Help me get into LEE filter systems

Johnny1982

Johnny1982

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Hello.
I am looking at buying into a LEE filter system.
I want the Big Stopper and ultimately a couple of soft grads.

What do I actually need to buy though as the system seem so spread.

It'll be for use on a Canon 5D Mark III with Canon 17 - 40 L F4.
 
You need

1) The Foundation Kit
2) One adaptor for each filter thread size of lenses you want to use with it (IE If you have just lenses with 77mm threads, you just need a 77mm adaptor, if you also have an 82mm thread you would also need an 82mm adaptor, etc)
3) Filters to slot in!

in addition, if you want to use a circular polariser you need an additional holder ring to fit on the front of the foundation kit - which the CPL screws into.
 
Yes, the holder ring provides a 105mm filter thread for the CPL and fits onto the end of the foundation kit - the picture shows the holder ring, dividers (part of foundation kit) and the main part of the foundation kit.

You can use a CPL directly on the lens, then fit the lee adaptor onto the CPL, but that makes adjusting the CPL and Lees a real pain - but does avoid the cost of a 105 CPL, as they're not cheap! (It can also lead to vingetting)
 
I suggest you go for hard grads rather than soft, the transition does have a bit of leeway and for sky shots is quite adequate.
Lee sell many more hards than soft, a .6 and .9 will serve you very well.
 
Faldrax said:
Yes, the holder ring provides a 105mm filter thread for the CPL and fits onto the end of the foundation kit - the picture shows the holder ring, dividers (part of foundation kit) and the main part of the foundation kit.

You can use a CPL directly on the lens, then fit the lee adaptor onto the CPL, but that makes adjusting the CPL and Lees a real pain - but does avoid the cost of a 105 CPL, as they're not cheap! (It can also lead to vingetting)
Click to expand...

If you do that ie put the polariser on the lens, you lose the polarising effect, the polarising filter has to be the first the light sees.
 
Lee filters are great but cost way too much IMO.
In teh days of film, they were essential for the landscape photographer.
My set of three grads from 2002 cost about £80 from memory. I hate to think what they are now.And then there is the foundation kit and a ring for each lens.
Unless you have a wad of cash , forget getting a poloriser.
Nice,yes.Essential,no. I still use them every now and then, but to be honest they are not (IMO) worth the money
 
Well sorry Robert, I have to disagree with you, in certain types of light they are in my opinion, essential (polarisers that is!)
You can use post processing effects for some filters, but not polarisers.
Depends on your type of photography, however.
 
Poloriser yes, agree. I was thinking ( but didn't say) about ND grads.
No real way to play poloriser in Lightroom!
 
George said:
If you do that ie put the polariser on the lens, you lose the polarising effect, the polarising filter has to be the first the light sees.
Click to expand...

That doesn't sound right to me (why would an ND filter, for example, prevent hte light subsequenly being polarised?), but It's not something I've tried, so it may be correct - it is a technique I've seen suggested by others though, which is why I mentioned it as a posibility.
 
In my (considerable) experience you can put the polariser on the lens and then the ND grad on top of that. It has always worked for me.

As far as getting in to the Lee system is concerned, do this:

Buy a Hoya (or other brand) screw-on polariser - if you are doing landscapes you will/should find it indispensable. Possibly consider one for each lens!

Buy ONE Lee ND grad for starters. A 2 stop hard is probably your best all round choice, and see how you get on with it. There is no absolute need to buy a holder either; if you are using the camera on a tripod it is quite easy to hold the grad against the rim of the lens.

This will avoid shelling out cash on equipment that you don't really know if you will use to its fullest potential.

Re: Big stopper; Try a screw in filter instead........
 
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Thegreatroberto said:
Poloriser yes, agree. I was thinking ( but didn't say) about ND grads.
No real way to play poloriser in Lightroom!
Click to expand...

It is also impossible to bring back a blown out sky in Photoshop if you have nothing left. Of course you can make two exposures and blend but equally there is no reason why you shouldn't use an ND grad and get it right in camera with one frame.
 
Guys thanks for all the interesting information. I have come from using a Cokin P series system but I thought the quality of the filters to be awful.

Regarding the polariser. I will be getting one, A decent one too as I have used a £50 one before and found it not to be all that fantastic. While you can darken skies in post production I'd rather not as it'll introduce loss in quality and post production does not remove reflections etc etc. I'm not too against spending £200 on a polariser as I believe them to be worth it. The question being is.. Are you over paying for the LEE one or can you get something equally as good for half the price? One thing I have noticed is when you start mixing LEE filters with other brand filters you can get color casts so I whatever I do I want it to produce a completely neutral effect.
 
