A First Look at the H&Y Magnetic Filter Holder

Hong Kong-based company H&Y specializes in different filters and one of their more interesting offerings is a magnetic filter holder which uses the company’s (or some specific rectangle Lee filters) that you can very easily place and lockdown.

Richard Sibley from Photo Gear News recently did a hands-on with the H&Y magnetic filter holder system and demonstrated how it works. The system is fairly simple – it uses magnets inside the holder and metal frames on the filters as well as lines on the holder that can help you set the precise height of the filter each time (if you are using graduated filters for example).

H&Y were smart enough to realize that magnets are nice for helping you put the filter and change its position but you will need to find a way to secure the filter in place so it won’t fall down by accident. This is why they added a metal locking mechanism so after you set the height of the filter you can lock it down and it won’t move anywhere. The holder relies on magnetic/metal frames that fit most 100x150mm filters, including H&Y’s own filters and Lee filters using a frame.

The H&Y K-series filter holder

As Sibley demonstrates in the video, you can stack some filters using the magnetic system but the second filter will not be locked down (just magnetized) so you will need to be more careful.

The holder is 100% metal with a drop in filter part so you can use polarizers for example (Sibley demonstrates a 95mm CPL in the video which has an interesting gear on the side to rotate the filter which is a nice touch). One other interesting product H&Y has is an ND8+CPL filter which of course can be used with the holder as well if you like.

The K-series holder (with a 95mm CPL) will set you back $239.

An official H&Y video about the holder system

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Iddo Genuth
Iddo Genuth is the founder and chief editor of LensVid.com. He has been a technology reporter working for international publications since the late 1990's and covering photography since 2009. Iddo is also a co-founder of a production company specializing in commercial food and product visual content.

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