Elia Locardi 100mm Formatt Hitech filter kit review.
Firecrest Pro and Ultra versions.
As a photographer, I regularly run Landscape and Seascape photography workshops in beautiful Ireland. Where I can guarantee these filters are pushed completely to their limits. This is the filter kit I use for my workshops, they have been well and truly tested.
I have been a fan of the Formatt Hitech filters for many years now and some of you will probably know I was so vocal of my love of these filters I was made a brand ambassador and Featured Artist for their products. It has been a complete honour for me to be partnered with such an amazing and passionate company for over three years now.
The plus side of all this is you can get an additional 10% off all Formatt Hitech products with discount code HAYES10, simply enter it at checkout on the Formatt Hitech website.
As a Brand Ambassador and for transparency I should add that Formatt Hitech pays me a small commission for any filters sold with my discount code. I should also add I was using their filters already and purchased them with my own hard-earned money before I was asked to be an Ambassador. I was also asked by two other companies but refused politely as I just wasn't happy with the products. Over the years I had purchased 5 other filter systems and I just wasn't happy with any of them.
So you can buy this kit for only £364.49
So getting back to the question, which filters should you buy? My default answer is the Elia Locardi 100mm Firecrest Pro or Ultra filter kit.
At £364.49 for the Pro Kit after the discount code HAYES10 is applied, it's unbelievably good value for money.
They are such good value for money that I recently got three kits for myself.
See the below video on the Firecrest 100mm filter holder and why I believe it's the best 100mm filter holder out there.
Buying all the pieces separately would cost you £490.88 + £5.00 shipping £495.88 after 10% discount is £446.79
So you save £81.80 and you also get a free filter wallet in the deal.
Why buy this kit?
Well, that's simple, it comes with everything you need in a starting set.
Just look at what you get.
Contents
1.-Firecrest 100mm filter holder.
1.- Firecrest ND1.2 (4 stops) Great for shorter long exposure photographs.
1.-Firecrest ND3.0 (10 stops) Ideal for Normal long exposure photographs.
1.-Firecrest ND Soft Edge Grad 0.9 (3 stop) Graduated filter a great graduated filter to help balance most images.
1.-Circular polarising filter.
3.- Adaptor rings incl.. 67mm, 72mm and 77mm adaptor threads and the holder has an 82mm thread built-in.
1.- Filter holder wallet
Now priced at £399.99 +£5.- shipping at £404.99 it's good value for money but if you enter discount code HAYES10 at checkout you get 10% off so it's just £364.49 delivered to your door.
At £364.49 for a filter holder, 3 filters, adaptor rings and a filter wallet that's fantastic value for money.
Going back to the products themselves.
The Firecrest filter holder.
Is a beautiful bit of kit, with the extra light shield adaptors you can actually stack ND filters. Yes, you can use the 4 & 10 stop filters together at the same time making it a 14 stop filter.
Again the extra light shields help protect your filters from sea spray and light rain, for a real in-depth review of the Firecrest filter holder click here where I go into a lot more detail.
Firecrest Pro filters
The Firecrest Pro series of filters are colour neutral, incredibly hard-wearing and the sharpest filters I have ever used (just like the Ultra's).
So what's the hard-wearing part about?
A filter is a filter, right?
Well, that's wrong... The way the Firecrest filters are made they actually sandwich the ND coating in between two slivers of glass. Yes, the filters are made of two thin sheets of glass and not one.
This has two advantages.
Firstly the ND coating can't be scratched as it's protected by glass on both sides and secondly due to the construction of the bonded glass it makes the filters more resilient to damage than a standard filter.
Again I have an in-depth review of the Firecrest Pro filters here
Ultra Kit
The same applies for the Ultra kit but there is a difference between the pro's and Ultra's Click here for my in-depth review of the Ultra filters.
I also have a review of the Colby Brown signature edition landscape kit here
What other filters would I buy?
If I were buying another add-on filter it would be the six stop or 1.8 ND Pro filter.
If you have any filter related questions then feel free to drop me an email at [email protected] or click here
Thanks for taking the time to read my review and enjoy those filters, you won't regret it.
See you out there,
Kieran.
https://www.landscapephotographyireland.com/elia-locardi-signature-edition-travel-kit-review
Kieran Hayes
Kieran Hayes Photography
Elia Locardi Signature Edition Travel Kit from Formatt Hitech review
Clonakilty
Cork
Co. Cork
Ireland
087-9103794
https://www.kieranhayesphotography.com/elia-locardi-filter-kit-review
Kieran Hayes Photography
5.0 Star rating
39 votes
15th of February 2020