Choosing Your Blackstone ND Grad Filters

The prevailing thought on hard-edge grad filters is that they're only suitable for perfectly flat horizons, such as seascapes. This is of course, completely untrue. Hard-edge grad filters are extremely versatile tools for controlling the luminosity of the sky in various conditions. A hard-edge grad filter will create a single amount of light reduction for the whole of your sky. When carefully placed, the transition from ND to clear can be cleverly hidden in the horizon. 2 stops should be considered the "standard" reduction amount, and the 3 stops is a strong reduction to balance bright skies with dark terrain below. Don't be afraid to experiment.

Blackstone ND Grad Features

100% Neutral. 100% Resolution.

Blackstone ND filters are a technological leap-frog advancement over competing ND filters. Legacy dye-based ND filters suffer from serious color cast. The first generation of Vapor Deposition Coated (VDC) ND filters have largely corrected the color cast problem, but lack the ability to resolve high-megapixel camera without diffusing the image. Wine Country Camera’s exclusive Blackstone ND features the next generation of vapor deposition coating that is both perfectly neutral across all spectrums of light (including UV and IR) and resolves the image with zero diffusion effect.

Visible Light + UV & IR

Digital cameras place a far greater demand on filters to perform across the entire light spectrum due to the digital sensor’s ability to record both UV and Infrared light. Legacy “stoppers” are now obsolete as the digital sensor records both the color cast and the infrared light pollution that overwhelms the sensor and causes digital artifacts. Blackstone’s NextGen VCD technology is perfectly neutral across all spectrums.

The above images are 100% crops taken from an 80 megapixel Phase One IQ180 file. One image was 1/20th of a second with no filter. The other image was 60 seconds exposure with a Blackstone ND 10 Stop filter. Blackstone's NextGen Vapor Deposition Coating is so advanced that there is zero loss of resolution, zero color shift, and zero surface distortions. In fact, the two images are so close in terms of image quality, we're not going to tell you which one is which.

Fire Polished Schott Ultra White Glass

If you’re going to build the best ND filter in the world, use the best glass in the world. Period. Schott’s Ultra White optical glass has a crystal-like appearance and extremely high transmittance across the visible light spectrum. Schott Ultra White glass features an extremely flat, fire polished surface to eliminate any visible distortions caused by surface imperfections.

100+ Megapixel

The trajectory of cameras and megapixels is an obvious one. 35mm sensors are regularly resolving 40+ to 50+ megapixels, while medium format cameras are at 150 megapixels. Many filters (especially bonded ones) simply cannot resolve light at a sufficient resolution. The result is blurring of the image. Blackstone ND filters are designed and extensively tested on high megapixel Phase One cameras to ensure that they resolve to the highest degree possible. The Blackstone ND coating is the state of the art in ND science. 

Includes Protective Filter Vault

Each Blackstone ND filter includes a protective filter vault for free (a $35 value). Filter vaults protect the filter from fingerprints and damage. When used in the Wine Country Camera filter holder system, they create a light tight enclosure to eliminate reflections behind your filters.
Wine Country Camera’s innovative filter holder system redefined how photographers use filters.

Our holder system focuses usability once the camera is on the tripod, and allows the photographer to fine tune their images using an iterative workflow.

WCC Quality

Our mission is clear. We’re dedicated to providing the most innovative products available for photographers. We don’t skimp on quality and only use the finest materials. Anything less is unacceptable.