Everyone always says that VND’s are great for convenience, but single strengths filters are truly the best. I’m on board with that mentality, but I’ve never actually done the testing myself. Let’s go over the speed and convenience of circular VNDs vs the precision and clarity of single-strength ND filters.

Baseline, shot with the DZOFilm Arles 40mm at T4

Color Cast Conclusion

Going into this, the first I think of when comparing NDs to VNDs is color cast, so let’s start out with the color cast test.

After shooting these tests, I was very surprised how the Nisi true color VND held up.

Nisi VND, 1-3 was very good and skewed slightly warm and magenta at 4 and 5. Overall, very impressive for a vnd, as my other VNDs from K&F and polar pro have much more color cast that is more difficult to color correct at the higher strengths.

As for the Nisi Full Spectrum ND’s, as I expected, they handled the color cast when comparing it to the baseline no filters exceptionally well. From 2 to 4 stops held it color reproduction very well, the only issue I saw was with the 5-stop filter, which had a slightly cooler look to it. This would be very simple to color correct the image a touch warmer. You really see the color quality and consistency through out the set.

White/Gray Card Color Shift

This test is in the video, please check above - but it’s showing the results of the color chip charts in a more easy-to-see (for me at least!) way.

I like to do the color chart test, but to visualize how filters shift the white - or gray - point around, shooting a gray card helps illustrate this.

Again, this illustrates the FS ND Filters from 2-4 were fantastic, 5 was slightly cooler

For the True Color VND, this was great from 1-3, 4 and 5 started to shift a little warmer. Both the color chips and gray card show this, but I find it’s more helpful to see the vectorscope for the color chart, but you can see the color shift with your eyes easier with the gray card.

Vignette

For vignetting, the Nisi VND had very slight vignetting around 4 and 5. I have the 86mm version, so I’m not sure how this translates to other versions, but for a VND, this is very good vignette control.

The 4x5 filters, obviously did not have any vignette.

Price

When it comes to the price, the NiSi True Color VND’s range depending on what filter size you need. Averaging about $200.

For the 4x5.65 filters, these full spectrum NDs are $315 a piece. I got these filters and a matte box with multiple stages, so I can stack the ND’s if I need to lower the exposure. I plan on building out a kit of these filters in the future, but for now, these are the ones I have.

When talking about price, there is a big difference between these, but the unique part of 4x5 filters, is that they can be put in a matte box and are not dependent on the lens size you’re working with. So, if you plan on having a long career in cinematography, you can rent these lenses out on every shoot you go on, and they can pay themselves off and eventually start making you money with rentals.

Both of these filters are just tools for a job; they largely depend on the job you’re doing.

Cinema Filter Pros

The biggest pro for the cinema filters for me, is the accurate colors at higher strengths. I’ve been actually enjoying using a matte box with hard mattes, and the ND and filtration that you can easily stack in the matte box is fantastic. I settled on a clamp on mattebox and have loved the simplicity of swapping lenses with an ND and filtration inside of the matte box.

Not needing to unthread a stack of ND and diffusion is a huge win when swapping lenses. One pain about my clamp on matte box is that if I want to swap between 95 and 80mm I have to also swap the back out as well, but it’s two screws. I always remove all the filters before doing that, but if I’m doing a lens swap, I just make sure the filters are secured in the mattebox and unclamp it from the lens.

IR Pollution

Another huge benefit of these filters is that these Nisi ND filters are full spectrum filters. They will eliminate any IR pollution that normal ND filters, or even some internal ND’s may not filter out. I don’t have much experience with cameras that suffer from IR pollution, but I was looking at buying a pyxis, or komodo x, or saving up for an Burano - and this is where having a set of full-spectrum ND filters is going to be a necessity instead of a nice-to-have, and I’ll have to use these full spectrum filters.

Circular Pros

The benefits of the circular filters, for me, are the speed, size, and convenience. If you invest in high-quality filters, you can also use them for years. You might not be able to get a rental rate for them, but if you’re a one-man band, the speed and convenience are too difficult to overlook.

The Nisi True Color is the best ND filter I own right now, with my other VND’s I have to work around using them at higher strengths because they have very aggressive color casts at 4 and 5, the Nisi barely has any, and is much easier to color correct in post.

The Nisi not having cross-polarization is a big plus. Thats one less thing I have to worry aboutl.

Circular filters are really fast to use, and makes for a very small and lightweight kit. If I’m traveling, I’m taking a VND.

For speed and convenience, the VND definitely wins.

Conclusion

The different filter styles serve different purposes. I don’t think you’d see a matte box and cinema filters at a wedding, but also, I don’t think I’d see circular filters on a film set where quality and controlling flares are worth the extra weight, time, and expense.

This comes down to using the right tool for the right job. The circular filters will have to work on smaller jobs with minimal crew. With more crew and resources, I can afford to bring out the matte box and take the extra time to swap filters on larger projects.

Sometimes if I know I’ll be stacking ND and diffusion filters, I’ll use the matte box because I don’t like using multiple circular filters with a VND, since I’ll be moving the front of the filter around a lot to adjust the ND, sometimes the filters break loose and start to spin, or even worse, over-tighten and are practically welded to the front of your lens.

ND filters are one of those expenses where you buy them once, and then in theory never have to buy them again - so getting quality ones that fits what youre doing is important.

Are 4x5.65 filters actually better? NiSi FS ND's vs NiSi True Color VND