Welcome to my review of Kit#1 from Joel Tjintjelaar
The first question I am asked is which of his two kits is the best?
In this review I discuss the best parts of each kit and why I think opne kit is the better option for me and possibly you too.
You can read the review of the .
I have been a fan of Formatt Hitech filters for many years now and some of you will probably know as a result of my very vocal praise of their products I was made a Featured Artist and Brand Ambassador for their products.
As a Brand Ambassador and Featured Artist and for transparency I should add that Formatt Hitech gives me a slight commission for filters purchased with my discount code. I should also add I was using their filters already and purchased them with my own hard-earned money before I was asked to be an Ambassador. I was also asked by two other companies but refused politely as I didn’t believe in their products.
The great news is an Ambassador, Featured Artist and Photography Educator for Formatt Hitech I can offer you an additional 10% off Formatt Hitech products with discount code , simply enter it at checkout on the Formatt Hitech website. This special offer discount code is runs all year round.
So instead of paying £380.99 you pay just £343.39 for this kit the 100mm Firecrest Pro version delivered directly to your door.
Well, that’s simple, it comes with everything you need to get started in long exposure photography at a great price.
It is by far the best kit out of the two kits available if you are a fan of Joel’s work, I explain why in detail further down in my review.
I should also say this kit is available as a screw-in filter circular filter kit aswell as the 100mm Square filter kit.
You can buy it in 72mm 77mm and 82mm filter threads, this review also applies to those kits as the filters are exactly the same quality.
If you are aren’t sure if you should go for the square or circular filters then click here to read my blog post explaining the advantages of both systems.
1.-Firecrest 100mm filter holder.
1.- Firecrest ND0.9 (3 stop) Great in low light conditions for (short) long exposure photographs. Very overcast dark days or just before sunrise or just after sunset. Shooting a river in a forest, the 3 stop reduction should be enough to give you some nice water movement in your shot.
1.-Firecrest ND1.8 (6 stops) Ideal for around sunset or sunrise for (short) long exposure photographs. 1 to 5 seconds normally.
1.-Firecrest ND 3.0 (10 stop), this filter is great for near 30 second exposures (depending on lighting conditions) around sunrise or sunset. It’s also great for short long exposures mid-day during bright summer days.
1.-Magnetic Circular polarising filter.
4.- Adaptor rings incl.. 72mm and 77mm adaptor threads and 82mm and 86mm Rotating rings.
1.- Filter wallet.
1.- Magnetic lens cap.
As I said earlier priced at £375.99 +£5.- shipping totalling to £380.99 it’s good value for money but if you enter discount code at checkout you get 10% off so it’s just £343.39 delivered to your door. At £343.39 for a filter holder, 3 filters, adaptor rings and a filter wallet it truly is fantastic value for money.
Going back to the products themselves.
The Firecrest magnetic filter holder. Is a beautiful bit of kit, with the extra light shield adaptors you can actually stack ND filters. Yes, you can use the 3 &10 stop filters together at the same time making it a 13 stop filter. Again the extra light shields help protect your filters from sea spray and light rain.
Firecrest Pro filters
The Firecrest Pro series of filters are colour neutral, incredibly hard-wearing and the sharpest filters I have ever used (just like the Ultra’s).
So what’s the hard-wearing part about?
A filter is a filter, right?
Well, that’s wrong… The way the Firecrest filters are made they actually sandwich the ND coating in between two slivers of glass.
Yes, the filters are made of two thin sheets of glass and not one. This has two advantages. Firstly the ND coating can’t be scratched as it’s protected by glass on both sides and secondly due to the construction of the bonded glass it makes the filters more resilient to damage than a standard filter.
I have an in-depth review of the Firecrest Pro filters here.
The same applies for the Ultra kit but there is a difference between the pro’s and Ultra’s Click here for my in-depth review of the Ultra filters.
I mentioned at the start of this review that this filter kit is by far the better of the two available from Formatt Hitech if you are a fan of Joel’s work, now why is that?
Well, it’s simple you can stack the filters in the 100mm filter holder so with the 3, 6 & 10-stop ND filters and the CPL you have a massive amount of stops to play around with.
This one kit can give you the following ND stops….
3-stop, 4.5-stop, 6-stop, 7.5-stop, 9-stop, 10-stop, 11.5-stop,13-stop, 14.5-stop, 16-stop and 17.5-stop.
Now that’s incredibly impressive.
So how is that possible?
Let’s not forget the CPL has a 1.5-stop reduction, so we can make the following nd filters from this kit by adding them together.
Total Filter combination
3-stop = 3-stop
4.5-stop = 3-stop and CPL
6-stop = 6-stop
7.5-stop = 6-stop and CPL
9-stop = 6-stop and 3-stop
10-stop = 10-stop
11.5-stop = 10-stop and CPL
13-stop = 10-stop 3-stop
14.5-stop = 10-stop, 3-stop and CPL
16-stop = 10-stop and 6-stop
17.5-stop = 10-stop, 6-stop and CPL
Now that is a lot of options from just 3 filters.
This is the reason why I think this kit is without doubt the best option out of the two.
I have two great blog posts on and another one on which should be a very interesting read for you.
I have a few more reviews on the other signature artist kits below that maybe of interest,,,
Some more Firecrest products you may be interested in…
What other filters would I buy? If I were buying another add-on filter it would be a 4 stop or 1.2ND graduated Pro filter to help balance out the sky and foreground for the 100mm filter kit.
If you have any filter related questions then feel free to drop me an email at info@kieranhayesphotography.com I am always happy to help.
Thanks for taking the time to read my review and enjoy those filters, you won’t regret it.
See you out there,
Kieran.