I'm firmly of the belief that if you buy cheap you buy twice.

Lee have a deserved reputation for the quality of their products. You might find specific examples of others (Like Singh-Ray) where they are close or unique but IMHO there is no comparison between Cokin and Lee, and you are very very unlikely to be able to buy at half price for near quality.... all depending of course on your own/others ability to see the difference in your resulting images.
 
I completely agree. I've always believed in that too but also have fell victim to it. Although buying the Cokin system I could say was a waste. It allowed me to comfortably get used to filters without destroying so much moneys worth. With the LEE system I'll take very close care of it already used to using filters.
 
George said:
Guys, look at the bottom of this page....professional hints....

re polyester filters..but resin is ok...I knew I'd read something about this.
Click to expand...

You learn something new every day :)

I wonder why the polyester filters cause the polariser to behave differently?

Regarding choice of 105 CPL, different brands are different thicknesses, so if you are going very wide, or stacking several filters, you might want to look for a slim CPL - Heliopan is the name I recolect that make the slimest one.
 
Faldrax said:
You learn something new every day :)

I wonder why the polyester filters cause the polariser to behave differently?

Regarding choice of 105 CPL, different brands are different thicknesses, so if you are going very wide, or stacking several filters, you might want to look for a slim CPL - Heliopan is the name I recolect that make the slimest one.
Click to expand...


I'd recommend the Heliopan 105mm polariser instead of the Lee, it does have a slimmer mount so reduces vignetting at UWA

Simon
 
I've got the Lee 105mm and it does vignette a little at 17mm on FF but nothing that content aware fill can't sort.

In terms of what to buy, yes, Lee are expensive, but they are the best, there isn't anything else that offers comparable quality for less money I'm afraid. Cokin Z Pro and Hitech are both cheaper alternatives but not as good in my experience (I've owned both).
 
No doubt in my mind I'll be getting a LEE system. Non at at all. Anyone have the LEE polariser?
 
Faldrax said:
You learn something new every day :)

I wonder why the polyester filters cause the polariser to behave differently?

.
Click to expand...

OK, well the reason that the polariser is put at the front is that what it does is stop polarised light, it doesn't make the light polarised. That's why you rotate it to control the amount of polarised light getting through and either on to the lens and hence sensor, or on to any further filters which you might use.

Now the resin that Lee use is very closely controlled and should not have any distortion or stress effects, hence my comment that you can put resin filters in front of a polarising filter although it really is not recommended and in a situation with bright light and reflections any resin imperfections would (or could) show up.

Polyester on the other hand is much more likely to have stress imperfections and polyester itself is inherently a depolarizer, so putting the pol filter after the poly filter is much more likely to show up imperfections in the poly filter, although again I have to say that it is not necessarily the case, it depends on poly quality, light conditions etc.

The conclusion I am trying to get to is that whereas you may get away with using the polariser as the last filter before the lens, because of the above if you put it in front of any other filters and is therefore the first filter the light sees on it's way to the sensor, that will always give the best possible results.

I hope that helps!!

George.
 
Faldrax said:
You learn something new every day :)

I wonder why the polyester filters cause the polariser to behave differently?

Regarding choice of 105 CPL, different brands are different thicknesses, so if you are going very wide, or stacking several filters, you might want to look for a slim CPL - Heliopan is the name I recolect that make the slimest one.
Click to expand...

On a quick browse of the Lee site, I can't see if their filters are resin or polyester.

As previously mentioned I've never had any problems using their grads outside a polariser, so presumably they are resin?

There are some very good polarisers out there which cost a lot less than the Lee one, although I've never had to buy one larger than 77mm. Hoya HD is one such.

My question about lee filters answered by George - Thanks!
 
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Lee make both resin and polyester filters, for instance their sky/sunset etc are polyester, but the NDs etc ie the "stiff" ones are resin.
 
George said:
OK, well the reason that the polariser is put at the front is that what it does is stop polarised light, it doesn't make the light polarised. That's why you rotate it to control the amount of polarised light getting through and either on to the lens and hence sensor, or on to any further filters which you might use.

Now the resin that Lee use is very closely controlled and should not have any distortion or stress effects, hence my comment that you can put resin filters in front of a polarising filter although it really is not recommended and in a situation with bright light and reflections any resin imperfections would (or could) show up.

Polyester on the other hand is much more likely to have stress imperfections and polyester itself is inherently a depolarizer, so putting the pol filter after the poly filter is much more likely to show up imperfections in the poly filter, although again I have to say that it is not necessarily the case, it depends on poly quality, light conditions etc.

