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ND filters
  • 257 Replies sorted by
  • _gl_gl
    I'll have to verify my theory, unfortunately I only have one circular polarizer here.

    But I don't think many people are aware that faders act like normal polarizers, and that's especially problematic as you can't rotate them once they're screwed on, so you can't change the polarization filtering angle.
  • RamboRambo
    No one is circular, one is linear on the ones i have.

    I believe there are 3 ways of making Var -ND with polarizers, all work similar.
  • _gl_gl
    Thanks.

    > Yes all my Var - ND's darken a Laptop screen when turned, as far as i know ALL Vari - Nd's do this.

    Damn, then they're acting like linear polarizers, which isn't necessarily what you want. You can make a fader using two circular polarizers, facing each other. A circular is made of two layers, a linear polarizer, and a quarter-wave retarder. The retarder effectively unpolarizes light - so if you have the two circulars facing each other so that the retarders are on the outside, the incoming light is first unpolarized, then faded by the linears, then unpolarized again - so it should not filter incoming linear polarized light (like that from an LCD screen).
  • RamboRambo
    At 14mm, i cannot see the difference on stills taken with and with out, there is a slight color shift if camera is left manual white balance. At 140mm i can see small sharpness difference but acceptable to me, an unsharp mask in Vegas restores sharpness to equal.
    Yes all my Var - ND's darken a Laptop screen when turned, as far as i know ALL Vari - Nd's do this.
  • _gl_gl
    @Rambo, thanks - does it look OK at 14mm? A lot of sellers are saying that the faders break down at wide angles (I think it's due to the way polarization changes at steep viewing angles).

    Also, can you try the LCD monitor test please? Hold it up to the screen (must be an LCD) and see if it darkens the picture as you turn the whole filter (ie. not the adjustment ring). And please check with the filter facing either way.
  • RamboRambo
    @_gl:i bought the 72mm so no vignetting on my 62mm 14 - 140mm kit lens with stepup ring
  • last_SHIFTlast_SHIFT
    @mrbil
    Looking forward to hearing about your impressions of the Tiffen Vari ND - as it's so much cheaper than the Singh Ray/Heliopan.

  • qwerty123qwerty123
    @Vitaliy looks it will be difficult to put these Marumis on something like a Cokin P holder.
  • skiandbikeskiandbike
    Edited to add two pictures.

    I just have the DHG version, which only comes in ND8.

    I'll have to check if 2Filter carries the multi-coated versions or if they are just the standard NDs. http://www.marumi-international.com/general/page3.html shows two different sets and eBay prices are pretty high for the standard 77mm.

    Do you know of another good source for buying these?

  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev
    @skiandbike

    It is ok to glot it with pictures. At least two for comparison won't be bad. :-)
    Thanks for test.
    Do you have different Marumi ND filters?
  • skiandbikeskiandbike
    @Vitaliy_Kiselev

    Finally had a break in the weather and I was able to do some testing on the Marumi DHG ND8. Full results are here: http://allmountainproductions.com/2011/07/marumi-nd-filter-test/

    Let me know if you have other tests in mind. Still waiting on the linear polarizer.
    140mm-ETC-baseline.jpg
    600 x 400 - 176K
    140mm-ETC-Marumi.jpg
    600 x 400 - 186K
  • andresandres
    I use a cokin A filter with hoon.
    I have a Leicaflex set and the biggest thread is a 55mm from my 135 f2.8 so I don need cokin P
    nd0.6 (2 stops) cokin A152
    nd1.2 (4 stops) cokin A153

    15.39$ each
    http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/13996-REG/Cokin_CA152_A152_Gray_Neutral_Density.html

    http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/13997-REG/Cokin_CA153_A153_Gray_Neutral_Density.html

    There is also a Graduated Neutral density filter that I use on certain locations.
    http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/search?Ntt=cokin+a&N=0&InitialSearch=yes

    The use of a 4x4 mattebox for me has no sense in dslr its just to hide the camera an to be more obtrusive.

  • fehafeha
    Has any one tried/expereince with:
    H&Y Fader ND Filter
    ebay:
    http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Fader-Neutral-Density-ND-Filter-67mm-ND2-ND400-VER-3-/230613244063

    some test ...


    could not find more reviews ...
    wonder about quality ...

  • _gl_gl
    I just realised that my fader acts like a polarizer! That's bad, especially for dual-body 3D shooting.

    Everbody try yours: hold it up to an LCD screen, and rotate it (the whole filter, not the adjustment ring) - does it gradually block out the LCD light? From the front, and back?
  • _gl_gl
    @Rambo, are you able to try it on a 14mm (24mm equiv) focal length? If yes, can you check if the image looks OK and there's no vignetting? I'd like to use this on the Panny 14mm pancake.

    I bought a similar cheap one (but thicker, 12mm) from 7dayshop (http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/250850790032 , seems to be a Chinese rebadge) and it's working fine for me, no noticable colour shift. They all fall apart at the maximum setting of course.

