Lee: Big Stopper or Little Stopper?

J13ERO

J13ERO

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James
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Morning everyone, not posted for ages and recent thought of a question you might be able to help with...

Which would you or have you bought, the lee big stopper or little stopper? Maybe you have both? Which one do you think is likely to be most useful?

Thanks,
James
 
When would predominantly use it? In terms of time of day.

I have a Little Stopper which is useful at sunset or sunrise, but you won't get longer shutter speeds during usual daylight light levels.
 
I bought a bundle from WeX that had both and used them for the first time a few weeks ago at Holkham beach in Norfolk in an attempt to get a blurry wave shot... slowest I could achieve was 4 seconds. Results were reasonable for a first attempt but I need to try again in a different setting - river,waterfall etc. It was blowing a gail that day so not for the faint of heart but it was good fun. You see so many articles in the magazines about them, good to be able to give it a go yourself :)
 
I would most likely be using it evenings or mornings, usually shooting sunsets or water, however it may well be used at any time of day in certain circumstances. I'm visiting Iceland in May next year so could be any time of day really
 
J13ERO said:
I would most likely be using it evenings or mornings, usually shooting sunsets or water, however it may well be used at any time of day in certain circumstances. I'm visiting Iceland in May next year so could be any time of day really
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get the 10 stopper if you're thinking of shooting during peak daylight and only want to buy one filter.. if you find exposure times a little long in lower light then you can always increase the iso a couple of stops or so, depending on camera model it's not going to generate any noticeable noise.

Simon
 
Yes I agree with Simon get the Big Stopper for peak light use. The Little Stopper is 6 stops. You'd kick yourself if you couldn't get a low enough speed.
On another point I was surprised to see a bluish cast even with the Lee Big Stopper.
Merv
 
merv said:
Yes I agree with Simon get the Big Stopper for peak light use. The Little Stopper is 6 stops. You'd kick yourself if you couldn't get a low enough speed.
On another point I was surprised to see a bluish cast even with the Lee Big Stopper.
Merv
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Yes both the Lee high density filters give a blue cast, it is designed to be blue, rather than the normal magenta that others give.
If you want neutral, the Hitech Firecrest range is the one to go for now, they really are neutral when compared to anything else currently on the market.
The will also fit a Lee holder, so not sure why anybody would consider the Lee Big/Little stoppers now???

EDIT ; Seems I'm not the only one to think so, both posted together;)
 
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Agree with Steve mostly however th Progrey again seems to be better even than the Firecrest going by the test shots i have seen.It took me ages to decide between the Firecrest and the Progey but decided the Progrey was the way forward and if i was buying then i had to buy the best i could and only buy once.
 
The Lee filters definitely do give a blue cast, sometimes I quite like it though, it's not always a bad thing as corrected this shot isn't nearly as interesting.. a 5 minutes exposure

Another up and coming high quality filter manufacturer are NISI, not much around about them as yet but that should change soon.. http://www.nisidigital.com/en/

 
Thanks for the great responses guys, I will definitely take a look at the options you have suggested! Id never heard of them and assumed the Lee were the be all and end all of the higher end ND's
 
simonkit said:
The Lee filters definitely do give a blue cast, sometimes I quite like it though, it's not always a bad thing as corrected this shot isn't nearly as interesting.. a 5 minutes exposure

Another up and coming high quality filter manufacturer are NISI, not much around about them as yet but that should change soon.. http://www.nisidigital.com/en/
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Nisi do make good filters, I use a couple of their Infrared filters, but their 10 stop has a cool cast like the Lee Big/Little stopper and only available as a screw on filter as far as I'm aware. Not sure they are distributed outside of Japan either, similar to the Progrey, I think that currently has US distribution only, though this isn't too much of a problem with mail order these days:)
 
Steve B said:
Nisi do make good filters, I use a couple of their Infrared filters, but their 10 stop has a cool cast like the Lee Big/Little stopper and only available as a screw on filter as far as I'm aware. Not sure they are distributed outside of Japan either, similar to the Progrey, I think that currently has US distribution only, though this isn't too much of a problem with mail order these days:)
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They're in the process of setting up a UK base... I could be trialling their Lee type system soon so if it happens I'll post a review

Simon
 
stumeech said:
Never really understood the fuss people make over the blue cast, I mean it comes out when you shoot in RAW so don't see the problem.
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Agree. The reason Lee and some other top brands like B+W (warm) have a colour cast is because it's extremely hard to get really accurate colour and good IR suppression without it. If that sounds like a contradiction, Lee and B+W can be corrected to very accurate colour with a simple colour temp adjustment (either in camera, or in post processing). Other filters that might look more neutral overall may have less accurate colours throughout the spectrum.

TBH I think it's a moot point these days, it's not really an issue either way for most landscapes. The most common problem is IR pollution that of course you can't see, but shows itself in images with brown blacks and unnatural greens that are almost impossible to correct. They can be prone to hot-spots too, which is related to IR transmission variables with some lenses. Over the next couple of weeks I'm going to be testing a lot more of these extreme ND filters, including the newer ones with a 'metal spray' coating. They work by physically blocking the light, as opposed to filtering it, and are claimed to be very neutral, throughout the spectrum and IR too. They sound promising :)
 
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