Stupid question about neutral density filters

I can only deduce that the Tiffen HT filters are more expensive due to the fact that they are multi coated filters and maybe the HT filters are also slimmer which can also add to the price.

Ideally, I would steer away from screw in filters and opt for the slide in filters (ie Lee). This is just personal preference of course.

For what it's worth, good quality ND filters are at the higher end of the price spectrum. My B+W ND 3.0 MC was £120 and my slide in Lee graduated filters are about £75 ea.

The thing with Lee grads is that you can cheat a little and place the dark portion over the entire lens meaning you get two filters in one, if you know what I mean.

I hope this is helpful.

Rgds
 
Hi

Thanks for the reply. I was hoping to play with long exposure times in the day, so I want non-graduated ND filters. Screw in ones would be fine then, I guess?

Will the £12 ones have the same (or very similar) results? What does the multi-coating do? Is it they just last longer (10 times longer?) or is there some subtle (or not so subtle) difference in evenness of colour or tint?
 
You get what you pay for. Cheap filters are, almost exclusively, crap.

You will probably get a nasty colour cast (even the £100+ ones have some colour cast) and without any coatings you will probably get lots of flare and internal reflection which will limit the situations you can use it in.

There was a new brand recently that was being sold on ebay which were ca. £30 which were getting great reviews so I'd look at them as a starting point (you'll have to search the forum as the name escapes me).
 
spacester said:
Hi

Thanks for the reply. I was hoping to play with long exposure times in the day, so I want non-graduated ND filters. Screw in ones would be fine then, I guess?

Will the £12 ones have the same (or very similar) results? What does the multi-coating do? Is it they just last longer (10 times longer?) or is there some subtle (or not so subtle) difference in evenness of colour or tint?
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What size filter thread are you intending to use the filter on?

Daytime long exposures will invariably need a 10 stop ND filter. For this I would recommend the B+W ND110 3.0. I use this filter together with Lee grads (to hold back skies). The B+W is one of the highest quality filters and price varies depending on filter size. Lee do a slide in filter (the Big Stopper) but I prefer the B+W.

http://www.wexphotographic.com/search/?q=nd110

These are much much more expensive than they were 12 months ago. I have a B+W ND110 67mm that I will be looking to sell soon. When I get round to it, I will post the sale in the relevent section of the forum, so getting a mint condition 2nd hand one will help cut costs.

Rgds
 
Digifrog said:
What size filter thread are you intending to use the filter on?
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52mm


Digifrog said:
Daytime long exposures will invariably need a 10 stop ND filter. For this I would recommend the B+W ND110 3.0. I use this filter together with Lee grads (to hold back skies). The B+W is one of the highest quality filters and price varies depending on filter size. Lee do a slide in filter (the Big Stopper) but I prefer the B+W.

http://www.wexphotographic.com/search/?q=nd110

These are much much more expensive than they were 12 months ago. I have a B+W ND110 67mm that I will be looking to sell soon. When I get round to it, I will post the sale in the relevent section of the forum, so getting a mint condition 2nd hand one will help cut costs.

Rgds
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Thanks for all the advice - I really know nothing about ND filters. Am interested in experimenting, so all help greatfully received. I am a bit surprised just how expensive they are! £150 is enough for a cracking f1.8 35mm, for example....
 
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spacester said:
52mm
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Then the B+W Single Coated ND will set you back £55.
http://www.wexphotographic.com/buy-b-w-52mm-neutral-density-10-f-pro-digital-filter/p1524446

Depending on what subject matter you are after you will still need a graduated ND to hold the sky back. This image for example was taken using a B+W ND110 for the long exposure and a 3 stop Lee grad to hold back the sky...

8173212664_c6970632a5_z.jpg


This one is a 50 second exposure.

Edit: If the sun is behind you and your subject illuminated you can get by without using a grad on the sky. No graduated ND was used on this (one of my earlier efforts)

3644803974_bf78dd8213_z.jpg
 
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I am in the process of buying a filter set so have done plenty of research over the last week and now know a bit more about them.

