Photography Life

PL provides various digital photography news, reviews, articles, tips, tutorials and guides to photographers of all levels

  • Reviews
  • Learn
  • About Us
  • Forum
  • Search
Home → Reviews → Camera Gear Accessories

Hitech Pro Stop 10 ND Filter

By Nasim Mansurov 6 Comments
Last Updated On February 10, 2019

This is a quick review of the Hitech Pro Stop 10 ND Filter, designed to dramatically decrease the amount of light that enters a camera lens. Why and when would one need such a filter? With less light passing through the lens and reaching the film or digital sensor, slower shutter speeds/longer exposures have to be used, which ultimately blur any kind of motion. This neutral density filter is specifically designed for landscape photography: for photographing waterfalls, flowing rivers, moving clouds and other type of motion.

Hitech Prostop 10 Case
NIKON D600 + 105mm f/2.8 @ 105mm, ISO 200, 1/40, f/11.0

One of the biggest issues with photographing motion is controlling the shutter speed. People often ask me how I get that “dreamy” look in my waterfall photographs. The answer is quite simple – all I have to do is slow down the shutter speed, which makes the falling water appear blurred. While there are some ways to decrease the shutter speed by setting ISO to the smallest number such as 100 and decreasing the aperture (or increasing the f number), it can be problematic for two reasons: the scene is often too bright, and image quality can be severely degraded when aperture is too small (diffraction). That’s when Neutral Density filters come to the rescue – they absorb most of the light and only let some of the light through.

Table of Contents

  • Product Information
  • Packaging and Use
  • Sample Images
  • Summary

1) Product Information

Product Specifications:

  1. Type: Solid neutral density
  2. Size: 6 x 6″ / 152.4 x 152.4mm
  3. Filter Factor: 3.0 (10 stops)
  4. Effect: Permits an increased exposure
  5. Construction: CR-39 dyed resin

Main Features:

  1. This filter measures 6 x 6″ / 152.4 x 152.4mm and is constructed from specially dyed CR-39 resin.
  2. 3.0 ND filter darkens the image, allowing you to photograph with a longer shutter speed or wider aperture than normally required.
  3. Providing a reduction of 10 stops, this filter allows you to control depth of field and convey movement more easily.
  4. Foam gasket around the perimeter of the filter helps to reduce flare and provides additional reinforcement.

The Hitech 6 x 6″ Pro Stop 10 3.0 ND Filter is a solid neutral density filter providing an exposure reduction of about 10 stops. This 3.0 density creates a darkening of the entire image, allowing you to photograph with a wider aperture or slower shutter speed than normally required. By slowing your exposure time or increasing your aperture, you are able to control depth of field and convey movement more easily. This filter also integrates a foam gasket around the perimeter of the filter to help reduce flare and non-direct light from reaching the lens. This gasket also helps to reinforce the filter substrate and offers more protection from accidental drops.

2) Packaging and Use

As shown in the first photo, the filter comes in a soft black leather-like pouch. The filter is wrapped in paper, which I threw away after unwrapping the filter. A small Prostop User Guide is included, which has some useful information about the filter and how it should be used. The first page of the guide talks about Color Cast:

The filter has been purposely designed to give a slight blue color cast to assist in enhancing landscape shots, particularly in relation to water and skies. This can easily be removed using Photoshop or other software programs. Each filter is made to stringent standards but batch variation does occur and this may sometimes give more of a green-blue cast dependent on the conditions in which the filter is used.

Next, under the “Set Up” section, it says that RAW is generally recommended over JPEG. Then, it says that white balance should be manually set, which kind of contradicts the “shoot RAW” statement. If you shoot RAW, white balance simply does not matter – you can set it to whatever you want in Lightroom/Photoshop.

When I first mounted the filter on my camera, I was confused by what I was seeing. My white balance (which is typically set to “Auto” since I shoot RAW) was indeed screwed up, giving me all sorts of strange colors in the scene. Blues did not look like blues and greens were too light/bright. I took the filter out and everything went back to normal. Then, I found the little booklet and read the above info. I was quite disappointed by this “feature” to be honest, since the color cast does absolutely nothing for people that shoot RAW. That’s why I don’t buy color/warming/cooling filters of any kind – those are only good for film and JPEG shooters. While the blue color cast won’t damage images, since I can easily fix them in Lightroom/Photoshop, I just do not want to deal with setting white balance on my camera to be able to view the image correctly on the LCD. The Nikon D800E could not cope with the blue color cast, so I do not expect any camera to guess the white balance correctly. So for me personally, this blue color cast feature is simply worthless. On top of that, my filter sample was definitely affected by both green and blue color cast, as warned in the user guide.

Lastly, there is a “Gasket” section, which talks about the gasket that is attached to the filter and its role in preventing light leakage.

The very last page of the guide contains the following Exposure Chart:

Regular Shutter SpeedWith Pro Stop 10
1/1000th1 Second
1/500th2 Seconds
1/250th4 Seconds
1/125th8 Seconds
1/60th15 Seconds
1/30th30 Seconds
1/15th1 Minute
1/8th2 Minutes
1/4th4 Minutes
1/2th8 Minutes
1 Second16 Minutes
2 Seconds32 Minutes

10 Stops is a huge exposure change, as evidenced from the above table. This filter takes 1/250th of a second down to 4 seconds, which is quite impressive. Because of this, the filter is so dark, that it almost looks completely black:

Hitech Prostop 10
NIKON D600 + 105mm f/2.8 @ 105mm, ISO 200, 1/40, f/11.0

Dark is good for increasing exposure time, but it is not good for your camera’s autofocus system – forget about AF operation when using this filter. The best way is to take the filter off, acquire focus, switch to manual focus and only then slide the filter into place. If you do not change to manual focus, your lens will hunt back and forth even in broad daylight.

