Cokin Unveils NX Series Filter Holder System
For a long time, landscape photographers have had a great frustration when shooting on super-wide-angle lenses: vignetting. Vignetting, or darkening of the corners, is caused when you start adding holders and filters to the front of the lens. The wider the lens, the wider the field-of-view. On super-wides this means the camera will see the corners of the holders and filters placed in front of it.
Cokin has managed to design several components into a new, ultra thin design that works with super-wide-angle lenses up to 16mm wide and hold a circular polarizer and (2) 100mm wide square or rectangular filters without vignetting.
The NX system was tested on the following lenses with the included data:
CANON EF 16-35mm F2.8L III USM : no vignetting even at 16mm
SONY FE 16-35mm F2.8 GM : no vignetting even at 16mm
FUJIFILM XF 10-24mm F4R OIS : no vignetting even at 10mm
NIKON Z 14-30mm F4 : slight vignetting only at 14mm with filters and the filter-holder rotated by 45°, which disappears level
CANON RF 15-35mm F2.8L : slight vignetting only at 15mm with filters and the filter-holder rotated by 45°, which disappears level
HOW DID THEY MANAGE TO DO THIS?
First, The NX holder cleverly houses the dedicated all-glass Circular Polarizer within the skeletal frame. Some square filter holder systems include threads on the outside of the holder, not on the inside. When you snap the polarizer into the frame, it sits flush. Polarization is controlled by spinning a wheel on the outside of the holder. This means the polarizer does not add extra bulk to the system when it is used. We used a dime to show just how thin this new design is!
Next, Cokin designers opted to eliminate the traditional filter slots that waste space between filters for micro ball-bearings on the inside of the holder. These bearings are precisely positioned to accept the small grooves on the sides of the NX Filter Frames designed exclusively for the NX system.
Finally, Cokin considered the compatibility of the entire system to include current Cokin filter owners.
NX frames are compatible with:
Cokin Nuances Extreme Neutral Density and Graduated ND Filters (Z-pro / L-series sizes)
Cokin Nuances Clear Sky and Infrared IR72nm (Z-pro / L-series sizes)
Other manufactured square and rectangle filters measuring 100mm x 100mm x 2mm thick and 100mm x 150mm x 2mm thick (please refer to the original manufacturer for your filter’s exact measurement and thickness)
All of these carefully considered design elements allow photographers to use 100mm wide filters with super-wide angles like the Sony and Canon 16-35mm lenses without vignetting.