Tiffen NATural ND Review

When it comes to neutral density, very few filters live up the first half of the name, “neutral” – and the more “density” you add, the less “neutral” they become. ND that lives up to the name has historically been cost prohibitive for most, especially the mitomo TrueND. However, Tiffen aims to change that for us with their new NATural ND line.

Tiffen announced their new line at NAB 2017 and in September told us a retail price of just $549USD/filter for the 4×5.65 and $699 for 6×6 (4×4 and screw on filters to be released end of the year). Named after its founder, Nat Tiffen, the NATural ND’s claim to have superior performance in the visual and IR spectrum. And after having had the opportunity to use them on a commercial project and a feature film, I’m happy to say they do not disappoint. The first time the 1.8 went in, I didn’t even notice it. I apologize for not making more of my time with them and testing more in depth, but I managed to at least do the following comparison under the consistent Arizona sun before I had to part with them.

Special thanks to Brett Cline and Melissa for standing in without their sunglasses! All images were taken on the Red Epic Dragon with the Highlight/Skintone OLPF at 5600k in 6kWS, 8:1 compression. No color grading has been applied to these except for some FLUT where the ASA wasn’t precise enough to match the exposure on the extreme ends.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I was surprised at how little IR pollution there was, even when stacked. There is some slight color shift between filters (which even the TrueND have), but nothing like other filters in their price range. Here is the transmittance chart from Tiffen:

Thanks to my friend Dennis Scully for getting us access to the filters, to Mark Bender at Tiffen and to Aiden Chapparone and AJ Kneip for completing this test while I was scrambling to light the next scene!

#Tiffen #NATuralND