From all the threads on here and other research I've decided to go for the 85mm Hitech kit. It's a lot cheaper than the 100mm Hitech kit and much cheaper than the Lee kits but still offers great results.

For a little over £200 you can get the following -

ND 3 filter set (0.3, 0.6 & 0.9) which is 1, 2 & 3 stop)
ND Grad 3 filter set (0.3, 0.6 & 0.9) (either soft or hard edge)
10 Stop Filter
Metal holder
Adaptor to suit your lens
Hitech filter case

The above comes in at just over £200 and will be a great investment I think, can't wait to get them and try them all out!
 
Thanks digifrog - that's excellent advice, really useful. Given its gonna be the best part of £100, possibly even £200 if I go with your suggestion OP, I will have to wait a while. I've just spent £150 on a Manfrotto tripod and £60 on a lowepro slingshot. Oops - just after Christmas.....

I will keep my eye out for a 2nd hand ND on the forum :-) Thanks again for the wonderful advice (and excellent example shots!)
 
I spent maybe over £500 or £600 for only filters, and i am very happy using them, i just came back from a store bought LEE Big Stopper again after i bought one from them but it broke in my bad before i open and use the filter, so that about £150 wasted for nothing.

I will choose some necessary filters if i want to start with them for beginners, the following will be my recommendations:

- Circular Polarizer
- ND [1 2stops and 1 say 9/10 stops for longer exposures]
- GND [2 and 3 stops 0.6&0.9 one soft and one hard]

- IR filter is just a bonus for some who would like to try IR shots sometimes
- Colors filters, these maybe help reducing your workflow time, such as orange/red filter for sunset or for film photography.

I am talking about those square/rectangular filters for more control over screw in or circle direct mount on lenses.

Anything else will be not so important, but anyone is free with his budget.
 
TareqPhoto said:
I spent maybe over £500 or £600 for only filters, and i am very happy using them, i just came back from a store bought LEE Big Stopper again after i bought one from them but it broke in my bad before i open and use the filter, so that about £150 wasted for nothing.

I will choose some necessary filters if i want to start with them for beginners, the following will be my recommendations:

- Circular Polarizer
- ND [1 2stops and 1 say 9/10 stops for longer exposures]
- GND [2 and 3 stops 0.6&0.9 one soft and one hard]

- IR filter is just a bonus for some who would like to try IR shots sometimes
- Colors filters, these maybe help reducing your workflow time, such as orange/red filter for sunset or for film photography.

I am talking about those square/rectangular filters for more control over screw in or circle direct mount on lenses.

Anything else will be not so important, but anyone is free with his budget.
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I am looking at investing in LEe filters, can you advise which store you purchased from as I am struggling to find any source other than wex on the Internet? Looking at the reviews Lee appear to be the safe bet for quality.
 
wolfyccfc said:
I am looking at investing in LEe filters, can you advise which store you purchased from as I am struggling to find any source other than wex on the Internet? Looking at the reviews Lee appear to be the safe bet for quality.
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First, i have to correct one word from my post, bad is bag, don't know how and why i did this stupid mistake, anyway, English is not my main mother tongue language.

Second, the store i bought from is a local store in my country UAE, i am not in UK or Europe, so i can't help you about which store you can buy from there, i mostly use the net if i buy stuff and i only use US online stores, i think even if you use those online stores you will have taxes and VAT added maybe, so it may not be a wise to buy online for you unless i am wrong and you can exclude TAX+VAT or if it will be cheaper even with those than buying locally from UK.
 
I wonder what their failure rate is? And no wonder they are expensive if they are hand made..... I would have thought machines could get the same (if not better) results for a fraction of the price....
 
