Well, I went and bought a “misty” filter.

My criteria was pretty tight. Tight to the point I doubted I could get anything worth while.

I wanted the most invisible look I could find. One that did just enough to make the exercise relevant.

There are some good filters out there seemingly designed for my needs exactly. The Tiffen Black Glimmerglass 1/8 and Black Satin 1/8, manage to retain contrast and sharpness, while adding glow and very mild softening, just enough for the infamous “cinematic” look to start to show (aka softened enough to not look digitally sharp).

Scratch these as they are hard to get in Australia for a reasonable price ($130+ for a 62mm).

K & F has a 1/8 strength Black Mist that is noticeably weaker/more natural looking than the industry standard Tiffen Black ProMist 1/8, but after a deeper dive, it is still a little strong for my tastes.

Just before I pushed the button on one as the “least worst” option, I remembered a review from a week or two ago, that I watched just before I grew tired of the whole process. The Kenko Black Mist 0.5, which seems to be a fringe runner, limited to Japanese reviews or maybe it’s just a new contender. It seems to be obviously less “Netflix”* than the Tiffen, and even noticeably weaker/smoother than the K & F Concepts. It does however still add blooming to highlights and just takes the edge off digitally oversharp footage.

A reviewer compared it to the K & F 1/8 which he personally prefferred, as he felt the Kenko was “too clean” for his needs.

Music to my ears, Kenko it is. It also comes from a company I have delt with previously who are red hot on service (expect it tomorrow, with free freight).

Shooting 1080p in Natural, with sharpness at -5 and contrast at -3, I have a strong base for cinema friendly capture. With light, lens and aperture selection and other factors to draw from, the Kenko will just give me that extra emphasis on film-like gentleness and allow me to handle light sources with more controlled creativity. It looks like it blooms lights well, but is otherwise pretty controlled.

I honestly do not see myself using it for many shoots, but when I do, I want to have a little something to rely on.

*I rate these filters as NCIS (waaaay too strong), Netflix (a look that is what it is), Cinematic (which is nearly invisible, but you notice it when its not there) and Hard Documentary (none).