Fractals Filters Classic review: a three-pack of prisms for portrait photographers

The story of Fractal Filters begins with Nikk Wong, a portrait and wedding photographer from the USA who became obsessed with prism photography after experimenting with cutting glass in a local glass studio and playing with pieces from a fallen glass chandelier which gave him the inspiration to set up his Kickstarter.

Back in 2014, Nikk launched a successful Kickstarter campaign with over 1,000 backers pledging $55,293 to get his idea off the ground. Nearly a decade later and Nikk has turned his dream into a full-time career with the Fractal Filters Classic Kit his flagship product that has seen a few subtle improvements over the years and is now his definitive collection of prisms, as well as working on new products such as the Fractal Filters Fibonacci which Nikk says is launching soon.

In this review, I'll take a closer look at the Fractal Filters Classic Kit, which consists of three premium glass filters, the Penrose, Pascal, and Julia, as well as a soft case with a carry strap and a basic user guide to help you get started.

Nikk said the genesis of his prism photography business started when he “found that filter manufacturers had neglected the amazing reflective properties of glass… creatively I was limited”. While triangular prisms can be picked up relatively cheaply online such as sites like eBay and Amazon, Nikk’s filters are much more versatile and have a premium build quality. They can be great for adding a unique look to both stills photography and video, so in this review, I’ll look at how they perform and if they’re worth the asking price over your standard cheap and cheerful $10 prism.

Fractals filters Creative 3 pack: Design & Handling

In the box you’ll find the Penrose, Pascal and Julia Fractal Filters as well as a padded carry case with a shoulder strap. One notable omission is that there’s no microfiber cloth included, which would be handy for wiping off dirt or greasy fingerprints from the filters, though this isn’t the end of the world as most photographers already own one or two of these. Even still, a dedicated pocket for a cloth in the carry case would have been a nice addition.

The set also comes with some camera setting suggestions to get you started: shoot with a 50mm prime lens set to f/2 with single-point AF with shutter release focus priority and remove your lens hood so that the filter can get as close to the front element as possible. This in turn will also make it easier to defocus the filter with a wide aperture and shallow depth of field.

While this is a set of filters, they aren’t your conventional screw-in type, as they require the flexibility to be moved from side to side, or to be tilted at an angle to get the prismal reflection to appear exactly where you need in your frame. Rather than screw them into the front filter thread of your lens, you'll hold them by the three large loops on each filter's handle.

The trio of filters offers some great versatility and creative options. The ‘Julia’ has a sort of segmented appearance, with a clear circular sweet spot in the center which you can place your subject inside of for a repeating kaleidoscopic effect around them.

The ‘Penrose’ has a checkerboard pattern on it which breaks the surrounding image up into a diffused and glitchy pattern. It also has a small section of the glass cut away from it - leaving you a clean zone for you to position your subject so that it is sharp and unaffected by the filter.

Lastly, the Pascal is the heaviest of the three at 255g and 30mm thick trapezoid design. It’s undoubtedly a little more unwieldy to use and can be more difficult to get good results with, though once mastered it will allow you to shoot fantastic subject-isolating images and create impossible images, such as reflecting a tree from behind your head into the frame, or light sources that are normally outside of your camera’s field of view.

One of Nikk’s early inventions on Kickstarter which accompanied his filters was an articulating arm that connected to the camera hotshot and held the filters in place in front of the lens, handy for freeing up your hands or keeping the filter in the same spot when recording video. Nikk says this product has since been discontinued, so there’s currently no way to fix the filters in place in front of the lens, unlike a product such as the LensBaby Omni. However, he did go on to say that new products will be launching soon that will have a 1/4 20" mount that you can attach the handle to solve this problem so I'll watch out for those in the future.

Fractals filters Creative 3-Pack: Performance

All three of the Fractals Filters are made from quality glass specifically made with photography in mind, and unlike the cheap triangular prisms you can find online for about ten bucks, Fractals Filters filters have lead oxide in the glass for better optical resolution which Nikk claims will give the filters a light transmission of between 95-100% for minimal light loss. They also boast a refractive index of 1.6x which helps make images and videos shot with the filters look more vivid.

The filters have a diameter of 100mm, which may sound large it ensures that the filters will work with even the largest of lenses in your collection and makes it more cost-effective than buying different filters at different sizes to cater to different optics. 

All three filters come with a built-in solid metal handle with a chrome finish for three of your fingers to grip onto. This does make it slightly awkward if you want to hold the filter in your right hand, as you can’t fire your camera left-handed - unless you set up on a tripod.

I was impressed with the image quality of all three filters, especially the Julia and Pascal which require you to shoot through the glass filters and these were tack-sharp which just goes to show the high quality of the glass used. I also saw minimal fringing, which is a negative effect I've found from using the cheaper prisms online too.

One downside I found is that to get the best results it helps to use a lens with quite a large front element so that you can hold the filter closer to the lens to squeeze in more of the effects and also holding it closer helps diffuse it with a shallow depth of field. On lenses with a smaller front element, such as the Canon RF 50mm F1.8 STM which has a front element diameter of just 43mm, you'll need to hold the filters further away from the lens to see the effects, and this makes it harder to blur the filter with a shallow depth of field.

Fractals filters Creative 3-Pack: Final Verdict

Glass prisms can be found online for a fraction of the price of the Fractals Filters offering, and these remain a great starting point for anyone looking to experiment with abstract prism effects in their portraits and photography.

However, if you find yourself needing extra options and wanting to take your prism portraiture to the next level then the Classic 3-Pack from Fractal Filters is a fantastic upgrade.

All three filters are incredibly well-engineered and feel great to use and open up the door to some amazing abstract results that are sure to turn heads. At $119 it works out at just under $40 per filter, though you do also get the soft carry case. Considering I wouldn’t bat an eyelid spending much more on a new lens to open up more creative possibilities then I think these filters are a steal!

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