Welcome to my Elia Locardi filter kit review.
As a photographer, I regularly run Landscape and Seascape photography workshops in beautiful Ireland. Where I can guarantee these filters are pushed completely to their limits. This is the filter kit I use for my workshops, they have been well and truly tested.
I have been a fan of the Formatt Hitech filters for many years now and some of you will probably know I was so vocal of my love of these filters I was made a brand ambassador and Featured Artist for their products. It has been a complete honour for me to be partnered with such an amazing and passionate company for over three years now.
The plus side of all this is you can get an additional 10% off all Formatt Hitech products with discount code HAYES10, simply enter it at checkout on the Formatt Hitech website.
As a Brand Ambassador and for transparency I should add that Formatt Hitech pays me a small commission for any filters sold 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 just wasn’t happy with the products. Over the years I had purchased 5 other filter systems and I just wasn’t happy with any of them.
So getting back to the question, which filters should you buy? My default answer is the Elia Locardi 100mm Firecrest Pro or Ultra filter kit.
At £364.49 for the Pro Kit after the discount code is applied, it’s unbelievably good value for money. saves you even more
They are such good value for money that I recently got three kits for myself.
Buying all the pieces separately would cost you £490.88 + £5.00 shipping £495.88
after 10% discount HAYES10 it’s £446.79
So you pay only £364.49 saving £81.80 and you also get a free filter wallet in the deal.
Why buy this kit? Well, that’s simple, it comes with everything you need in a starting set. Just look at what you get.
Contents…
1.-Firecrest Magnetic 100mm filter holder.
1.- Firecrest ND1.2 (4 stops) Great for shorter long exposure photographs.
1.-Firecrest ND3.0 (10 stops) Ideal for Normal long exposure photographs.
1.-Firecrest ND Soft Edge Grad 0.9 (3 stop) Graduated filter a great graduated filter to help balance most images.
1.-Circular polarising filter.
3.- Adaptor rings incl.. 72mm and 77mm adaptor threads and two rotating ring adaptors with 82mm and 86mm threads.
1.- Filter holder wallet
Now priced at £399.99 +£5.- shipping at £404.99 it’s good value for money but if you enter discount code at checkout you get 10% off so it’s just £364.49 delivered to your door.
At £364.49 for a filter holder, 3 filters, adaptor rings and a filter wallet that’s fantastic value for money.
Getting 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 4 & 10 stop filters together at the same time making it a 14 stop filter.
In my video up the page I explain whats in the kit, how to use it, set it up and what the rotating rings are used for so please do check that out.
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.
Before you go I have two great blogs on Long Exposure photography and also a comprehensive guide to seascape photography
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 also have a few more reviews of the signature artist kits below.
Colby Brown signature edition landscape filter kit
Patrick Di Fruscia 100mm Pro essentials filter kit
Joel Tjintjelaar filter Kit#1 review
Joel Tjintjelaar filter Kit#2 review
What other filters would I buy? If I were buying another add-on filter it would be the six-stop or 1.8 ND Pro filter.
Some other Formatt Hitech Firecrest product reviews that may interest you…
Latest Formatt Hitech discount code
If you have any filter related questions then feel free to drop me an email at info@kieranhayesphotography.com
Thanks for taking the time to read my review and enjoy those filters, you won’t regret it.
See you out there,
Kieran.