I just came back from shooting images with my XF and IQ100 and tried for the first time, the wine country camera filter system, using the .9 grad, and the builtin, rotating polarizer.
It's been years since I've used grad filters--they were glass (at least the only ones I'd use) broke easily, easy to finger print and just cumbersome to use, especially if you wanted to use a polarizer in conjunction with it. That's all changed with the WCC system. I saw it for the first time on a piece my friend Ken Doo wrote and checked them out and honestly, wasn't impressed, having not used the system. DT had a demonstration and still was interested since felt the cost too high. A few weeks later Ken sent me a link to a used(but as new) set on Fred Miranda.com. I ordered the actual filters from Rod at WWW and used today for the first time. I was high on a steep slop, on muddy ground off a busy but near highway with traffic speeding by--perfect test conditions. The filter set worked fantastic. It was easy, secure and fast. They're expensive but in my opinion, well worth it. The grad saved a lot of post time and adjustments and I'm a firm believer that despite spending a lot of time in post, the fewer the better quality-wise. I compared the unfiltered image I first took with the images I took using both the polarizer and grad (both Schott lens quality glass). Right out of the box, the clouds were perfect and the highlights and shadows nearly perfectly balanced. While you could do the same thing with other grads and polarizers, this was so simple and easy to use very quickly, which is important to me. I don't know Rod or anyone at WCC--this is just recommending a great product I at first was reluctant to buy.
Dennis Halkides