Discover the Maven Mini Ring Light & New Filters – Wave 3 Kickstarter Launching August 12

by adam | Aug 11, 2025 | Maven Filters

If you love photography and videography, Maven Filters’ Wave 3 Kickstarter is something you won’t want to miss. Launching August 12 at 8:00 AM PST, Wave 3 brings an exciting lineup of creative tools, including the brand-new Maven Mini Ring Light and several innovative filters designed to elevate your shots.

In a recent YouTube video, photographer Taku Kumabe takes a hands-on look at the Mini Ring Light and showcases how its compact, magnetic design, long-lasting battery, and adjustable color temperature make it incredibly versatile. He also walks through accessories that make it easy to mount on your camera, clip to your laptop, or even use on a selfie stick for vlogging.

The video also covers several of our upcoming Wave 3 releases:

• LPL + ¼ Diffusion Filter – Combines light polarization with subtle diffusion for cinematic softness.

• Star Walker Filter – Adds a beautiful glow to bright stars in astrophotography.

• +2 and +4 Diopter Close-Up Lenses – Turn your existing lens into a near-macro lens for detailed close-ups.

These tools are designed to work together—pairing the ring light with diopters for stunning close-ups, or combining the Starwalker filter with your night sky photography for breathtaking results.

Don’t miss out – The Maven Filters Wave 3 Kickstarter goes live August 12 at 8:00 AM PST. Be among the first to back the campaign and get exclusive launch pricing on these exciting new tools.

Maven Mini Ring Light Development

by adam | Jul 15, 2025 | Maven Filters

MAVEN’s New Mini Ring Light!

Shortly after Wave 2 completed, I (Michael) found myself asking: “What filter problem has not been solved?”

The answer that came to mind was a compact, portable magnetic ring-light that would allow creators to get lighting around the lens. This would be particularly helpful for close-up/macro content as those shooters are often stopping down past f8 or f11 for DOF (Depth of Field) reasons and resulted in needing more light, hence longer shutter speeds. I had no idea of journey this idea would take me on over 18 months in the making.

(Note: Because the Ring Light is the hero product for Wave 3, I’ll take more space to explain it’s development, but feel free to use the chapter markers on the top left of this page to jump around to other Wave 3 filters.)

Being that this was our first attempt at electronics and our existing filter partners never made such a product, we had to find a new electronics manufacturer. We needed a new team who could make quality products at reasonable price, were strong communicators and could send us samples of their previous work.

This vetting process takes a couple months of communication back and forth, but after doing our homework, we chose a one, explained what we wanted performance wise, and this is what they sent back:

I had something much smaller in mind and looking back now, I chalk my initial size ideas to being a little naive about electronics development.

My new manufacturing partner explained:

“If you want it to be bright enough, and you want it to be re-chargable, it must be large, here is why:”

Form vs Function –

MAVEN products should be as beautiful as possible. But something I learned studying molecular biology in grad school which has was later confirmed in designing MAVEN filters, is that Function Determines Form.

Another way to look at it; “If we make something that is beautiful, but it’s aesthetics makes it too hard to use, is it good design?” The answer is no. The function & performance must come before the aesthetics & the “look” (if we are not in the fashion world).

Confluence & Compromise – When two knowledge sets merge

I was able to convince my new partners that we didn’t need 4 hours of run time, and it didn’t need to be extremely bright, due to the inverse square law of light . The LEDs were very thin, therefore what if we made the ring as small as possible and add a  side control panel that housed the battery?

“We can try…” was the answer. This is what they sent back:

I felt like this was a big step in the right direction for size, but was absolutely not a fan of the button controls. How confusing this would be-no one has time to get out their glasses to read the fine print & no one likes tiny, hard-to-press buttons!

Back to the drawing board!

What kinds of buttons would make it crazy simple to use?

A white triangle with the tip up to increase the power.
A darker triangle with the tip down to decrease the power.
Green means Go! So the power button should be green.
The Hemisphere button should be round, and blue to differentiate it from the others.

“But different colored buttons mean different plastics, which will increase the price.” My manufacturer answered. “What about all blue or all red?”  

“Let’s do the colored buttons anyway. It needs to be very easy to understand and use.” I insisted.

We want the MAVEN user experience to be fast, easy and fun to keep you in the shooting moment. The final button controls on the ring-light follow MAVEN’s philosophy of affordance based design, offering the user a suggestion on how the product is used, without needing to read the fine print:

Flat lighting Problem Solved!

One challenge with Ring Lights is they sometimes produce a flat look. Why not have hemisphere control? This way, users could adjust how much light is acting as a key or fill. What about color temperature? What if they all worked together? We went for it and can adjust hemispheres individually, for both brightness and Kelvin!

