Haida Red Diamond ND Graduated Review
Now a time I'm here to talk you graduated filters, as a Haida Ambassador i will make a little comparison between the soft, the medium and the reverse one, and then a review of medium one.
In my opinion the soft one, is too soft, the reverse is a little bit strong, the Haida Red Diamond Medium Grad 0.9, it's for me with no doubt, the best one, it's the most balanced filter.
Recently in my last photo trip to Iceland, 95% of the photos have been made with the Medium one, in landscape photography we have mountains, we have trees, in seascape we have various types of horizons, and in the cityscape photography we have a lot of buildings gaps. And for me the medium one is the filter is the one that meet all the requirements.
As you know, before i have the Haida System, i had the Lee System and now i can use it thas as a point of comparison. Compared to my Lee 0.9 medium grad resin filter, the Haida Red Diamond glass filter does not exhibit any colour casts at first glance, whereas the brownish cast on the Lee filter is very apparent from the photo above. That said, I have been using my Lee filter for years, and the brownish discolouration could be due to age.
The use of glass as opposed to resin for Haida's filter products with the coating on the Red Diamond also helps to repel dirt, oil and water. With my Haida filters, I can easily wipe away debris with microfibre cloths and continue to shoot with it. This is especially crucial when shooting in rainy conditions or shooting seascapes, or bigs waterfalls where the spray is oftentimes a concern.
Handling
The M10 Filter Holder System handles exceptionally well. It’s quick to setup and pack away and the drop-in system and square system makes changing filters effortless.
Features
Although filter holders can be such a simple piece of equipment, Haida have packed this system with many useful features. The drop-in filter system, external dial that independently rotates the polariser and the secure 360° rotation of the holder are features which set this system apart from the competition.
Build Quality
Red-Diamond Graduated series of filters released last year are all made of glass and are all made from K9 optical glass and feature a shock and scratch resistant design.
The coating on the Red Diamond also helps to repel dirt, oil and water. With my Haida filters, I can easily wipe away debris with microfibre cloths and continue to shoot with it. This is especially crucial when shooting in rainy conditions or shooting seascapes, or bigs waterfalls where the spray is oftentimes a concern. Another good thing is the corners of the filters have also been rounded for easier installation into the M10’s filter slots.
Image quality
As i told before I'm very impressed by the image quality. All of the filters performed exceptionally well at retaining image sharpness, with no perceivable loss in detail. Even after stacking multiple filters to try and exacerbate any potential issues, I found these filters performed really well and I would consider the amount of colour cast to be negligible and the ultra-thin nano multi coating did an excellent job of minimising colour casting and preserving image sharpness.
Vignetting
I have tested the 0.6 and 1.8 ND filter and i have not seen any vignetting at all.
Value for money
Whilst the M10 filter holder kit and Red-Diamond filters are not the cheapest, considering the features and quality, I think they're great value for money.
In conclusion
Red-Diamond filters, you’re getting a high quality filter system which is competitively priced and well suited to photographers of all levels.In my opinion, the Haida Medium GND Filter it's the filter that any landscape photographer needs on the bag. It is part of a great new filter generation with Red Diamond, the glass filters have no color cast, no reduction in sharpness, are absolutely stable & scratch resistant. Everyone who works with glass filters knows how quickly you can get a scratch into an expensive graduated filter. The Red diamond with the Nano Coating can be easily clean.
What I Liked
The easily cleaning method
No colour cast present
The sharpness
What I Feel Could Be Improved
I don't seen anything that can be improved
