NiSi JetMag Pro Landscape ND Kit review: ND and circular polarizing filters with magnetic attraction

NiSi makes one of my favorite photographic accessories, namely the immaculately engineered NiSi NM-200s Macro Focusing Rail. The company also has various other product lines but is perhaps better known for its filter systems. These include 75mm and 100mm square/rectangular systems, specialist 150 and 180 systems for ultra-wide-angle lenses that have no attachment threads, and a whole bunch of circular screw-ins as well as square/rectangular filters for wide-ranging applications.

The NiSi JetMag Pro system is a relatively new addition to the lineup, based on circular filters that attach to a screw-in holder by magnetic attraction. Various complete kits comprising multiple holders and filters are available, including a Cinema Kit, Black Mist Kit, Night Kit, Filmmaker Kit and Capture Kit. I’m reviewing what I think will be the most popular edition of all, the NiSi JetMag Pro Landscape ND Kit. It includes a range of ND (Neutral Density) filters of various strengths, plus a circular polarizer filter and a variety of adapter rings and other accessories.

To find out more about how various filters stack up, often quite literally, check out our guides to the best filters for photography, the best polarizing filters and the best ND filters.

NiSi JetMag Pro: Specifications

NiSi JetMag Pro: Price

Like other kits in the NiSi JetMag Pro lineup, the Landscape ND Kit comes in two size options. The first should cover most people’s needs, with a filter diameter of 82mm. The larger option caters to seriously large lenses, with a 95mm filter diameter. Either way, the filters don’t screw in directly to lenses and, as such, the kits come with screw-in ‘adapter rings’ of different sizes.

In the Landscape ND Kit, you also get three ND filters, a True Color Circular Polarizer filter, two front caps, one rear cap and a handy semi-rigid caddy to stash everything away in for safekeeping. For the complete kit of parts, you can expect to pay $479 / £359 / AU$749 (82mm) or $699 / £510 / AU$1099 (95mm). That works out as a significant saving if you want all of the filters and accessories in the kit.

However, if you only want one or two filters for use with a single lens (and therefore a single adapter ring), it can pay to buy just what you need. Pricing for individual components works out to $90 / £70 / AU$149 (82mm) or $140 / £100 / AU$219 (95mm) for individual ND filters, and $110 / £85 / AU$169 (82mm) or $150 / £120 / AU$249 (95mm) for the True Color CPL.

A wide and growing range of other JetMag Pro filters is also available. You’ll also need to pay $22 / £15 / AU$30 (82mm) or $32 / £23 / AU$49 (95mm) for an adapter ring, and $40 / £30 / AU$59 (82mm) or $50 / £40 / AU$79 (95mm) for front or rear filter caps, if you feel the need for them.

NiSi JetMag Pro: Design & Handling

The NiSi JetMag Pro Landscape ND Kit is a comprehensive kit of parts that, as I’ve just detailed, represents a big saving compared with buying all the individual components separately. Let’s kick off with the filters themselves. There are four in the kit, comprising 3-stop, 6-stop and 10-stop ND (Neutral Density) filters, plus a True Color CPL (Circular Polarizing) filter. You might feel the collection covers all your landscape photography needs but personally, I’d often be more inclined to reach for a Graduated ND filter when shooting landscapes, to reduce the difference in brightness between land and sky. As is often the way, ND Grads are offered in NiSi’s square/rectangular range of filters rather than in the circular filter lineup.

Although I might miss ND Grads, the flip side is that I don’t think the Landscape ND kit is limited to just landscape photography. Sure, a circular polarizer is great for producing those inky blue skies with high-impact cloud definition, as well as for reducing reflections in lakes and other watery surfaces. But it’s also ideal for reducing light bouncing off other non-metallic reflective objects, thus adding depth and saturation when shooting all sorts of compositions, as well as for reducing reflections when shooting through windows.

Similarly, the 3-stop ND filter can work brilliantly for sunny-day portraiture and other scenarios where you want to use a really wide aperture to minimize depth of field and isolate the main subject against the background. If ambient lighting is too bright to enable a shutter speed that’s within the camera’s range, you can just add an ND filter. The 6-stop filter can also just about work for this but is generally a bit of an overkill, whereas the 10-stop filter is really to enable long exposures during daylight.

I’d generally use the 10-stop filter for blurring watery surfaces and for shooting the likes of waterfalls, weirs, and fast-moving streams, turning choppy water into a smooth almost ghostly-looking entity. It works by enabling an exposure that’s much longer than would otherwise be possible.

For example, if your camera’s lowest sensitivity setting is ISO 100 and your lens’s narrowest aperture is f/22, the slowest shutter speed you can attain on a bright sunny day might be, say, 1/30^th of a second. Fit a 10-stop filter and you’ll be able to shoot in the same conditions with a long exposure of 30 seconds. Under more moderate daylight conditions, you can get long exposures that stretch to several minutes, also making clouds appear to streak across the sky.

If I’ve been waffling a bit in general about ND and CPL filters, let’s get right down to business. I love the magnetic attraction of the NiSi JetMag Pro system. Let’s stick with 10-stop ND filters for a moment. I love the effect but often find them a pain to use. For conventional shooting with a DSLR, I find I really need to remove the filter to focus accurately and work out the exposure, then fit the filter, apply the 10-stop exposure bias and finally shoot.

Screwing in and unscrewing a circular filter between each and every shot can be a real chore, and I don’t really find square 10-stop ND filters and their associate holders much easier to live with either. Being able to simply snap these magnetic filters on and off is a real saver, both in time and effort.

