Picking up where I let off last year with my soft mist or black mist diffusion filter reviews, I found a new one that I am really liking. The Moment CineBloom Diffusion filter.
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Moment CineBloom Diffusion Filters – ShopMoment – Amazon – B&H – Adorama
This filter is working a little bit differently than the Kenko, Tiffen, or K&F Black Mist Filter. The K&F filter kind of gave the images a wet look with larger particles embedded in the glass. The Kenko gives a very misty look which felt a little bit like an effect and wasn’t my favorite. Now there is this Cinebloom filter look, which I’ll explain.
The Moment Diffusion filters use fine nanoparticles similar to the Kenko or Tiffen filters, but they don’t use any coatings to reduce reflections and glare.
What you end up getting is a soft mist filter effect, but you get a haze on top of that from the way the light hits the filter. Or I should say, the light hits the filter which can cause extra ghosting and flare, then that effect hits the nanoparticles and the whole thing feels a little more organic and a little more classic.
Previously the K&F had the vibe I liked the most, a nice wet look that gave the images come character and vibe, but now I have to say I like this Moment Cinebloom filters a little more for an organic film look. Not that I don’t like those other filters, they are fun and great, but there is something about this filter that is working well for me and the way I shoot.
Moment Cinebloom Diffusion Filter Review
For this review, I am using the Moment Cinebloom Diffusion filter at 10% with the Nikon Z6 + 50mm f1.8 lens.
Moment advertises these for videographers and cinematographers, but I like to use these photos for street photography where they help take off some of that digital edge. I like to go for the film look and this helps a lot because, with film, especially with some stocks like Cinestill, you can get some blooming or halation in the highlights, and these filters help create that look on our digital cameras. Sometimes I’ll even use them with film and they’ll add even more softness to the tones.
Here is a sample of what it does during the day. This to me feels very much like a film stock, how the highlights all kind of have a halation to them. Then you throw my Aged presets on top and you’re very close to a film look.
Unedited Sample At Night
Unedited Samples In Day
Moment Diffusion Filter Build Quality
The Moment soft filters use nanoparticles between two layers of Japanese glass. The ring is made of “precision machined from aerospace-grade metal” aka Aluminum. They don’t officially say it’s Aluminum, and maybe it’s not, but usually, this language “aerospace-grade metal” just means aluminum, and it makes me laugh every time I read it because it’s just so ridiculous.
Anyway, aluminum is fine, but you do have to be a little careful since Aluminum filters can sometimes get stuck on lenses from my experience. I haven’t had that happen with this filter, but I’ve had it happen with the K&F filter. Totally jammed, I had to put the lens in the freezer, and then I was able to remove the filter. I’ve never had this happen with B+W filters, which use brass.
We’ll see how these Moment filters hold up, and I have to say they do feel really nice compared to the cheaper brands – really nice. They are very smooth when you screw them on or take them off, unlike the cheaper ones which feel almost sandy or gritty and gross.
The additional red accent to the lens also looks really nice with Nikon mirrorless or some Leica cameras which also use red in the design.
The Cinebloom Diffusion filters come in three different powers – 5% – 10% and 20%. I bought the 10% and that’s what you see here. Keep in mind, if you buy the 5% thinking you’ll get less of an effect, you will, but the glass is still uncoated and you’ll still get a glare or a softening of contrast when in bright lighting.
– You can see here in this sample, a soft diffusion on the lights, but then in the very bright lights of the background, there is almost a glow. Also around the bright areas, the contrast is a little softer and the blacks feel a little lifted because of the way the light is scattered.
Moment Cinebloom Diffusion Filter Review | Bottom Line
Of the various brands of soft mist or black mist filters that I’ve used, this is my favorite look so far. I have yet to try the Tiffen though.
There are a few different ways to make these diffusion filters and they all produce different looks. Some filters use small nanoparticles or large nanoparticles with multicoated glass, and some use nanoparticles with uncoated glass.
The Cinebloom filters do the nanoparticles with un-coated glass which to me is the winning recipe with my very high contrast Nikon lenses. If we’re using older lenses with older coatings or single coatings, I would probably experiment with different filters, but for modern lenses, I like this look a lot, and I also like the K&F large nanoparticle filters which produce more of a wet look.
The build quality of the Moment filters is the best I’ve seen so far and I like the red ring, looks cool and the bright color makes it obvious when you have this filter mounted to your lens.
Sample Images – 10% Power
These sample images are all shot on the Nikon Z6 with the Z 50mm f1.8 and colored with my Core Presets. For these night shots, I shot with the cloudy white balance which gives me very orange and yellow photos under this lighting, and I also under-exposed by about 1 stop. I used the Nikon Standard Profile since it has a nice blend to the colors compared to Adobe Color or Adobe Standard which feels a little harsh at times. On top of that, I layered my presets and did very little editing other than that.
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