H&Y Revoring

I’ve seen a LOT of photography gadgets and gizmos over the last .. umm … 30 years. There have been some real winners (Hahnel corded remote) and some real dogs (far too many too list). But this may actually be my favourite gadget because it’s just so darn useful!

Revoring is short for “Revolutionary Adapter Ring” – or it should be. So what is this wonder gadget? It’s a magic step-down ring. The Revoring fits any lens from 67mm to 82mm, which happen to be most of my lenses. I don’t need to carry a collection of step-down rings or go searching for that 72-82mm step-down ring I still can’t find!

I always tell photographers to buy the largest diameter filter they will need for their lenses. In my case, it’s 82mm for my Tamron SP 24-70 G2. All my filters are 82mm – Kenko Pro 1D Circular Polarizer, Variable ND, a collection of solid ND. My other lenses are anywhere from 67mm to 77mm filter size, which means buying expensive filters or step-down rings.

Another challenge with step-down rings is that you have to be careful stacking them. If you take an 82-77mm step-down and then a 77-72mm step-down to use on a wide-angle lens, you’ll get vignetting from the rings. A straight 82-72mm step-down ring works, but that’s one more ring to remember or forget.

Revoring is available as a standalone adapter ring or integrated with H&Y’s excellent quality Variable ND/Circular Polarizer combination, which is what I’m testing today. The ND range is ND3 to ND1,000 – 1.5 to 10 stops of light. Aside from being able to fit all my lenses, the next best thing is that this Variable ND stops before you get that horrible “X” band across your image. There is a hard stop so you can’t go past the 10-stop limit. A silver handle controls the ND and a scale is printed on the body. The integrated Circular Polarizer is controlled by a second handle on the middle ring. It comes with a nice zippered neoprene pouch to protect the ring and/or glass.

The adjustable step-down ring feature is controlled by a large, easy to hold ring closest to the lens. The mechanism resembles a lens aperture and features an inventive overlap to prevent light leaks. It’s a really cool design – well thought out, well-engineered and appears to be durable (I didn’t drop it to test it).

I went down to a local creek as running water is the best way to test out an ND filter. The blazing hot sun presented further challenges. Base exposure was ISO64, f/11 at 1/100s. The ND worked very well at blurring the flowing water. The longer 15s exposure is lower contrast and more detail is showing in the trees in the background. The grey/green water on the right was how it appeared from certain angles – there is still a fair bit of algae in the water.

For a different perspective, and to test Revoring’s ability to fit a 77mm lens, I switched lenses to my Laowa 15mm f/4. This is why I love the Revoring – it just goes from lens to lens and all the settings can stay the same. The polarizer helps minimize glare on the water and the ND allows for a 6 second shutter time to blur the water.

I’m looking forward to some time at the cottage where I can use this some more. Real waterfalls, here I come!

About the Author – Will Prentice (www.capturaphoto.ca) is a professional photographer based out of Whitby, Ontario and Brand Specialist – Lighting for Amplis.