The MAVEN ring light was designed to work hand in hand with our new Wave 3 Diopters (more on these below). Let’s look at a quick example of what the pair can do on a non-macro lens:

As with our filters, I wanted to make a really special case. Something that would offer crush resistance to protect the light itself, still look awesome. We went though several iterations:

It took about a 6 weeks of iterations & 3D printing, but eventually we got figured it out:

This assures us that the final case will fit once we order the extrusion molds. The final case will look far more professional and be transparent, providing a crush resistant case and filter storage compartment.

We are so excited to see how you will use your MAVEN Ring-light!

Macro Photography – Maven Filters Diopters / Ring Light

by adam | Jun 12, 2025 | Maven Filters

+2 and +4 Close Up / Macro Diopters!

Instantly Transform your existing lenses into Close Up / Macro-Like Lenses! 

The Wave 3 Journey started when I (Michael) needed a range of Macro Lenses for a MAVEN filter commerical. I already have a Canon 100mm 2.8 EF, but I needed different perspectives. The problem? Good macro lenses are expensive, ranging from $500-$1200 each, and most of them are fixed focal lengths to maximize their sharpness.

The idea was simple; make a Magnetic Diopter lens that could mount in a second, greatly decreasing the cost of close up macro and decreasing the time it took to get set up.

But how detailed & sharp are diopters?

There are always DOF (depth of field) and Diffraction challenges when shooting macro, but the rule of thumb is this: The sharper your lens, the better the results. A diopter cant make an already soft lens sharp, but it can make a sharp lens get much closer, especially the more telephoto it is. This really unlocks a whole new world of very close up photography, without breaking the bank, allowing you to use your existing lenses in a new way.

What is Macro?

True Macro lenses shoot at a 1:1 ratio, meaning that if the subject you are shooting is 1 cm tall, it will be projected as 1 cm tall on the sensor. True macro lenses are designed  to allow us to get closer to our subjects than non-macro lenses, magnifying the image.

To illustrate both the size and sharpness of the subject matter as its projected by a lens, I have decided to use a ruler in cm/mm. If we know the size of the sensor, we will know the ratio of magnification of the lens by using the ruler. In the case of my 100mm Canon, a 1:1 ratio looks like this:

(As a side note, anything that is relatively magnified, but not at least a 1:1 ratio, is more properly referred to as a “close up” lens.)

How Diopters Work:

Diopter lenses and extension tubes have long been a loophole for general purpose lenses as close-up lenses. They change the minimum focusing distance of a lens, allowing us to get much closer than normal to our subject matter, magnifying the image.

Extension Tubes & Their Limits

Extension tubes are also a common way of getting lenses closer to our subject matter. They work by creating space between the camera and lens, and one strength is they do not change the optics of the lens. However, they do not greatly enhance the magnification properties of lenses over 80mm, take more time to install, and also expose our sensors to the environment.

(Show head to head comparison of Extension Tubes at 500mm vs Diopter)

All of the diopters on the market were threaded, meaning you had to physically screw them into the lens. The obvious question was: can we do this in a magnetic way? Little did I know how many other products the resulting solution would bring.

“It cannot be done.”

When I first brought up the idea of making magnetic diopter lenses as new product candidates, I was met with resistance from my manufacturing team:

“The Diopter lenses are much heavier than NDs or CPLs, there is no way the current designs can support them magnetically, nor can we easily apply MAVENs MRC and nano coating.” 

This sparked months of development and testing that led to a world’s first; thicker mounting ring, better magnets, and a whole new process to allow for the coatings MAVEN is famous for.

This was the result, with lens shaped knurlings in silver designating their purpose.

Followed up by an even heavier:

Let’s cut to the chase. This is the closest distance my 100-500 RF can do natively:

This is what I we can do with Extension Tubes:

(Show Image – as soon as it arrives)

And this is what happens when I use a new MAVEN +2 Diopter on the same lens:

Converting a 500mm lens into a near 1:1 macro, in less than a second, at a fraction of the cost of a dedicated macro lens was something I knew the photography community would want! And while I could see that the image wasn’t quite sharp as the native lens, it was more than sharp enough! I was thrilled!

What if we stack the diopters?

Something we quickly noticed was the +2 diopter was thin enough to stack, meaning we could stack 2 units of +2, or add them to the +4 Diopter to get +6 or +8.

Most general purpose lens (like my 24-15 f4 that lives on my camera) are not designed for macro type shots and require much further minimum focusing distances, limiting the lenses ability to get very close to my subject, meaning the subject wont be as magnified:

Normal Image:

Stacked Diopters Image:

What happens when we stack 2 x +2 Diopters with a +4 on the 24-105 f4 EF?

