Lee Filters or any alternative available at a more reasonable price?

IanC

IanC

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Ian
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Hi All,

I figured it was time to start getting a bit more serious with my photography and figured it would be good to start with a lee filter ND3.0 or something similar for the landscape photography that I do.

Before I take the plunge, is there any other options I should be considering such as Cokin for example?

Many thanks
 
Lee are certainly the best IMHO but HiTech are really good & have recently got a lot better especially their pro stopper range.
 
Do you mean a graduated filter or some of their pro glass? If so just get the little stopper or big stopper. That said so far I've been very very unimpressed. The big stopper isn't 10stops... It's up to you to work it out! Oh and lee have a license to print money - everything is charged as extra and all of it is massively overpriced.
 
I also am thinking of filters for my next kit addition. I was looking on Amazon and hi tech are as expensive as Lee. The price of the lee holder and filters are a lot for what they are but what got me was the price of the ring of plastic called the lens adaptor. At £40 what a bunch of rip of merchants.
 
Raptor Mike said:
I also am thinking of filters for my next kit addition. I was looking on Amazon and hi tech are as expensive as Lee. The price of the lee holder and filters are a lot for what they are but what got me was the price of the ring of plastic called the lens adaptor. At £40 what a bunch of rip of merchants.
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Lens adapters are actually made of metal. But still a rip off. If you want a laugh have a look at their cp filter. It's not great, and they charge more for a ring you need, as in you can't use it without. Overall their stuff is well rated by people who can use it - however I think it's a right rip off.
 
Yeah I'm after a graduated filter, hard edged (if that's the correct term).

Hmm might take a look at hi tech then and see what they offer.

Any others? Are Cokin not worth looking at?
 
IanC said:
Yeah I'm after a graduated filter, hard edged (if that's the correct term).

Hmm might take a look at hi tech then and see what they offer.

Any others? Are Cokin not worth looking at?
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I'm not sure they even do a nd3.0 (10 stop) graduated filter. I've got a 0.6nd hard graduated filter. That's good enough to get some detail from the sky. If it hadn't been as part of a kit I'd probably have gone for a 0.9nd one though.

There 10 stop filter is called a big stopper and it's well rated by most people. I find it's not 10 stops so need to work out how to calculate what exactly it is...

I can't comment on other makes. If you are only going to use it on one lens you could look into a screw in job. It's a lot less hassle.
 
I've been using HiTech for a few years and fined them excellent. They're one of the few companies (Lee being another) who produce both hard & soft ND Grads. At the time I got mine the bundle cost around 60% of the Lee equivalent.
Because I Was using them with a Canon 17-40 (on a 5D), I had to buy the larger filters & Lens Adaptors to prevent vignetting. From memory, only the Cokin Z-Pro range comes close for size. They were no cheaper than the HiTech filters and I felt they left a slight colour-cast when I tried them. I find he HiTech's to be very neutral.
 
Does anyone have any opinions on the Kood filter set? They are compatible with lee and HiTech apparently, yet way cheaper again.

Rich
 
You won't regret buying Lee filters IMHO, they are expensive but they are also very good! Hitechs are not bad actually, I would get them if I was on a budget (although they seem to be more expensive than they used to be) and wouldn't even bother with Kood or Cokin.

My big stopper (not that I ever use it) is 11.5 stops incidentally! Someone said they'd like to work out how many stops theirs is, I took mine out on a sunny day in the garden and started by increasing the exposure to 10 stops, and then increasing half a stop or so until I got the same histogram as my base file.
 
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Might be a stupid question, but is the a formula/method to working out how many stops a big stopper is?

Is it just taking a shot using the standard 10 stop settings then changing the settings either way until you are happy with the results?
 
Brayg01 said:
Might be a stupid question, but is the a formula/method to working out how many stops a big stopper is?

Is it just taking a shot using the standard 10 stop settings then changing the settings either way until you are happy with the results?
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That's how I was going to do it - however Stu above gave a much more scientific and accurate way of working it out.

With the right equipment (which they should/will have) you could give a calibration certificate which would do it for you, all you would need to do is work out the transmission percentage of light coming though. But I'm going to assume that most people are happy to work it out themselves as part of it will come down to personal preference.
 
stumeech said:
You won't regret buying Lee filters IMHO, they are expensive but they are also very good! Hitechs are not bad actually, I would get them if I was on a budget (although they seem to be more expensive than they used to be) and wouldn't even bother with Kood or Cokin.

My big stopper (not that I ever use it) is 11.5 stops incidentally! Someone said they'd like to work out how many stops theirs is, I took mine out on a sunny in the garden and started by increasing the exposure to 10 stops, and then increasing half a stop or so until I got the same histogram as my base file.
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I think Stu has got it right I don't know anyone who has regretted buying Lee filters but I know plenty who have regretted buying cheap ones, as for the big stopper mine which I use quite a lot is very close to the nominal ten stops I find that the little chart you get with it is pretty close,
I have just purchased a little stopper as although I use the big stopper a lot I do find it can be a bit over the top some times,looking forward to giving a go.
P.S the variation in density of these filters may be because they are hand made.
 
I think I've mentioned before that I have a 0.9nd soft grad Hitech, as I hardly use soft grads, and very good it is too.

I'm thinking of trading my Big Stopper for a Little Stopper, I never shoot big long 10 stop exposures now in daylight (or at all in fact - the 'look' is so overdone it's not true) so I think a subtle softening of water & clouds via a 6 stop could be the way to go.

Incidentally I think the grads are hand made and hand dipped, and are much more likely to be dead on in terms of stop factor, but the Big Stopper is made for Lee in China and not subject to exact same calibration purposes. (I think).
 
oops, sorry Stu, I didn't fully read your post! I'm trying to look busy at work and read TP!
 
I would go Lee > HiTech. I wouldn't even bother with Kood or Cokin from my experience.

A wide angle adapter, foundation holder & 0.6 HE Grad set me back about £180 iirc

I've not used either for 10 stoppers. I already had a B+W ND110 & a Haida 3 stop both screw on.
 
Hitech are pants, for grads (In P size at least, which of course Lee don't do) Kood cannot be beat. Zero colour cast from any of the ones I've ever used. Apart from being less resilient that the Lee ones and a little more flare prone they are almost indistinguishable.
 
I got the Hitech Colby Brown premier kit this month. Not really used it much but the grads seem pretty neutral so far though. I've not used the 6 stop IRND yet though. There was a manufacturing flaw in my CPL (it got dinged at some point) and they replaced it with no fuss at all.

I have a couple of issues with the filter holder but nothing major and the LEE holder isn't with out it's own flaws. I have an idea to solve on issue but I want to put some miles on the kit 1st.

Also lee give you a holder case, Hitech didn't so I spent £3 on a pencil case for it :D
 
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