3) Sample Images

Downtown Seattle at Night
NIKON D800E + 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 82mm, ISO 100, 25/1, f/11.0

4) Summary

I have used ND filters quite a bit in the past and I have been very happy with my circular B+W 77mm 1.8 ND MRC filter (6 stops), which has been by far my most favorite ND filter for slowing down exposure time. While it is not as dark as the Hitech Pro Stop and not as versatile as the Singh-Ray Vari-ND, autofocus on the D800 typically works with it, there is no need to mount a filter holder and it does not cause vignetting issues. If I needed to get something darker, I would go with a darker B+W circular filter instead. Overall, I am quite disappointed by this filter, especially by its green/blue color cast. There are plenty of other good circular clear ND filters out there that have much better performance and value in my opinion.

Hitech Pro Stop 10 ND Filter
  • Features
  • Build Quality
  • Handling
  • Value
  • Packaging and Manual

Photography Life Overall Rating

2.4

Related Articles

  • Hitech 105mm Circular Polarizer
    Hitech 105mm Circular Polarizer Review
  • Hitech 100mm Modular Filter Holder
    Hitech 100mm Modular Filter Holder Review
  • Hitech Neutral Density Filter Kit
    Hitech Neutral Density Master Kit Review
  • Contents that will fit in a Lowepro Pro Roller x200 Roller Bag
    Lowepro Pro Roller x200 Review
  • Op-Tech Pro Loop Strap
    Must-Have Digital Camera Accessories
  • FotodioX WonderPana
    FotodioX WonderPana FreeArc Filter System Review
Disclosures, Terms and Conditions and Support Options
Filed Under: Camera Gear Accessories Tagged With: Lens Filter, Product Reviews

About Nasim Mansurov

Nasim Mansurov is the author and founder of Photography Life, based out of Denver, Colorado. He is recognized as one of the leading educators in the photography industry, conducting workshops, producing educational videos and frequently writing content for Photography Life. You can follow him on Instagram and Facebook. Read more about Nasim here.

guest

guest

6 Comments
Newest
Oldest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Dan Francis
Dan Francis
September 6, 2016 4:34 pm

Please review Breakthrough Photography filters whenever you get a chance. They have ND and circular polarizers as well.

Thanks.

0
Reply
Peter Boender
Peter Boender
December 31, 2015 3:38 am

“Then, it says that white balance should be manually set, which kind of contradicts the “shoot RAW” statement. If you shoot RAW, white balance simply does not matter – you can set it to whatever you want in Lightroom/Photoshop.”

True for the resulting RAW file, but WB does affect the small JPEG that’s embedded within the RAW…

0
Reply
InLighted
InLighted
November 22, 2015 12:55 pm

Hi Nasim,

Have had any experience with Haida ND filters? They seem worth of an in-depth review.

0
Reply
Greg Heller
Greg Heller
September 6, 2014 11:07 am

Hey Nasim:

Are you aware that they have a new model 10 stop filter called the Pro Stop 10 IRND — just wondered if you had heard anything about it. According to 2filters.com it’s supposed to correct the color cast situation that the earlier version had. Thanks

0
Reply
Michal
Michal
August 22, 2014 7:22 am

hey, did you try new IR version of that filter?

0
Reply
Keith
Keith
September 15, 2013 9:57 pm

Hi, I’m an enthusiast photographer and I am wondering about your take on RAW and customer colour temp calibration. I shoot RAW and typically use a whitebalance card for colour correction post in Lightroom. I am experimenting with setting a whitebalance before the shoot but so far it seems that if I do this and import as shot, I get much better results (with ND/grads) with no correction required. Shooting sunrises for example where the colour temp may be shifting makes it a pain to continually shoot a reference, however the technique of setting the colour temp seems to work properly on import for RAW. Whats your thoughts on this?

I agree that having a blue tint built in is useless, its not neutral. Thanks for raising that point.

0
Reply

Learn

  • Beginner Photography
  • Landscape Photography
  • Wildlife Photography
  • Portraiture
  • Post-Processing
  • Advanced Tutorials

Reviews

  • Camera Reviews
  • Lens Reviews
  • Other Gear Reviews
  • Best Cameras and Lenses

Photography Tutorials

Photography Basics
Landscape Photography
Wildlife Photography
Macro Photography
Composition & Creativity
Black & White Photography
Night Sky Photography
Portrait Photography
Street Photography
Photography Videos

Unique Gift Ideas

Best Gifts for Photographers

Subscribe via Email

If you like our content, you can subscribe to our newsletter to receive weekly email updates using the link below:

Subscribe to our newsletter

Site Menu

  • About Us
  • Beginner Photography
  • Lens Database
  • Lens Index
  • Photo Spots
  • Search
  • Forum

Reviews

  • Reviews Archive
  • Camera Reviews
  • Lens Reviews
  • Other Gear Reviews

More

  • Contact Us
  • Subscribe
  • Workshops
  • Support Us
  • Submit Content

Copyright © 2023 · Photography Life

You are going to send email to

Move Comment