green and blue colors of your photo which is really great when taking pictures of let's say flowers or when you're taking any landscape photos where you really want to have some rich green and blue tones inside of the summer time. So this is why you would use CPL filter and you can use it both for photos and also videos. Now let's talk about the performance of the CPL filters. So they both work pretty well but I would say that the one without the ND filter works much better overall. This one still works pretty well but it's not as much of an effect than this one where you don't get as saturated colors or as much of the reduction of the reflections inside of the windows or whatever you're taking a picture of. Okay so now let's talk about the last type of filter and this is the VND Mist filte.r so for this one we're actually going to remove everything we have on our camera right now. So we're going to remove the ND filter. We're also going to remove the VND base filter and we're going to take our second base filter right here the VND mist base filter and we're going to place it on the camera just like the other one. And once it's clipped in we're good to go! So now we have our mist filter on. Now if we want to add some ND to this, we can simply take our ND filters and put it on like we did for the other ones. So now we have our VND mist filter ready to go. I personally never really use some mist filters but I'm definitely going to be trying it out tonight with some lights. So the mist filter is going to allow to get a very soft and ethereal looking light. So a lot of people like it because it makes the image look a little bit less digital and a bit more natural. So that's definitely a plus of using a mist filter. But it's also very much when you want to get some artistic effect inside of your image we're going to be using these types of filter. So I'm going to shoot some videos of the sunset because we're going to see that when shooting directly in the sun instead of getting this very harsh light it's actually going to diffuse everything and make a little bit everything look better in the end. IIf you're wondering if you should be getting the magnetic variable ND filters from Freewell or the non-magnetic variable ND filters you should know that they both perform pretty similarly. This one with the magnetic filter actually has a bit more of a color cast more on the warmer side than the non-magnetic ones don't have it as much. This is probably because there's also CPL inside of the filter so it just naturally makes the color a little bit more on the warmer side but it's not a huge thing to fix in the end in post-processing. They both have pretty similar vignettes as you go higher to the limits of each of the filters you get more vignettes in both of them. So I would say that both of them pretty much perform in the same way but if you want to get a little bit less of a color cast, definitely go with the ones that are not magnetic. Now do I recommend getting these filters? At only $400 I definitely think it's a great value for the price. You would have to easily pay $700 to $800 if you're getting all these filters individually. It's also really great because the quality of this glass is really good. Freewell says it's 18 coated multi-layer waterproof, dustproof, oil proof and scratch resistant glass. And I can testify to that because I had the lenses in my pockets and it didn't stretch at all. Another really great thing is that the image quality is not too much affected with minimal and color cast and also pretty reasonable vignetting inside of the lens. So overall it's a really great package for the price! What is even better is that they have a 25% off on the Kickstarter right now so if you go get them right now you're gonna have save even more money. If you enjoyed this video please let me know by hitting like the button below. And also consider subscribing to the channel for more content on photography and filmmaking. My next video is going to be about some ND filters but for the phone this time. See in the next one! Bye-Bye
Video Links
- 🔗 BUY the FILTERS
- Startrails Tutorial
- Getting started with astrophotography
- My favorite image of 2020-2021
- Instagram: @loic.bellemare.alford ()
- TikTok
- My online store
- Affiliate link for Epidemic Sound
- https://kit.co/loic.bellemare.alford/youtube-gear
- DJI Pocket 2 Creator Combo
- 128 gb MicroSD card
- Canon 6D Mk
- Google Pixel 4a
- Canon ZOOM LENS EF24-105mm F4L IS II USM
- Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8 Lens
- Canon EF 70-200mm f/4.0L-IS II USM Lens
- VANGUARD VEO 2 265CB CARBON FIBER TRIPOD
- DJI MAVIC AIR
- http://bit.ly/loicba
What is this video about?
A few days ago, I got a mysterious package from Freewell, and I was excited to finally unbox and test their new magnetic filter system. This is the world's first versatile magnetic variable ND (VND), CPL, and mist filter combo—basically a 7-in-1 system that solves a real problem I've been dealing with.
The main issue I had with my old variable ND filter was having to constantly screw and unscrew it when switching between photography and video. With Freewell's new magnetic system, you just drop the filters onto an adapter that stays on your camera. The magnets keep everything perfectly aligned, and you can swap filters in seconds without touching the camera body.
I tested all three filter types in real conditions. The variable ND filters work smoothly—you can adjust the strength by rotating the filter without removing it. They deliver good sharpness and reasonable color accuracy, though there's a slightly warm color cast and some vignetting at extreme settings (8-9 stops). But honestly, this is consistent with most variable ND filters on the market.
The CPL filter is fantastic for landscape work. It brings out greens and blues beautifully, removes reflections from windows and glass, and works great for both photos and video. I noticed the standalone CPL performs better than the dual ND32+CPL variant, which makes sense given the added complexity.
The mist filter creates that soft, ethereal quality I don't use often, but it's great for artistic shots, especially when shooting directly into light. It diffuses harsh sunlight and gives images a less digital feel.
At $400, this system is genuinely good value—you'd easily spend $700–800 buying these filters separately. The glass quality is solid: 18-layer multi-coated, waterproof, dustproof, and scratch-resistant. The magnetic system is clever, the build feels reliable, and the versatility is real.
If you're doing both photography and video and want to minimize gear switching, this system is worth considering. Head to the link below if you want to grab one.