Diopters have been around for ages, they just haven’t been done to our knowledge as “magnetic filters”, meaning we have greatly reduced the setup time from needing to thread them in, making them fast and easy to use. While field testing Michael noted:

“The ability to change from regular shooting to close up shooting at this speed is something I have never experienced before. Having it on a zoom meant instant control of focal lengths for different perspectives. It was an absolute delight and will be a game changer for anyone interested in trying out close up photography.”

Super Macro is a thing!

For those of you who have your favorite macro lens, there is even better news.
MAVEN Diopters also work with macro lenses, changing the lens from a macro 1:1, to what is called “super macro”, meaning you can get even closer than a 1:1 ratio!. For those of you who want those extra details this is the way. 

Which brings us to the next problem……

Macro Shots often require very long exposures

(Show Shallow DOF with Macro)

The closer we get to our subjects the shallower the depth of field.

Which basically means that if you want to have a deep depth of field on macro shooting, we often have to use a smaller aperture, at least this is the knee jerk reaction, “stop that aperture down and try to get more depth.”

(Chart of differences & examples between the 2. +2 is sharper, but not as close. +4 is closer but still significantly Sharp.)

But there are other problems with doing this, smaller sized apertures require a much longer exposure.

If we are dealing with a perfectly still subject, we can use a longer shutter speeds and get the shot. If anything is moving, say for example, the wind blowing or insect moving…it’s not going to work out. All this to say that we need more relative light when shooting macro, simply because of the close-up requirement of needing to use a higher f stop for a deeper DOF.

(Show photo examples of macro movement)

To complicate matters, once we get into much higher f stops with much smaller aperture sizes, we start running into sharpness issues, which is referred to as diffraction.

While it is lens and sensor dependent (can vary) generally speaking once we get into the f11 or f13 range, we start the lose significant sharpness which can make our macro subjects look blurry and out of focus.

As with all MAVEN filters, the physical knurling of each filter is unique, in this case 2 silver lens icons for +2 Diopter and 4 for the +4.)

What most high-end macro shooters do to get around this is to take multiple shots at slightly different focus positions and “stack” the image in an editing program like photoshop, which produces stunning results, but we still have the problem of needing longer shutter speeds.

A World’s First – The MAVEN Magnetic Mini Ring Light! 

The MAVEN Mini Ring Light is dual magnetic, meaning that it mounts to your camera lens with a MAVEN Adapter ring or step-up ring for instant shooting access, and can also receive additional filters once on, including the new +2 and +4 diopters, and other filters for combined effect!

The first version of this light was rather large:

(Show original)

And while the form factor was beautiful, it was just too big and heavy, likely causing it to be left behind. I also thought the buttons were a bit too hard to see and not very easy to use.

I wanted something that could be as small as possible, so it could live in our camera bags and not take up much space or weight, but I also wanted it to be very simple to use.

“It has to be smaller and very intuitive”

The Inverse Square Law of Light

One of my favorite physics laws in regards to light says that for every half distance you get to a subject, the light source becomes 4 times brighter. This is an easy way to leverage limited light sources.

If we put a light a few centimeters away from our shooting subject, the light can be many, many times brighter, which means we do not really need to have a very bright light source (such as a strobe) and also means the output power doesn’t have to be as great.

Show Test Results of New Ring Light

There are also macro videographers out there who want the advantage of a continuous light source instead of a strobe.

The Achilles Heel of Ring Lights

Ring lights have been around for years, but there is one thing about them I have never loved:

They produce a flat look.

(Show larger ring lights vs Key and Fill Lights)

Most of this has to do with the fact that the intensity of the light control on ring lights is uniform, and in the Tik Tok age, a flat look has started to become more and more acceptable, even though the quality of light itself isn’t as pleasing to the subject as say, Rembrandt lighting, or using a key and fill light. They are usually two different light sources / tools, which means an extra thing to carry.

Why Not Just Build the Key and Fill Options into the Device?

I wanted the ability to split the ring light into two separately controllable hemispheres.

This way, users could adjust how much light is acting as a key or fill. They could turn them off individually, or alternately change and adjust their brightness. To the best of my knowledge, this too is a world’s first for a mini ring light!

Other Usability Problems Addressed

As with all MAVEN products, we want the user experience to be fast, easy and fun. Whenever possible, we want affordance to be involved- which is a design strategy that offers intuitive instruction to the user about what the control is.

For this reason, I insisted that the button controls had specific shapes and also color coded and then fought with the manufacturer about how this would increase the cost of the product as “every color requires extra cost”. They wanted me to use all black round buttons that gave no clues as what each button was because they just wanted to crank the product out and get paid. To me this was unacceptable.

I wanted the buttons shapes and colors to be instructive.

A triangle with the tip up, should be to increase the power – it should be white.

A triangle with the tip down, should be to decrease the power – it should be grey.

A Square button with the power logo should turn the light on, it should be green (to go!).

