Although it’s made from metal alloy, Kase’s Armour filter holder is lightweight. Its black anodised finish looks and feels great. However, I noticed that the black coating starts to rub off some of the corners after a bit of use. Overall, however, it is well-made.
The first step in using the Kase Wolverine Armour System is to attach the appropriate magnetic adapter ring or magnetic adapter ring and step ring to your lens. With the correct adapter and rings attached to the lens, it’s now possible to mount the holder.
The magnetic attraction between the Kase Armour filter holder and the magnetic rings is impressively strong. It means the holder snaps quickly into position. It also means that you can’t put the holder on the wrong way around.
If you try to pull the filter holder off the lens, you’ll discover that there’s a small catch that needs to be pulled back before it comes away. That said, if you lift the holder up from the corner opposite the catch, it can be removed without pulling back the catch.
Conveniently, this catch doesn’t need to be released to mount the holder, only to remove it.
With the Armour filter holder in position, you can fit a 95mm circular Armour filter. This could be the Armour circular polariser (CPL) or an ND filter. These filters are also magnetic and one fits perfectly in a dedicated circular recess in the holder. Again, as it uses magnetic attraction, it can only be put in one way around and it snaps in neatly.
Two semi-circular wells on opposite corners of the holder allow enough space for fingers to grasp the CPL (or other 95mm filter) and remove it from the holder.
If you want to use the CPL and a Kase Armour Magnetic Circular ND filter, the CPL should be mounted on the back of the filter holder (there’s a second circular recess) so that the ND filter can snap into the front-facing recess.
As with the Kase K9 Filter Holder, there’s a small red metal cog on one side of the holder that engages with a ring inside the holder to enable the CPL to be rotated without touching the filter itself. If there are front and rear-mounted filters, they both rotate but that’s only of significance to the polariser.
Kase sells rectangular filters with a frame pre-installed, but the frames can also be retro-fitted to existing filters and it’s just a case of tightening a few screws. This is easy enough to do but it’s something that needs to done in good light on a clear table, it’s not something you’ll want to do out in the field.
Also, I found the frame screws near impossible to unscrew once they are nice and tight, so it’s important to ensure you have frames for all the filters that you intend to use.
Once they are mounted in a magnetic filter frame, square and rectangular filter snap into position on the holder between the guides on either side. The transition in a graduated filter can be shifted simply by pushing the filter up or down in the holder. Once you’re happy with it’s location, tightening the screw on the opposite side of the holder from the CPL rotating wheel, keeps it in position securely.