Anyone tried Hitech ND 3.0 ?

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Mr Mike

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Hi as per subject just curious to know if anyone on here has purchased and tried the Hitech ND 3.0 filters? I was unaware that they did anything more than 0.9 but today when looking a little harder i found they have the following on offer in both 85mm and 100mm....

ND 1.5
ND 1.8
ND 2.1
ND 2.4
ND 3.0

I just ordered the ND 3.0 which should arrive by the end of the week, already have the holder so for a tiny £21.28 it could be the cheapest iv seen so does that mean it will be terrible?

Obviously I will share my finding when it arrives and let you all see how it performs.

Mike
 
I've got one. I find it puts a slight blue tint on really long exposures but nothing shooting RAW and tweaking the WB can't sort out :)
I haven't used it a great deal so it's possibly my technique that sucks :lol:
 
Yup, used it for a while but it gave a magenta colour cast. I am not 100% sure if this was due to the filter itself, or light leaking in?

Don't let that put you off, overall, I am very pleased with HiTech filters. They are a far cry better than Cokin.
 
The ND3.0 arrived on Friday but its no good! The photo comes out red, not a little red but really RED. I tried all sorts of custom white balance and editing in CS4 but failed to make it usable. The only way to make the grass green again is to adjust the red using cuves, this takes it away completely leaving you with a blue/green cast which you then try to drop down which in turn leaves you with more or less nothing. By the way the reason for this is IR contamination, not much can be done except putting a UV/IR blocking filter in front, problem with that is i just bought my new sigma 10-20 which requires a wide angle holder, this only has one slot.

Have to admit im really disappointed this didnt work, i have watched the ten stop/welding glass threads and thought i found myself a bargin with the Hitech but obvioulsy not. I called Formatt and they are happy to take it back as a return, i have asked for a ND1.8 (6 stop) to try, i know i can use my nd grads stacked 0.3 0.6 0.9 which is the equivelant of 1.8 and this gives a mild purple on longer exposures but its simple enough to remove in CS4.

Anyway fingers are crossed i have better luck this time :shrug:
 
That's very odd. Though, with my experience with HiTech there was a slight Magenta colour cast, from my experience (trials and errors) I think that was attributed to light leeks and not the filter themselves :shrug:. That's why I've since opted for the B+W 77mm 10 stop ND!

That mild purple you speak off, when stacking the 0.3 0.6 0.9; are you sure it's not light leeking in?
 
Wail said:
That's very odd. Though, with my experience with HiTech there was a slight Magenta colour cast, from my experience (trials and errors) I think that was attributed to light leeks and not the filter themselves :shrug:. That's why I've since opted for the B+W 77mm 10 stop ND!

That mild purple you speak off, when stacking the 0.3 0.6 0.9; are you sure it's not light leeking in?
Click to expand...

Hi Wail, I tried all sorts with the nd3.0 including sealing the light around the filter but it made no difference at all.

The purple only comes through when stacking all 3 filters on long exposures, it could be light leak as the cokin p series holder has a decent space between each of the 3 slots but like i said it is not a problem at all and can be used to great effect or very easily colour balanced out.

The nd3.0 is just useless on my D40, click on link below to have a look and see how bad it is. This is not my shots but exactly the same issues as i had..
http://www.inspiring-photography.com/forum/showthread.php?t=21733
 
just out of interest are you covering the viewfinder? It doesn't look like you are from the picture on that link and that might be the cause, light still gets in through the VF window
 
That's not what I had, at all.

I can't think of it as leeking through the viewfinder but it may be :shrug:. I'd suggest you give it one last try by ensuring the viewfinder is covered; if then you still get this odd colouration then send it back.
 
Yeah i did cover the view finder although not for the first 10 shots then suddenly realised thats my problem and addmittedly it reduced it a fraction but it was still IRON BRU, i tried all sorts of white balance, sealed the filter so no light leaks then played with CS4 everyway possible to remove/correct but no joys. I have already sent the filter back and now waiting on the 6 stop to arrive, ok not quite a 10 but im sure it will produce some nice effects.

Edit: Meant to say looking through the filter with eye showed green grass as iron bru too so not just the camera
 
If you're still keen on 10 stops then I'd suggest you give the HiTech another shot with another copy of a 10 stop; but not with the one you had. Have them send you a new copy and test that out.

Meanwhile, I hope the 6 stops plays fair with you; mind, 6 stops is pretty much as it is!
 
First off sorry for bumping an old post but i think it may be usefull to know that Hitech have just realised a new 3.0 ND grad and have just posted one for me to review. I will be doing the full review in a week or two but from the test shots i did today looks much better. If you wana see what it looks like take a look on my blog. http://www.dannylintonphotography.com

and again sorry to drag up an old thread but you never know somone may find this usefull
 
Looking forward to reading your review; however, one question comes to mind ....

dlphotography said:
<snip> a new 3.0 ND grad <snip>
Click to expand...

Is this to be a 10 stop ND grad, or just a 10 stop ND?
 
Here's a blast from the past for sure!

Everything was iron bru like this....
http://www.inspiring-photography.com/forum/showthread.php?t=21733

So much has changed with me since then, i gave up on the Hitech filters completely due to them ruining my shots with magenta casting. I moved to the B&W ND3.0 screw in and use Lee foundation kit with Lee ND Grads, no more magenta!

Anyway i will keep my eye on this to see the results, hope they've got their act together on the new version although with thier low costs i would be very surprised.

Dont get me wrong I loved using my Hitech filters and found them a great intro to filters at very little cost especially using Cokin P holders.


By the way just looked a the link below....
http://teamworkphoto.com/shop/index..._info&cPath=1047_78_767_278&products_id=15528

and it says at the bottom...

PLEASE NOTE- THIS FILTER IS NOT SUITABLE TO COLOUR PHOTOGRAPHY

Mike
 
Mr Mike said:
Here's a blast from the past for sure!

Everything was iron bru like this....
http://www.inspiring-photography.com/forum/showthread.php?t=21733

So much has changed with me since then, i gave up on the Hitech filters completely due to them ruining my shots with magenta casting. I moved to the B&W ND3.0 screw in and use Lee foundation kit with Lee ND Grads, no more magenta!

Anyway i will keep my eye on this to see the results, hope they've got their act together on the new version although with thier low costs i would be very surprised.

Dont get me wrong I loved using my Hitech filters and found them a great intro to filters at very little cost especially using Cokin P holders.


By the way just looked a the link below....
http://teamworkphoto.com/shop/index..._info&cPath=1047_78_767_278&products_id=15528

and it says at the bottom...

PLEASE NOTE- THIS FILTER IS NOT SUITABLE TO COLOUR PHOTOGRAPHY

Mike
Click to expand...

They have a new one out, with gasket, that doesn't have the same warning. I am waiting for reviews before spending the money though.
 
Mr Mike said:
PLEASE NOTE- THIS FILTER IS NOT SUITABLE TO COLOUR PHOTOGRAPHY

Mike
Click to expand...

Well, it does give a bit of a blue tint, but I wouldn't call it unusable.

SOOC0014.JPG
 
I have finished my review of the new Hitech Pro Stop 10 stop nd filter.

The results are pretty good.

The full review is here.
 
I think you would need the Lee gasket but why not ask Formatt, they might know?
 
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