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Sadlybrokeboy

Sadlybrokeboy

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Hey All,

It's been a while!

Anyhow, I'm looking to move away from my current Cokin filter set-up and I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions for any alternatives?

I've half a mind to go to Lee Filters but worry the price is excessive for what they are....

What do you all use? And anything I want to keep an eye open for when choosing?

Thanks,

Matt
 
Royal male said:
I suppose it’s down to which filters you are looking for
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Fair point, well made.

I like landscapes and seascapes alot, when the chance arises - so after some decent ND filters and some kind of 10 stop filter to work with.

Just sick of having to correct for the colour cast I see on some shots on the cokin filters.
 
Cokin Nuances filters work very well Formatt Hitech Firecrest work well as do Nisi

What size do you need (100mm 85mm or 67 square)?
 
As for the ten stopper. A lot of the makers of them seem to have colour casts and I darent look how much a lee ten stopper is at the moment. I bought a ten stopper from SRB a few years ago now and it’s ok but does have a slight colour cast on it. A great fun filter to use.


I use Cokin mainly the ND grads and I don’t get colour casts. I am either lucky or colour blind,prob both. Lee seems to be the way to go, just buy them as you need them to save the wallet pain.
 
Sadlybrokeboy said:
Fair point, well made.

I like landscapes and seascapes alot, when the chance arises - so after some decent ND filters and some kind of 10 stop filter to work with.

Just sick of having to correct for the colour cast I see on some shots on the cokin filters.
Click to expand...

I have a Lee 10 stopper and I think you’d be disappointed to see that it has a fairly strong colour cast.

It’s a good filter but not perfect - I am considering a move away if a good alternative comes up.
 
TGphoto said:
I have a Lee 10 stopper and I think you’d be disappointed to see that it has a fairly strong colour cast.

It’s a good filter but not perfect - I am considering a move away if a good alternative comes up.
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Seriously?!? Wow! I thought the were the holy grail of long exposure - will read up some more methinks, thank you!
 
alfbranch said:
Cokin Nuances filters work very well Formatt Hitech Firecrest work well as do Nisi

What size do you need (100mm 85mm or 67 square)?
Click to expand...
Thank you - will look those up.

Looking at 100mm filters I reckon :)
 
Royal male said:
As for the ten stopper. A lot of the makers of them seem to have colour casts and I darent look how much a lee ten stopper is at the moment. I bought a ten stopper from SRB a few years ago now and it’s ok but does have a slight colour cast on it. A great fun filter to use.


I use Cokin mainly the ND grads and I don’t get colour casts. I am either lucky or colour blind,prob both. Lee seems to be the way to go, just buy them as you need them to save the wallet pain.
Click to expand...

I notice it more on the Cokin's when I do longer exposures, it's very subtle but I can see it.

As for getting them as I need them - think that's a good call :) (If I do down that road!)
 
TGphoto said:
Yes, it’s certainly noticeable.

If I had an unlimited budget I’d be getting Format Hitech Firecrest stuff.

Lee are good at filters and excellent at marketing.
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Thank you, something else to look at and research!

Thanks all for your time and answers, given me plenty to think about! :)
 
I've always used LEE and am very happy with them - yes the Big Stopper gives a blue cast but if you are shooting RAW then it doesn't matter.

A lot of photographers I know shoot with the Kase Filters system and seem very happy with them, so there is that road to explore too.
 
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Lee definitely have stiff competition these days. I use their system but I never liked the big stopper, or at least never saw the value in it and they used to have a rather unappealing lead time. I use a Haida 100mm 10 stop filter in my Lee system. It seems great to me and I bought it off the back of good reviews. I don't think it's quite colour neutral but it's as close as I've seen and easy to correct.

Where Lee Filters do work well in comparison to at least some of the cheaper brands is when you start to stack grad filters or stack grads with lighter ND's. This can lead to weird colour casts with some systems but never seems to be an issue at all with Lee (or Indeed I suspect some of the other more premium offerings).

If I was starting again, I'd probably do a bit of a Frankenstein system starting with a Nisi holder. There are pros and cons to all of the systems but the Nisi system (and others) using a smaller polariser is a massive advantage in terms of cost and risk. A 105mm polariser for older Lee system can easily cost £200+ and is so easily damaged (I know this the hard way). What goes into the holder itself can come from anywhere really. I still like Lee grads but would probably pick and choose ND's from various other manufacturers.
 
Royal male said:
I use Cokin mainly the ND grads and I don’t get colour casts. I am either lucky or colour blind,prob both. Lee seems to be the way to go, just buy them as you need them to save the wallet pain.
Click to expand...

I can't remember the last time I used a filter other than a ND to keep the shutter speed down when shooting at wide apertures but waaaaay back when I used my Cokin filters I never had any colour cast issues either. I don't think it's a batch related issue as I bought my filters over a period of time so I don't really know what to make of the Cokin colour cast complaints as it seems to be something that passed me by.
 
All,

Thanks for the further replies and apologies for my crapness in responding!

Cheers,

Matt
 
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