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SZ Filters – Rainbow Starlight & Blast Make In-Camera Magic

Feroz Khan
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Last updated on 12/28/2025
01/02/2026
5 Mins read
A hand holds a circular glass filter showing rainbow-colored light patterns against a white background.
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I am really enjoying what SZ Filters is doing with their lineup of filters. It’s so refreshing to be able to create some really interesting looks without having to go back to your computer and spend hours editing. Making each image unique are the new two models I tried from SZ Filters – their Rainbow Starlight and Blast.

There’s something challenging and rewarding about filters that defy traditional expectations. Not to correct light or perfect exposure. Not to flatten contrast or mute color. The SZ Filters Rainbow Starlight and Blast Filter do exactly the opposite. They take light that’s already beautiful and twist it and scatter it across the image in ways that feel alive. Think vibrant rainbow star flares. Think beams of iridescent light bursting with color. Visuals that some may otherwise spend hours on trying to recreate in post-production, but now see straight out of the camera. Not long ago, we tested the SZ Filter Midas Touch and Psyco Black Hole models – two very different filters that are poles apart in terms of their results, yet both align with the same creed: to create magic inside your camera.

The team from SZ Filters was thoughtful enough to send these to me in 77 mm, which works natively on the Nikon Z 24-120mm f4 lens I use most. They also included step-down rings for 62 mm, so I didn’t have to juggle extra glass on every lens. And once I slapped on their magnetic attachment system, the act of switching filters became effortless – which, when you’re experimenting with unpredictable light, matters more than you think.

Woman with long hair in a plaid shirt, sitting indoors with colorful light reflections across the image.

Using these filters under strobes or in a studio backdrop setting is frustrating, as I found out the hard way last time. These aren’t made for staged, controlled light; they need light with personality. Sunlight cutting through trees and angled through windows is what the Blast filter thrives on. Street lights at dusk; bright point lights that bend and scatter produce the best results with the Rainbow starlight model. These filters help transform such strong light sources into a kaleidoscope of colors and shapes. That’s their purpose, and once you understand and embrace that, their chaotic charm becomes much more fun to work with.

The Rainbow Starlight Filter excels in strong backlight and direct light conditions. It helps turn even ordinary lights into energetic, almost psychedelic starbursts. The prism-like diffraction produces flares that keep your eyes wandering through the frame, rediscovering details you didn’t consciously capture. It’s something that lights up your model’s eyes when they see the image on your camera’s LCD right after you snap it. The Blast Filter is softer but can be more dramatic. Sometimes it feels like the filter is pushing too much effect into the shot, almost like a softening glass, and at other moments it gives you light that feels cinematic and explosive in the same frame. Expect VIBGYOR streaks that appear as if the light itself is trying to break free from the frame. You’d be forgiven for assuming such creative filters can belong only in dreamy portraits or conceptual artwork. But both the Rainbow Starlight and Blast Filter also thrive in outdoor, everyday environments. Use these filters on scenes you wouldn’t normally and you suddenly see light interacting with texture and color in ways you never noticed before.

Silhouette of a person taking a photo, seen through colorful, blurred window reflections.

When it came to handling these two lenses, I found them far easier to manage than the earlier set I tested from SZ Filters. Because there’s no perfect image you can make with any of them, you start breathing a bit more easily when using them. The unpredictable nature of these filters is not a flaw – it’s their essence. Light moves, your position changes, a shadow shifts, the sun drops – and suddenly the entire look changes. You can’t recreate the same effect frame by frame because the filter reacts to dozens of variables in real-time. That’s what keeps you looking at the back of the camera with a grin instead of finding a preset in Lr that adds flares or more. Because the front elements rotate independently, you don’t even have to change your position to explore new effects. Keep twisting the filter with the light source still lined up, and the visual effects reshape across your frame. In most filters, rotation is often functional, but here it feels creative. It’s much more satisfying to turn these filters than adjusting sliders in software.

