Posted: 6/29/2011 2:47:43 PM EDT
| How many stops should I go for a ND filter? I'm thinking that blurred waterfall type of effect on a bright, cloudless, summer day at high noon type of light. |
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Singh-Ray Vari-ND. http://www.singh-ray.com/varind.html
I have one. Worth the money. |
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Just a thought...a typical circular polarizer is going to eat up about 1 1/2 stops. So with that in mind I would add a 3 to 4 stop as my first ND.
Also spend the money on a MC filter & use the lens hood. Moving water reflects light in every direction. So doing every thing you can to minimize flare & stray light will count towards a better image. If you find yourself shooting waterfalls, rivers, oceans, creaks, propeller driven aircraft, etc a vario ND filter is well worth the big $$$ they'll cost. 7mm |
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Keep a close eye on amazon. Just couple of weeks ago I picked up a vari-nd for a delivered price of $67. It's a very decent filter NOT a poloroid. It fits my 77mm glass so that's an excellent price. The next day that deal was gone and the new price was close to $200. Has a range of something like 2-9 stops.
If going for a fixed ND I'd start with maybe a 4-stop one. If needed you can team it with your polarizer at the risk of vigneting. |
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Just a thought...a typical circular polarizer is going to eat up about 1 1/2 stops. So with that in mind I would add a 3 to 4 stop as my first ND. Also spend the money on a MC filter & use the lens hood. Moving water reflects light in every direction. So doing every thing you can to minimize flare & stray light will count towards a better image. If you find yourself shooting waterfalls, rivers, oceans, creaks, propeller driven aircraft, etc a vario ND filter is well worth the big $$$ they'll cost. 7mm You can do that, just know that stacking filters with degrade image quality. |
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This. It's what I use as well. |
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This. It's what I use as well. That's what I want to use, but for right now I have to use a couple of fixed NDs. |
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This. It's what I use as well. That's what I want to use, but for right now I have to use a couple of fixed NDs. Yeah being the my UWA lens has a filter thread of 82mm I wouldn't want to spend $460 for that ND filter lol and thats just for the standard! I wonder how much the thin filter would cost. |
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Just a thought...a typical circular polarizer is going to eat up about 1 1/2 stops. So with that in mind I would add a 3 to 4 stop as my first ND. Also spend the money on a MC filter & use the lens hood. Moving water reflects light in every direction. So doing every thing you can to minimize flare & stray light will count towards a better image. If you find yourself shooting waterfalls, rivers, oceans, creaks, propeller driven aircraft, etc a vario ND filter is well worth the big $$$ they'll cost. 7mm You can do that, just know that stacking filters with degrade image quality. Yes it can degrade image quality...but what level of visible degradation in the finale output is acceptable? Interesting article on filter stacking...Lensrental filter stacking...yeah stacking fifty filters is a bit much but scroll down to see the stack of 5 cheapie filters compared to quality MC filters. Again stacking 5 filters is unrealistic but much like shooting a 5 shot group compared to a 3 shot group the problems & exceptions start to stand out. So in my opinion stacking a quality MC cir. pola (in my case a Heliopan filter  ) w/ a quality MC ND 4 (again I have a Hoya/Kenko MC Ultra filter) and using a lens hood has minimal effect on big prints & virtually negative effect when shown on my monitors/TV's etc...Again my opinion & YMMV.
7mm |
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My main reason for the Vari-ND is ease of use.
Let's say I'm in strong sunlight and want to shoot f/2.8 and need to go 1/200sec (for strobes) at ISO 100. I'll have to sit there and try combinations of stacked filters just to get the exposure I need for the background at f/2.8. It's a lot easier just to turn the dial on the Vari-ND instead of having to screw on filters, then take them off and put on new combinations until the exposure is the way I want it. Second reason is cost. Sure, the Vari-ND costs just under $400. But how much is it going to cost to get say a 4, 2, and 1 stop filter to give you a 1 to 7 stop range? It'lll probably be very close to just getting a single Vari-ND. |
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Just a thought...a typical circular polarizer is going to eat up about 1 1/2 stops. So with that in mind I would add a 3 to 4 stop as my first ND. Also spend the money on a MC filter & use the lens hood. Moving water reflects light in every direction. So doing every thing you can to minimize flare & stray light will count towards a better image. If you find yourself shooting waterfalls, rivers, oceans, creaks, propeller driven aircraft, etc a vario ND filter is well worth the big $$$ they'll cost. 7mm You can do that, just know that stacking filters with degrade image quality. Yes it can degrade image quality...but what level of visible degradation in the finale output is acceptable? Interesting article on filter stacking...Lensrental filter stacking...yeah stacking fifty filters is a bit much but scroll down to see the stack of 5 cheapie filters compared to quality MC filters. Again stacking 5 filters is unrealistic but much like shooting a 5 shot group compared to a 3 shot group the problems & exceptions start to stand out. So in my opinion stacking a quality MC cir. pola (in my case a Heliopan filter ) w/ a quality MC ND 4 (again I have a Hoya/Kenko MC Ultra filter) and using a lens hood has minimal effect on big prints & virtually negative effect when shown on my monitors/TV's etc...Again my opinion & YMMV.
