Manfrotto Xume

If you've got a stack of circular photo filters nestled in your camera bag, or even a single trusty polarizer tucked away in a pocket, the chances are that you've wasted a good amount of time out in the field screwing them onto your lens and removing them again – perhaps in the bitter cold of first light on a winter's morning, making it 10 times harder with thick gloves on. On some occasions you might not even have bothered getting the filters out of their snug cases.

Now Manfrotto has come up with an remarkably simple and neat solution – if fact it's so simple and neat that it's hard to believe it's taken this long for someone to come up with it. 

The Xume filter holder and adapter is a clever magnetic quick-release system that sees a magnetized filter holder screwed onto the front of your lens, with the lens adapter screwing onto the rear of the filter. Offer one up to the other and they'll snap together firmly – and you'll need to apply some force to dislodge them, so don't worry about your expensive filters suddenly becoming detached and dropping on the deck. 

You can buy the holder and adapter individually in filter sizes from 49-82mm, and can also be purchased as a kit (which works out a little bit cheaper) with matching holders and adapters.

The system works a treat, although bear in mind that because of the extra 6-7mm on the front of the lens there is a risk of vignetting with some optics, particularly wide-angle lenses.

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