Blast Filter

Woman with long dark hair gazes softly, resting her head on her hand, surrounded by rainbow light effects.
Shot on the SZ Filters – Blast Filter

As I found with all models from SZ Filters so far, your first few shots are very much part of a discovery phase. It’s almost like your first day at driving school – you know what a car is and how it should move you across town, but getting to grips with how it does so when you’re in the driver’s seat can be a tad unnerving at first. And with the Blast Filter, it was no different. Pointing it at the model during my shoot, it felt like the filter was slightly unclear. Not smudged, not dirty, just like the results you might get if you used a filter that had been kept for 20 years in an unprotected environment. But once I discovered how it reacted to sunlight, that was all I needed to start moving my lens around, feeling a bit like Michael Jackson grooving during his stage shows – rock steady at some times, moonwalking at others.

Rainbow Filter

String lights and palm trees at night with colorful light streaks crossing the image diagonally.
Shot with the SZ Filters – Rainbow Starlight filter

At first look, this filter didn’t seem like it was doing anything at all. Then I pointed it towards some light sources and saw the magic it made. I do think that I’d use this more outdoors than anywhere else. This is a great filter for video work too, but it can create some really long streaks in your frame

SZ Filters deserves a lot of praise for its lineup. In a creative world where most special effects are layered in software – AI overlays, LUT packs, presets – these physical filters bring the creativity back to the moment of capture. You don’t discover the image in post-processing. Instead, you pretty much create it while shooting. It’s easy to fall into the loop of mimicking popular looks online, but these filters force you out of that echo chamber. They ask you to respond to light as it behaves in the real world. Some frames will be subtle and magical, while others will end up looking like chaos. But nearly all of them will teach you something about how light refracts, reflects, and surprises.

A woman with bold eye makeup gazes through colorful, abstract light reflections.
A woman with long dark hair poses thoughtfully, with rainbow light effects over her face and hands adorned with rings.
A woman with long hair gazes softly, colorful light streaks overlaying her face.
A woman with long hair rests her chin on her hands, surrounded by colorful light reflections.
Woman in a plaid shirt gazing softly at the camera through colorful, dreamy light reflections.
Woman with long dark hair and rings posing through colorful light reflections on a pale background.
A bright LED panel light glows with blue and pink reflections in a dark room.
A bright ceiling light with overlapping rainbow reflections and colorful light streaks on a dark background.
Colorful red, green, and blue light streaks intersect with white lines on a dark background.
A woman in a plaid shirt stands behind a glass with colorful, diffused light effects.
Woman in plaid shirt looking at camera with colorful light reflections across her face and background.
Woman in plaid shirt looking away, with colorful light leaks and soft focus effect in the image.
A woman in a plaid shirt stands with soft, rainbow-colored light reflections around her.
Woman posing with hands framing her face, wearing jewelry, with colorful light reflections across the image.
Woman with long dark hair and sunglasses looks over shoulder, colorful light flares in foreground.
Woman with long hair and sunglasses poses in colorful, prismatic light against a pale background.
Woman in black sunglasses and outfit with rainbow light reflections, posing against a light background.
Outdoor restaurant scene at dusk with string lights, palm trees, and people dining and walking around.
Outdoor restaurant with white wicker furniture, string lights, and people dining under a twilight sky.
Outdoor dining area with white wicker furniture, string lights, palm trees, and people socializing at dusk.
People dining outdoors under string lights at dusk, with palm trees and a restaurant in the background.
Outdoor restaurant with white wicker chairs, people dining, string lights, and palm trees at dusk.
A tall hotel with red neon lights reflects on water at night, with The George Hotel sign visible.
A brightly lit hotel with red lights reflects on the water at night in a cityscape.

Their collection is not repetitive or predictable. Every design feels like a different experiment in color, geometry, and light behavior. The Rainbow Starlight and Blast Filters stand out not by being subtle but by being different. These are creative tools for photographers who want to play with available light, not just capture it. Using them, I was often reminded that photography can still be more surprising, even after nearly 20 years of being a professional photographer.

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