Neutral-density filters
B+W XS-Pro Digital ND MRC Nano £52-226/$67-270
Screw-in filters may not quite have the kudos of a square or rectangular filter system, but B+W’s round XS-Pro filters certainly aren’t short on features. Their MRC Nano (Multi-Resistant Coating) helps shed dirt and water, and we found it does indeed do a good job of beading away rain drops. Further coatings reduce reflections, while Schott glass increases optical clarity and colour fidelity.
Thread diameters range from just 30.5mm all the way up to 95mm, and you can have two-, three-, six- or 10-stop densities. Whichever option you go for, you get an exceptionally shallow frame depth that makes these filters great for use with ultra wide-angle lenses.
However, our samples weren’t quite so great in our image quality tests. The three-stop version produced excellent results in our colour accuracy
