Plastic Flash Filter Kit: Is That a Rainbow in your Pocket?

eight-pack of colored filters is “more whoa-inducing than a double-rainbow,” according to the blurb. The satisfyingly hefty chunks of acrylic will color the light from your flash for selective effects, or sit over your cameras lens to cast their hue over the entire scene.

Drilled to hook onto a keyring, and much sturdier than flimsy colored-gels, the plastic chips are just $15 and look like a whole lot of fun. If I didn’t already own a bag of gels, I’d spring for these right away. There’s just one thing missing: CTO. What? CTO, or color temperature orange, is the filter that warms your flash to the same color as indoor tungsten lighting, and is the most useful flash filter you can own.

It can also be used to simulate the setting sun when used in its full-power incarnation. Happily, this last, rather over-the-top, effect should be possible with the paler of orange filters.

And before you worry about putting hunks of cheap plastic in front of your beautifully engineered lens, don’t. First, you shouldn’t be thinking too hard about image quality when you’re turning the whole room red. Second, this close to the lens even your pinky won’t show up on an image. Seriously. Set the lens on your SLR to its widest aperture and try it for yourself.

The filter kit is available now.

Read More http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/08/plastic-flash-filter-kit-is-that-a-rainbow-in-your-pocket#ixzz0yyhc9min