    Apparently the reason they go soft at longer focal lengths is because the glass isn't even enough.
  • RamboRambo
    I bought this SLIM Vari - ND and i'm very happy with it. The seller is honest and posts info about possible loss of sharpness over 200mm and possible color shift near max ND. Being ultra slim design it gives opportunity to use hoods and other filters. It's only 7.8mm thick.

    http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=230614828112&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT
  • qwerty123qwerty123
    I like using graduated NDs on sunny days with bright skies--how well would something like that work with a Variable (Fader) ND? Can you turn the graduated ND to odd angles like you can with the Cokin holder?
  • GrueGrue
    I very nearly went the Cokin P system route, but with the HiTech filters. I discovered that you can buy them directly from Formatt, and even with the exhange rate, tax, and shipping overseas here to the US, it would be much more affordable than buying them from say B&H or Adorama--as I recall it ended up being something like $60 for a set of ND 0.3, 0.6, 0.9, though I might be wrong.

    However, after some waffling, the convenience of a Fader ND, for more run 'n' gun shooting, and not having to fumble with swapping out filters won me over at least for now. I don't know if this is true or not, but I red that the Nature Fader ND's on eBay (http://shop.ebay.com/she-in/m.html?_nkw=ND+Filter) are pretty much identical to the branded LCW Fader ND--maybe, maybe not, but the few things I've heard about them have been pretty positive for the price, and I'm a cheap bastard, so I picked up a 77mm one.

    At the moment, I've got my GH2, the 14-42mm kit lens, and a Nikon Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 and 28mm f/2.8, all with 52mm filter thread, but I decided on 77mm as a standard filter thread as a way of future-proofing. I almost went with 62mm instead, but there are a few lenses out there with a 77m thread that I've got my eye on.

    In addition to the 52mm->77m step-up ring, I got a 3-stage rubber lens hood, which has an outer filter thread that I attach the Fader ND to, which I think works much better than having the hood attached to the outer rotating filter; instead the hood is attached directly to the lens, with the Fader ND attached to it. The only downside is I can't see the markings on the Fader ND and it's trickier to adjust if I have the hood extended all the way--not a big deal, and nothing that I didn't expect.

    I only got it yesterday, and I've only gotten the chance to do some cursory tests, but so far I'm pretty happy with my purchase. I am seeing similar to what I have heard about the LCW Fader ND, with some softness at 50mm, but not overly objectionable to me, especially for video--I'm not sure I would have noticed if I wasn't looking for it. There's also a slight color shift, but again, nothing objectionable--and can easily be white balanced out.

    Other than that, the only downside is that if I'm not paying attention to what I'm doing, without any hard stops, I can rotate it beyond the Min or Max settings, where it gets a bit unpredictable, but I believe this is also the cases with higher priced ones, except for the Heliopan.

    I admit the whole set up does look a bit silly, with the step-up ring and the oversized lens hood, but it does help make the small camera look a bit more substantial.

    As always, your mileage may vary, but so far, I'm pretty happy.
  • stoneystoney
    I got a set of LCW 52mm and LCW II 72mm.

    77mm would have been nicer. I hope 72mm + step down ring on 77mm threaded FF lenses would work fine on m43 if focal length is not wide.

    A set of 52mm and 77mm would be nice for m43. A lot of legacy lenses and m43 lenses including Nokton 25/0.95 have 52mm or smaller filter thread.

    For 20.7 pancake, a stack of 46mm empty ring, 46-52 step up ring, LCW 52mm, and 55-48 step down ring might give a poorman's hood without adding too much weight.

    I heard that rotation of the inner filter might affect image quality. That's the filter screwed to the lens. The outer filter, of course, controls the light intake amount.
  • mrbillmrbill


    Some footage shot with the Kood nd's
  • mrbillmrbill
    I bought the LCW II in two sizes, a 58 and a 77mm. I've tried the 77 on my 70-200 f2.8 L canon glass and found the image deterioration pretty objectionable, plus there was a definite colour shift. But for shorter focal lengths (50mm f1.4 and 85mm f1.8) the 58mm LCW worked well, especially with the shallow dof shots I was after.
    Couldn't find the heliopan vari ND for sale in the UK, so I've bought the Tiffen one, which was a similar price and seems well reviewed - should be arriving end of month. I bought hoya pro nd-4's and nd-8's for my gh13 rigs, and they work great, although I tried a cheap set of Koods on the same lenses and would recommend those too (14-45mm, 14-140mm, 100-300mm).
  • ElenionElenion
    What about the cheap vari nd filters that you can buy on ebay for like 30$? What do you think? Has anyone tried those?
  • dkitsovdkitsov
    In Heliopan color shift is not an issue; it has hard limits on both ends of the range that prevents it from going into a color shift land.
  • qwerty123qwerty123
    @mark_the_harp Right, makes sense.

    How about advantages / disadvantages of using something like the Copkin P holder with, say, these filters: http://bit.ly/r7S8hf
  • Mark_the_HarpMark_the_Harp
    @qwerty123 Colour shift would be a problem during continuous video shots but I guess you could rebalance in post if you really had to. I'm thinking here of colour shift that varies as you alter ND. The overall colour shift would (as you say) be compensated with white balance.
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