In fact even i have some GND filters from Hitech, but i wanted to get LEE instead and not sure which one to go with, i use most of my Hitech GND filters, but i can tell that 0.3 are the least one used, and 0.9/1.2 are the most the followed by 0.6, but hard or soft i didn't make any statistics to see which one higher use, so if you have to choose only 2 LEE GND filters, which one you will go with?
 
spacester said:
I wonder what their failure rate is? And no wonder they are expensive if they are hand made..... I would have thought machines could get the same (if not better) results for a fraction of the price....
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If they use Six Sigma their failure rate should be less than 1%. I would say the failure rate is pretty low given the fact that LEE production operatives are adequately trained. The Lee production is quite a small set up and I would think automation would not be cost effective.

TareqPhoto said:
so if you have to choose only 2 LEE GND filters, which one you will go with?
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For me I would say 0.9 soft and 0.6 hard but the 0.9 hard is also often called for. These three are really the only ones I ever use.
 
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Digifrog said:
If they use Six Sigma their failure rate should be less than 1%. I would say the failure rate is pretty low given the fact that LEE production operatives are adequately trained. The Lee production is quite a small set up and I would think automation would not be cost effective.



For me I would say 0.9 soft and 0.6 hard but the 0.9 hard is also often called for. These three are really the only ones I ever use.
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hmmmmmm, about the first reply, well, Singhray is more expensive than LEE, also i see Formatt is high quality more expensive than LEE too, are those any better quality and more human involving to be more expensive than LEE?

I was thinking vise Versa, 0.6 soft and 0.9 Hard because i use that higher stopper for sky more than ground on most clear horizon, but sure you have a point or situations where that 0.6 Hard is more useful, i will see if i can get those 3, if i sell some of my Hitech GND filters then affording 3 or 4 LEE GND is not a big deal.

Thanks.
 
TareqPhoto said:
hmmmmmm, about the first reply, well, Singhray is more expensive than LEE, also i see Formatt is high quality more expensive than LEE too, are those any better quality and more human involving to be more expensive than LEE?

I was thinking vise Versa, 0.6 soft and 0.9 Hard because i use that higher stopper for sky more than ground on most clear horizon, but sure you have a point or situations where that 0.6 Hard is more useful, i will see if i can get those 3, if i sell some of my Hitech GND filters then affording 3 or 4 LEE GND is not a big deal.

Thanks.
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I'm not sure about processes involved and I've never used SinghRay or Formatt. I've always thought though that SinghRay and Lee were pretty comparable for quality.

The Lee 0.9 soft is very feathered. That is, only the top most of the filter actually holds back 3 stops. The majority of the graduated part is more like 1.5-2.5 stops. I can only speak from my own experience but for me the 0.6 soft would be too weak.
 
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I've managed to convince myself to buy Lee over Hitech.

It's costing £400 instead of £200 and I'm getting half as many filters but I still think it'll be worth it!

Most likely ordering from either Robert White or Teamwork. Just a case of who can get the ten stop in stock first.
 
Original Poster said:
Just a case of who can get the ten stop in stock first.
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As far as I understand it neither will ever get stock of the Big Stopper. I think you'll find it is an order only process, you place the order then you wait

The Lean procedure I'm afraid.
 
Digifrog said:
I'm not sure about processes involved and I've never used SinghRay or Formatt. I've always thought though that SinghRay and Lee were pretty comparable for quality.

The Lee 0.9 soft is very feathered. That is, only the top most of the filter actually holds back 3 stops. The majority of the graduated part is more like 1.5-2.5 stops. I can only speak from my own experience but for me the 0.6 soft would be too weak.
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I see, Well, i will see if i can get 3 filters instead of 1 or 2.
 
Original Poster said:
I've managed to convince myself to buy Lee over Hitech.

It's costing £400 instead of £200 and I'm getting half as many filters but I still think it'll be worth it!

Most likely ordering from either Robert White or Teamwork. Just a case of who can get the ten stop in stock first.
Click to expand...

I think you've made a wise choice with Lee.

Take a look at Speed Graphic. Anytime I've bought Lee stuff from them it's been delivered in no more than 5 days. They may work out a little bit cheaper also.
 
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