Inspired by HoppyUKs praise for the LightCraft ND500-MC filter - 9 stop ND - I went ahead and ordered one. I have to say it's a great piece of glass, the only downside being that they didn't put a front thread on it so it has to be the last one in your stack. That said, I haven't tried the B+W or the Lee 10 stop ones, so I'm no expert reviewer here.
I was particularly surprised by how really neutral the ND is. It does give cooler colors but they seem to be quite uniformly affected so the camera's AWB did a REALLY good job of nailing the WB. Also odd was that my 7D could actually meter pretty accurately even with the ND500 attached. It was off by maybe 2/3 of a stop only! After reading everyone's "help how do I calculate exposure times" posts, this was a bit of a positive surprise.
One source for UK buyers: http://www.premier-ink.co.uk/
Myself, I got it direct from LightCraft.. took a week or so to arrive from Hong Kong but I wasn't in a hurry.
And I know you want pics, here's a comparison shot.. both 7D with EF-S 10-22 and shot at 10mm:
ISO 100, f/9, 1/200s - no filter
ISO 100, f/16, 6s - ND500 (and yes this is AWB)
And these are straight from camera (well RAW->JPEG in Aperture but no tweaks). Sorry for the dirty boat and broken pier :|
I was particularly surprised by how really neutral the ND is. It does give cooler colors but they seem to be quite uniformly affected so the camera's AWB did a REALLY good job of nailing the WB. Also odd was that my 7D could actually meter pretty accurately even with the ND500 attached. It was off by maybe 2/3 of a stop only! After reading everyone's "help how do I calculate exposure times" posts, this was a bit of a positive surprise.
One source for UK buyers: http://www.premier-ink.co.uk/
Myself, I got it direct from LightCraft.. took a week or so to arrive from Hong Kong but I wasn't in a hurry.
And I know you want pics, here's a comparison shot.. both 7D with EF-S 10-22 and shot at 10mm:
ISO 100, f/9, 1/200s - no filter
ISO 100, f/16, 6s - ND500 (and yes this is AWB)
And these are straight from camera (well RAW->JPEG in Aperture but no tweaks). Sorry for the dirty boat and broken pier :|
