In my opinion, UltraCons do better at extending DR than Low Con filters. I used to use this to lift shadows for the GH2 and then crush them back down a little in post. The goal was to lift the exposure above where the GH2 mushed everything together, but I think most cameras have moved past the need to do this. I wouldn't do it anymore. Maybe it still offers a benefit with the Ursa mini, I don't know, but my guess is that it's just replicating the flatter look of a log colorspace without providing the additional dynamic range.

Thanks for the video @Aria - looks like...

• If you can't capture the dynamic range of a szene (window with bright sunlight and shadow areas in frame), a ultra con filter can help a lot.

• If you don't need the ultra con filter (girl sitting), better don't use it.

I have the tiffen ultra con 2 or 3, cant remember. I find it a little hard to grade when its effect is really strong, and not really worth it unless you are going for that lifted smoky look. The less intense filter numbers may be easier to work with.

I can't recall the exact words but David Mullen ASC was firm about that soft con is not of much use for dynamic range purposes. At most, you can gain about 1/3 of a stop, and that comes with a much softer look.. not to mention other problems that arise with more glass in front of the lens.

Filters can be of good use to alter the look of the image, but you can also f.i. use nylon stocking over the lens for that purpose.. These days, it's really not worth the hassle IMO (unless you really need a particular filtered look) - as most of it can be easily obtained in the grade, but some prefer mist filters for shooting high key to soften highlight rolloff, which produces a kind of halo effect around the light sources..

Fine with Intravenus, but haven't tried it with anything lower, it's something you'll have to experiment with. Might be worth renting/borrowing one before finding out the hard way after buying one.

But you can always sell it on ebay or craigslist... or whatever.

What do you think, guys, about Skywatcher Ultra High Contrast Filter 1.25"?

Is it suitable for our purposes?

@Psyco - That was a 2. It's the only one that I have at the moment. You have to be very careful as to any lens hits. The subject was under an ez up tent, so his lighting was very even, I wanted to see more of what the filter would do in regards to the background holding exposure as well as, seeing more detail in the bays. I think it worked pretty well. I think the 1/4 may be a little too little, but it may work for applications inside better. The 2 can get pretty milky...

I did a very quick comparison with my Tiffen Ultra Con2 a couple weeks ago. Take a look for yourself.

Which one looks more grade-able? Look into the garage bays.

To avoid these have a flag or sheet of black wrap on standby. And read that with the spot meter when the fog is perfect, then keep using it as a reference to how thick/thin the haze should be.

Great tip added to my list of tricks.

I have a 3x3 (cokin A sized) Hitech Ultra Con permanently on my 1/3" Sony Handycam .. it helps.

Also. You'll need a higher data rate for haze. I can't tell you which patches to use for it. But the sub 100 Mb/s patches tend to hate haze and smoke, whereas 130Mb/s and above never have an issue.

The all patches will actually drop the data rate when haze is used, and on the lower Bit rate patches this will create massive macro blocking.

If you wanted to compress contrast without diffusing effect magenta color correction filter will do that. Useful dynamic range is better.

I have attached three screen grabs from GH1 video from a high contrast scene. I used a Tiffen CC40M filter. In After Effects I applied a green photo filter with 40% value to offset the magenta. Now the image is desaturated and the captured compressed contrast is seen. Values have been shifted to the left, which means dark hues were encoded at higher level. Now there is room to apply curve to simulate blooming high-lights that seems to be the desired look these days. In the final version you could also see that the color gradients are smooth.

Probably so, yeah. I just stay in and curse the heavens those days!