Mindshift Filter Hive Review

For those who aren’t familiar, MindShift Gear is the sister company to Think Tank Photo.  They started a new company with the sole goal of providing the best carrying solutions for outdoor photographers.  They realized that the needs of outdoor, adventure and landscape photographers is very specific and differs greatly from almost all other categories so it made sense to have a dedicated company to solve these problems.  The Rotation 180 Professional was the first product in the lineup and its unique rotation system was an instant hit.  I use this pack on a daily basis myself and can honestly say that so far it’s the best photo pack I’ve ever used.

With this first success behind them they decided to move on to tackling some associated issues with carrying your gear and quickly determined that there was a serious deficiency in options for carrying filters.  Filters are a staple part of a landscape photographers kit but the problem is that they are fragile and come with a lot of associated ‘baggage’.  Thread adapters, filter holders, screws, round filters, square filters, rectangular filters……. the list goes on.  Inevitably these things get tossed into your pack and stashed in pockets all over the place.  It’s hard to keep track of all that stuff and just this past summer I ended up taking a once-in-a-lifetime trip to Cambodia where I forgot the screws to actually assemble my filter holder!  Then I ended up warping three very expensive filters in the heat because I had simply squashed them into the back pocket of my pack with no real protection.


MindShift Filter Hive

Mindshift Filter hive review

Let’s take a look at the features of the bag then…… what was important was to offer a solution that would work for as many people as possible.  The Filter Hive therefore has a removable filter pocket inside it that can be inserted into your existing bag.  The filter filing pocket can take both round filter and rectangular filters as well as square ones.  If you’re comfortable with storing related accessories in the internal pockets of your existing bag, but just want a better way to organize and protect your filters in among your lenses and cameras, then this is how you would use it.

mindshift filter hive review

The second option is to leave the filter filer (that’s my name for it but it’s kinda catchy) inside the Filter Hive as a standalone bag.  There’s no reason you can’t configure your bag’s internal space to fit the whole Hive, but it can also be attached to the outside of your pack, or attached to a belt for a super lightweight solution. Importantly it also has a loop on it for hanging on your tripod, either over the ball head or from the hook on the bottom.  Easy access during fast changing light.

mindshift filter holder

Zippered pockets on both the front of the Hive and the filter file keep all your screws in one place for adjusting the stages on your filter holder and color coded tabs on the file mean you can easily organize things by their filter density.

mindshift filter holder

You’ll get up to 6 x 82mm filters in the filer or 6 rectangular/round ones as well.  This should be enough to satisfy people who use only one of those types, and more than enough for the folks that use a combination of the two.


The price of all this?  Just $54.99


External pouch:
8.1” W x 5.3” H x 3.9” D (20.5 x 13.5 x 10 cm)

Removable filter insert:
7.3” W x 4.3” H x 3.1” D (18.5 x 11 x 8 cm)

Rectangular filter slots:
6.7” W x 4.3” H (170 x 110 mm)

Round filter slots:
3.4” W x 3.6” H (86 x 91 mm)

0.6 lbs (0.3 kg)

Further Reading – Other MindShift Gear Reviews

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