ND Filter Advice

[Alun100]

I can see plenty of filters on Ebay but I dont want to buy junk. I intend using for landscapes etc
Any advice please????

[S_J_P]

ND Filter Advice

I'd suggest avoiding eBay and going for a recognised make.

I've bought a (cheap) variable ND from
eBay and it's useless, poor optical quality and variable density.

It's always tempting to try the cheap option to see how you get on, but it's almost invariably a false economy in the long run

Having said that I do have a reasonable quality 10-stop ND which I got from Premier Ink (around £40), cheaper than Hoya/Lee but optically still OK

[J H Foto]

Re: ND Filter Advice

Amazon are good for anything photographic........

[Rasputin]

Re: ND Filter Advice

The cheap stuff on ebay is horrible. The second time around I got mine from Premier Ink, much better quality

William

[mwphoto]

Re: ND Filter Advice

My advise would be to buy the best you can afford - I use Lee ND grads and they're all you could ask for although at a fairly high price

[John27]

Re: ND Filter Advice

I would recommend Lee if you can afford them, Cokin if you can't.

John

[Alun100]

Re: ND Filter Advice

Thanks all for the replies and comments. All brands are available on Ebay including lee & cokin. I often buy stuff from ebay, but mostly the ebay shops, not having ever used any ND's before and having seen a recent issue of 'Photoplus' a Cokin starter kit was one of a few items on test circular and P type, the latter seeming the most practicle option. Lee did win outright but the best value and readers choice were the Cokin.

I should have been more specific with my question(apologise) The kits I have seen incl in the mentioned mag had filters 1,2,3 plus bracket but not ring adapter, while others had higher number filters. Here lies my problem each kit having theree filters which should I buy? ( I recently bought a 10-20) therefore landscape being the obvious, incl industrial landscape!

[hhcanon]

Re: ND Filter Advice

Thanks all for the replies and comments. All brands are available on Ebay including lee & cokin. I often buy stuff from ebay, but mostly the ebay shops, not having ever used any ND's before and having seen a recent issue of 'Photoplus' a Cokin starter kit was one of a few items on test circular and P type, the latter seeming the most practicle option. Lee did win outright but the best value and readers choice were the Cokin.

I should have been more specific with my question(apologise) The kits I have seen incl in the mentioned mag had filters 1,2,3 plus bracket but not ring adapter, while others had higher number filters. Here lies my problem each kit having theree filters which should I buy? ( I recently bought a 10-20) therefore landscape being the obvious, incl industrial landscape!

Theres a film (short) on utube showing Lee Filters being made. Its very interesting, and then you realise why they are the most expensive and the best.

[DrJon]

Re: ND Filter Advice

Here's what I went for:

http://www.eos-magazine-forum.com/showthread.php?14019-Lee-Filter-Stockist&p=110259&viewfull=1#post110259

Which I think covers me pretty well. You get:
Three different soft (the edge from the dark to clear side, as different to hard) 0.3, 0.6, 0.9 (i.e. 1/2/3 stops) ND grads
A 2/3 warming grad which has a big enough warming bit you can just use it for that alone
A hard 0.6 (2 stop) ND grad.

The only other thing you might like is a many-stop ND for stuff such as cool water effects, like the Lee Big Stopper. I have one of the Heliopan variable ND filters so didn't bother with one.

Edit - do remember with a 10-20 you'll need the (more expensive) Wide Angle adapter, so if the price looks too cheap you may have the wrong one.

[Les McLean]

Re: ND Filter Advice

You might want to look at Hitech Filters, not up there with Lee Filters, but are still well regarded.
For most of my landscape work, I use 0.6 and 0.9 soft ND grads.
The only ND filter I use is a B+W 10 stop ND.

If you are using an ultra wide angle lens, you will need the wide angle lens adapter (77mm ) for the canon 10-20.

[Alun100]

Re: ND Filter Advice

Edit - do remember with a 10-20 you'll need the (more expensive) Wide Angle adapter, so if the price looks too cheap you may have the wrong one.[/QUOTE]

Many thanks to both Jon and Les there I would have fallen foul of that one! I have watched some of the youtube clips suggested above abd looked at adverts for both Lee and Cokin none had mentioned that the holder was not universalm only that you require an adapter ring for all lenses. Ot have I misunderstood something......?

[Thndr_strck]

Re: ND Filter Advice

The holder that you slide the filters into is universal for a particular lens filter range. You should table to Google the different cokin adaptor series details. I have P series and I think the widest lens it can work on must have a filter of 82mm if I remember correctly. Don't know about lee

[DrJon]

Re: ND Filter Advice

For Lee you need the holder plus additional adapters to the filter threads of the lenses you want to use it with. It will be the same for most square filter systems. The good news is when you later buy a lens with a different filter thread you just have to buy an adapter and all your filters will then work with it. The bad news is when you start you have to decide how many adapters to buy.

There are two types of adapter rings, the cheaper standard ones and the not-cheap ones that work with wide-angle lenses. If you don't think you will get a wide-angle lens with a particular thread then buy the cheap one. This is most likely to be true of the smaller diameter filters as there isn't enough aperture to do wide-angle, well until you buy a micro-4/3 or 1-system camera anyway...

The standard filter holder holds from two to four filters (you can add to it). If you just buy the holder you get one with two slots, I think maybe one of the kits has one built for three filters, my starter kit was two (which is enough for most uses - although there is a gizmo to stack the holders for the terminally keen, so potentially having 8 slots I guess).

Note Lee are a bit like other manufactures in offering multiple sizes. They do 75, 100 and 150 mm holders, although the 100 mm is by far the most common in my experience. (The 75 won't do many DSLR lenses and the 150 is really just aimed at one Nikon lens.) This means for DSLR users there is basically just the one Lee system.

Getting a kit can be handy as some come with cases and most of the filters aren't glass, so protecting them is a good idea. I can get my entire set of Lee stuff in the case that came with my starter kit, although there is some card between the metalwork and the filters. You can just buy the cases though.