The conclusion I am trying to get to is that whereas you may get away with using the polariser as the last filter before the lens, because of the above if you put it in front of any other filters and is therefore the first filter the light sees on it's way to the sensor, that will always give the best possible results.

I hope that helps!!

George.
Click to expand...

Very interesting read. Thank you George.
 
Johnny1982 said:
Hello.
I am looking at buying into a LEE filter system.
I want the Big Stopper and ultimately a couple of soft grads.

What do I actually need to buy though as the system seem so spread.

It'll be for use on a Canon 5D Mark III with Canon 17 - 40 L F4.
Click to expand...

If it has not been said already, make sure you get the 77mm Wide Angle adaptor ring as opposed to the standard 77mm adaptor ring. The WA adaptor will sit on any 77mm thread, whereas the standard would be pointless on an ultra wide angle lens (17-40).

For grads I would recommend a 0.9 hard edged and a 0.9 soft edged grad to start of with. Don't bother with the 0.3's or 0.6 soft, they'll hardly see any action.

As for the polarizer? I usually can't be bothered, but the B+W Kasemann is the best option imo. The Lee 105 CPL is not as good.
 
Well, IMHO, I'd go for the 3 stop (0.9) hard first then the 2 stop (0.6) second, I seldom use the soft ones (see my previous post) and I'd suggest building up one by one as requited afer you've had a play.
 
Johnny1982 said:
Anyone have the LEE polariser?
Click to expand...

I do. As I said it is good but vignettes a little at 17mm (that is on a holder with one slot). I also have another holder and a tandem ring to use up to 2 filters with the CPL (eg a grad, Big Stopper and CPL) which together does vignette down to about 23mm.

With regard to the filter holder, someone above said not to bother, I really don't agree, aligning grads is made much easier when they're not moving, plus during a long exposure you can leave everything running whilst you run about and try and keep warm.
 
George said:
Well, IMHO, I'd go for the 3 stop (0.9) hard first then the 2 stop (0.6) second, I seldom use the soft ones (see my previous post) and I'd suggest building up one by one as requited afer you've had a play.
Click to expand...

Very sensible advice about building up your system as required, although I would start with the 2 stop hard grad.

My "system" consists of that and the 1 stop hard; the latter gives lovely natural looking skies in conjunction with a polariser.
 
markmullen said:
With regard to the filter holder, someone above said not to bother, I really don't agree, aligning grads is made much easier when they're not moving, plus during a long exposure you can leave everything running whilst you run about and try and keep warm.
Click to expand...

That was me!

There are disadvantages to not using a holder, which you correctly point out, but I personally don't like faffing around with fiddly bits of kit. It IS do-able.
 
I want the holder. I plan to be doing exposures of several minutes.
I am fairly confident I'll be getting the LEE holder, WA adapter 77mm, Big stopper, 0.9 hard grad, 0.6 hard grad and the LEE polariser & polariser ring.
 
Johnny1982 said:
I want the holder. I plan to be doing exposures of several minutes.
I am fairly confident I'll be getting the LEE holder, WA adapter 77mm, Big stopper, 0.9 hard grad, 0.6 hard grad and the LEE polariser & polariser ring.
Click to expand...

Personally I think that's a good choice, although of course others will disagree!!!...

Have a good look at Lee's web site, there's a lot of good info there.
 
Johnny1982 said:
I want the holder. I plan to be doing exposures of several minutes.
I am fairly confident I'll be getting the LEE holder, WA adapter 77mm, Big stopper, 0.9 hard grad, 0.6 hard grad and the LEE polariser & polariser ring.
Click to expand...

Yep, sounds like a good setup.

Depending on how often you'll be using filters Lee do a 3 pack of lens caps for about a fiver which allow you to leave the adaptor ring on.

Shooting 99% landscapes I leave all my lenses with wide angle rings fixed and Lee caps over them, it saves taking the adaptor ring on on and off which with gloved or wet cold hands could mean crossthreading them. I write which lens it is on the front of the cap in permanent marker so when I look into my bag it is obvious which lens is which (they stand vertically).
 
markmullen said:
Yep, sounds like a good setup.

Depending on how often you'll be using filters Lee do a 3 pack of lens caps for about a fiver which allow you to leave the adaptor ring on.

Shooting 99% landscapes I leave all my lenses with wide angle rings fixed and Lee caps over them, it saves taking the adaptor ring on on and off which with gloved or wet cold hands could mean crossthreading them. I write which lens it is on the front of the cap in permanent marker so when I look into my bag it is obvious which lens is which (they stand vertically).
Click to expand...

Good advise! I'll get those too!
 
If I wanted the LEE Wide angle hood does that come as a foundation kit? It looks like it?
 
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