Camarm Variable ND Filter MRC HD Optical Glass (77mm)

Let's be real, this is the cheapest variable ND filter on Amazon, so if it was a dud I wasn't going to be super disappointed -- the only place where my expectations could go were up!First, let me preface my review by saying that at short focal lengths you WILL see banding with a variable ND filter. The combination of the focal length and the polarizers in the filter will result in striped banding and/or crosses. Some manufacturers specifically state that at focal lengths less than 35mm, you will not get the full range of stops.That said, this is an ND 400, so it's 8 and 2/3 stops. That super expensive fancy Peter McKinnon signature quartz filter is only a 2-5 stop filter, and for good reason. You should expect to get 2-5 stops of light reduction with this filter, except at longer focal lengths.I was a little concerned by the picture because of the red ring around the filter, I worried it would cause vignetting, but when I received the filter I realized it's much larger than the 77mm thread. The smallest diameter of the filter is 77mm, so vignetting shouldn't be a problem unless you are stacking filters at short focal lengths.At 17mm I had a dark ring around the outside of the image when stacked on a UV filter, but when I removed the UV filter there was no ring.I can confirm that at 17mm, the filter doesn't have apparent banding at around 2-5 stops, but it's hard to say exactly where it starts banding, since there are no finite stops on the filter. It has hard stops at the min and max ends of adjustment, which is nice. The filter is larger than the filter thread, so it's easy to rotate the filter while looking through the viewfinder.Overall I would say this variable ND filter is a spectacular deal and performs very well, I mean you can't even buy a meal at a fast food joint for $8.95 anymore!

This filter is awesome! The build quality is really amazing. You can just tell by the build quality that this product will last you a while. The filter does come packaged in a really nice plastic case, which I recommend you keep to store this filter when your not using it. Why would you carry around a bunch of ND filters of different intensity when you can get just one and have a huge variety? I took some pictures and attached them below to show what a huge difference this filter can make. The camera was on manual ISO100, shutter speed was at 1/4000, and 3.5 F-Stop. The first image is with no filter, the second one is with the lowest setting on the filter, and the last one was with the highest setting on the filter. The last picture looks like it's completely dark but that little dot is actually the sun.I didn't see any significant degradation to resolution or color degradation. I'd highly recommend this filter for anyone looking for a ND filter.

This ND filtr is the real deal. When using this filtr , pictures were crisp and sharp! Definitely high quality product!

I wanted to give a chance to a variable ND filter. Thought this would be a decent starting point. I'm glad I didn't spend more money on this experiment. At the minimum end (1-2) stops this works fine but the darker you go the more you start seeing purple haze in the photos. The optical quality make this unusable for me beyond a stop or two. I'll keep my regular ND filter set from now on.

Terrible optics. I can see the degradation in my camera