And the Hemisphere button should be round, and it should be blue.

To me a positive user experience is worth the added production cost.

Creative Motion with Maven 10-Stop ND Filter by photographer Steve Glass

by adam | May 19, 2025 | Maven Filters

When you’re stuck in a creative rut, sometimes the best solution is to shake up your process and try something totally different.

That’s exactly what photographer Steve Glass set out to do during his recent Cowboys in Colorado workshop. Instead of capturing the usual sharp, high-speed images of horses in motion, he reached for something unexpected: a Maven 10-Stop Neutral Density Filter and a slow shutter speed.

Sarah Hanssen, wrangler, Sundance Trail Guest Ranch, Red Feather Colorado. West Pasture. Gallop. Panning. Photo take by Steve Glass using the Maven 10ND Filter

The result? A beautifully blurred, dynamic image of a cowgirl on horseback that breaks all the usual rules — and makes the viewer stop and take a second look.

Why the 10-Stop ND?

Steve’s goal was to pan a moving subject in bright midday light — not an easy task without drastically overexposing the shot. By snapping on the Maven magnetic 10-stop ND, he was able to:

• Cut the light enough to shoot at 1/13 sec

• Maintain creative depth of field

• Introduce intentional motion blur to add drama and energy to the image

With this setup, Steve went from a technically clean but expected photo, to one filled with movement, emotion, and atmosphere.

“What if I just tried something different?”

In his full article, Steve walks through:

• His camera settings and thought process

• A breakdown of the gear used (including his Maven 10ND filter and trusty Manfrotto tripod)

• The lessons he learned — like why next time he’ll shoot the same shot wide open at f/2.8

This article is a great reminder that sometimes all it takes is one new piece of gear to unlock fresh creative possibilities.

Read Steve’s full post here:

Panning Running Horses – Full Article by Steve Glass

Follow Steve on Facebook: Glass Photography

Hands-On Landscape Photography Review with Maven Filters by Eugene Theron

by adam | May 16, 2025 | Maven Filters

In his latest blog article, landscape photographer Eugene Theron shares an in-depth hands-on review of Maven’s magnetic filter system. Over several months of field use, Eugene tested our LPL (Linear Polarizer) and Dark CPL Set, including 3-, 6-, and 10-stop ND filters with built-in CPLs — all chosen to match his Nikon mirrorless setup.

Eugene highlights the exceptional optical performance, no visible vignetting, negligible color cast, and the clever color-coded design that speeds up fieldwork. He praises the system’s robust build, ease of use (even with gloves), and lightweight feel — ideal for long hikes and rugged environments.

Photo By Eugene Theron using the Maven Linear Polarizer

He also points out how the filters held up in demanding conditions with no compromise to image quality, adding that he’s seen no sharpness loss or distortion, even when stacking filters on wide-angle lenses.

Eugene closes by saying he’s so impressed that he’s now a Maven affiliate — using our filters not just in his own work, but also in his workshops.

Read the full article here:

Hands on with Maven Filters: A Landscape Photography Review

Why Photographer Alessio Furlan Still Uses Physical Filters—And What Makes Maven Magnetic Filters Stand Out

by adam | May 1, 2025 | Maven Filters

If you’re searching for an honest, real-world Maven Magnetic Filters review, look no further than professional photographer Alessio Furlan’s latest video. In an era dominated by AI-powered editing and digital enhancements, Furlan raises an important question: Do photographers still need physical filters in 2025? His answer is a confident yes—and Maven’s innovative magnetic system is a big reason why.

What Makes Maven Magnetic Filters Different?

Throughout the review, Furlan explains why he continues to rely on physical filters in his landscape and travel photography. The Maven Magnetic Filters stand out thanks to their slim profile, magnetic mounting system, and intuitive color-coded design. Built for speed and simplicity, these filters eliminate the hassle of traditional threading and help photographers stay focused on the scene—not their gear.

Long-Term Testing: Real-World Maven Magnetic Filters Review Performance

In this Maven Magnetic Filters review, Furlan goes beyond first impressions. After months of real-world testing, he highlights key advantages like:

• Minimal vignetting on wide-angle lenses

• Rugged, high-end construction

• Creative options like degradable ND and infrared filters

Created by photographer Michael Andrew (aka “Maven”), these filters are clearly built with working photographers in mind.

Alessio Furlan explaining how the Maven Magic Variable Gradient filter works.

The Experience of Using Physical Filters

Furlan also reflects on the philosophy behind analog tools. For him, using physical filters adds depth to the photographic process. It slows things down, enhances mindfulness, and fosters a stronger connection with the subject—something post-processing can’t fully replicate.

Final Thoughts: Is It Worth It?

If you value simplicity, speed, and intentional shooting, these filters might be the upgrade your kit needs.