The B+W was definitely the brightest of the bunch which was confirmed in previous testing, but since the objective of a ND filter is to reduce the amount of light to create a longer exposure then I consider this a BAD thing. As a result I’d have to classify it as the worst performer for doing its job as a ND filter at the MIN setting. Others may disagree and consider this a good thing since some may appreciate the MIN setting introducing the least amount of change from no filter state, but I’m not one of those people. With this in mind, I’d rank the filters as follows for brightness:
Singh-Ray – It starts dark and only gets better after you move to MAX, and that’s exactly what I want from my VariND.BowerB+W
I couldn’t get valid data in this test for MAX, but my subjective findings for my MAX testing under these conditions (with my lights cranked up to 6.0) were as follows:
Bower – This was the darkest with no color castHoya – This got the darkest, but only if you like the blue cast. Back off from that and Bower wins the darkest title. – At only 1 stop brighter than the Bower, this should be considered a top performer, not a mid-packTiffen – My test indicated 2 stops brighter than the Singh-Ray which I felt was disappointing.B+W – Sadly this mirrors my first and second rounds of testing where this filter just doesn’t get dark enough to play with strong performers at the top of the pack.