7mm Agreed. I stack B+W ND and B+W Kaesemann CPLs. There's no meaningful reduction in IQ. |
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Just a thought...a typical circular polarizer is going to eat up about 1 1/2 stops. So with that in mind I would add a 3 to 4 stop as my first ND. Also spend the money on a MC filter & use the lens hood. Moving water reflects light in every direction. So doing every thing you can to minimize flare & stray light will count towards a better image. If you find yourself shooting waterfalls, rivers, oceans, creaks, propeller driven aircraft, etc a vario ND filter is well worth the big $$$ they'll cost. 7mm You can do that, just know that stacking filters with degrade image quality. Yes it can degrade image quality...but what level of visible degradation in the finale output is acceptable? Interesting article on filter stacking...Lensrental filter stacking...yeah stacking fifty filters is a bit much but scroll down to see the stack of 5 cheapie filters compared to quality MC filters. Again stacking 5 filters is unrealistic but much like shooting a 5 shot group compared to a 3 shot group the problems & exceptions start to stand out. So in my opinion stacking a quality MC cir. pola (in my case a Heliopan filter ) w/ a quality MC ND 4 (again I have a Hoya/Kenko MC Ultra filter) and using a lens hood has minimal effect on big prints & virtually negative effect when shown on my monitors/TV's etc...Again my opinion & YMMV.
7mm Agreed. I stack B+W ND and B+W Kaesemann CPLs. There's no meaningful reduction in IQ. Theres a difference when you stack quality filters, regaurdless it reduces quality, even if by a little. BUT like it was pointed it, it's better then not getting the shot you want. |
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Just a thought...a typical circular polarizer is going to eat up about 1 1/2 stops. So with that in mind I would add a 3 to 4 stop as my first ND. Also spend the money on a MC filter & use the lens hood. Moving water reflects light in every direction. So doing every thing you can to minimize flare & stray light will count towards a better image. If you find yourself shooting waterfalls, rivers, oceans, creaks, propeller driven aircraft, etc a vario ND filter is well worth the big $$$ they'll cost. 7mm You can do that, just know that stacking filters with degrade image quality. Yes it can degrade image quality...but what level of visible degradation in the finale output is acceptable? Interesting article on filter stacking...Lensrental filter stacking...yeah stacking fifty filters is a bit much but scroll down to see the stack of 5 cheapie filters compared to quality MC filters. Again stacking 5 filters is unrealistic but much like shooting a 5 shot group compared to a 3 shot group the problems & exceptions start to stand out. So in my opinion stacking a quality MC cir. pola (in my case a Heliopan filter ) w/ a quality MC ND 4 (again I have a Hoya/Kenko MC Ultra filter) and using a lens hood has minimal effect on big prints & virtually negative effect when shown on my monitors/TV's etc...Again my opinion & YMMV.
7mm Agreed. I stack B+W ND and B+W Kaesemann CPLs. There's no meaningful reduction in IQ. Theres a difference when you stack quality filters, regaurdless it reduces quality, even if by a little. BUT like it was pointed it, it's better then not getting the shot you want. You're right and I should have worded that better. There is a quality reduction, but it's very small. I probably wouldn't want to stack more than two filters, though. |
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Theres a difference when you stack quality filters, regaurdless it reduces quality, even if by a little. BUT like it was pointed it, it's better then not getting the shot you want.[/quote] You're right and I should have worded that better. There is a quality reduction, but it's very small. I probably wouldn't want to stack more than two filters, though. [/quote] yeah I see that, but you did point out a very good point..... It's better to get a shot then no shot at all and if you don't have filters to get the effect your looking for then your not gonna get the shot. |
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