The system is very intuitive to use. First up, you just need to screw in the correct diameter of attachment ring to your lens. The 82mm filter kit comes with four separate rings to suit lenses with a 67mm, 72mm, 77mm or 82mm filter attachment thread. The 95mm kit comes with just two rings – 86mm and 95mm. Attachment rings with different diameters are available separately.

The trick to fitting a filter to the attachment ring is to look for the white alignment lines, and then snap on the filter so that the filter’s ‘handles’ are at an angle of about 45 degrees to the lines. The magnetic pull keeps the filter attached at any orientation but, for maximum fixing stability, you can rotate the filter so that the handles line up with the white alignment lines. An additional mechanical lip also then comes into play, more firmly fixing the filter to the attachment ring. The same goes when adding multiple filters to the ring, stacking them up so that the handles are offset for attachment, then rotated so that the handles are aligned for maximum security.

Naturally, the firmer mechanical fixing is of limited value when you’re using the circular polarizer, as you’ll need to rotate it to the angle that works best for polarization, rather than for the added security of lining up the handles with the alignment mark. Even so, it fits very securely and I found no danger of it coming loose or dropping off even while rotating it during use.

A nice touch is that different types of filters have color-coded handles, so it’s easy to spot the kind of filter you’re after when rummaging around in your kit bag. For example, in the Landscape Kit, the ND filters have blue handles and the circular polarizer has silver handles. The front and back caps have grey handles.

I’m a sucker for a nice bag to protect my camera gear and am pleased that the NiSi kit comes complete with a high-quality ‘caddy’. It’s a semi-rigid case that’s very nicely made and feels properly sturdy. Inside, beneath the water-resistant zip, there are various compartments for stowing your filters and all the accessories. The caddy also features a carabiner for easy attachment to the outside of a camera bag or other casing.

NiSi JetMag Pro: Performance

With the best will in the world, I don’t always have as much time as I like to capture an image. Changeable weather and unfolding events are just two of many factors that can mean speed is of the essence. If a filter system or any other kind of photographic accessory is too time-consuming and fiddly, I’m easily put off. The NiSi scores highly for me in that it’s so quick and easy to set up. Using one or more filters is an absolute breeze and I found it massively faster than using conventional screw-in or square/rectangular filters.

I’m also really impressed with the quality of the filters themselves. They feature NiSi’s Cine Sealing technology, which claims to offer superior protection to most black-sealed filters, while also reducing the risk of deformity during temperature fluctuations or the ingress of condensation, which can cause ghosting and flare. To further enhance performance in this respect, the filters feature low-reflective nano-coating on both sides, which gives a performance boost when stacking filters. The coating also makes the filters resistant to moisture and greasy fingermarks.

Naturally, any filter is only as good as its optical performance. The filters in this kit are made from high-quality glass and the circular polarizer filter uses a specialist polarizing film to prevent color casts. I found it worked perfectly in my tests, delivering a very natural color rendition and great overall performance, with simple rotation through an entire 360 degrees.

I’m equally pleased with the 3-stop, 6-stop, and 10-stop ND filters in the kit. Again, I found that they enabled the retention of excellent sharpness and clarity while being resistant to ghosting and flare. I’ve used some 10-stop filters that gave a very strong color cast but the color rendition of the NiSi is very good. Again, I’d use the 10-stop filter for various applications as well as just for landscape photography. For example, it can work a treat for architectural photography, where you want to blur out pedestrians milling about in front of a building by using a long exposure.

I like that the front face of the adapter rings has a black surface that helps to cut out any stray light. I certainly had no problems with light entering through the side of the frame or adapter ring even when using the 10-stop filter in very bright, sunny conditions. I also like that these aluminum rings and the frames of the filters themselves have a really low profile. NiSi states that you can stack two filters on top of each other and suffer no vignetting, even when using the ultra-wide-angle Canon RF 15-35mm f/2.8L IS USM at its widest zoom setting. I didn’t have one of these to hand, but I did find that I could use up four stacked filters on my Viltrox AF 16mm f/1.8 ultra-wide-angle, full-frame prime lens without suffering any vignetting.

To my mind, the only missing link in the NiSi JetMag Pro system is that there are no hoods available. Due to the adapter rings being wider than the circumference of the lens, you can use bayonet-fit hoods that come with lenses, and the magnetic attachment system means that there are no threads on the front of filters for attaching a screw-in hood. Apart from that, it’s a terrific system.

NiSi JetMag Pro: Sample Images

The gallery below includes a range of comparative example subjects taken with no filter fitted and again with polarization, or using the 3-stop, 6-stop and 10-stop filters respectively, all as captioned. The photos were taken at the Bishop’s Palace & Gardens in Wells, and at a weir on the River Avon, in the Somerset village of Saltford, both in the UK.

Image 1 of 22

NiSi JetMag Pro: Verdict

I feel that the NiSi JetMag Pro Landscape ND Kit has a lot to offer in all sorts of shooting scenarios, not just in landscape photography. I love that the magnetic system is so quick and easy to use, combining intuitive handling with stable and secure fitment. I’m really impressed with the quality of the filters themselves, and the wide range of kits and individual filters that are available. I feel the complete kits and separate components are all very good value for money and that the only thing that’s really lacking is a range of compatible hoods for use with the system.

Alternatives

The Tiffen Variable ND Filter is typical of filters that aim to deliver a range of densities at the twist of a ring, thanks to the use of two companion polarizing elements within a single filter. It can save having to buy and use multiple ND filters, in this case with a 2-8 stop range.

The Urth 82mm Magnetic CPL Lens Filter (Plus+) is a circular polarizing filter that also features a low-profile filter that attaches to a screw-in holder via magnetic attraction, in a similar manner to the NiSi JetMag Pro. It’s available in a particularly large selection of size options.