Many of the 10-stop NDs, including the B+W that I use, have moderate color casts that can be annoying to deal with. If you don't really need all 10 stops, I'd recommend a 6 stop filter as more likely to be color neutral. I'm happy with the B+W 106 (6 stop), but other brands make good filters too (someone else will have to chime in with personal experience).
never shot with one. Understand how they work though. Pretty sure I'd enjoy a 10 stop at times, like the idea of super long exposures during day time...
That said, perhaps 6 stop will be more used.
Wouldn't mind buying used to just to try it out... just haven't been able to figure out the brand thing quite yet.
Color cast is no biggy, shoot raw and will fix in post.
I have some Hoya and some B+W filters, and so far the only reason I have found to buy one over the other is that the B+W filters use a brass ring, whereas the Hoyas (and most others, I believe) use aluminum. Aluminum is prone to galling, so aluminum rings can get stuck on your lens more easily than brass. I'm sure there are image quality differences if you go to some of the really cheap ones, but the ones I have bought (all decent quality) are all pretty good.
I'll chime in on the differences between Hoya and B+W. My Hoya polarizer fell apart on me...it is a common issue with Hoya. My B+W filters are all fantastic and easy to put on and take off.
The 10 stop filters very frequently have color casts, which are dependent on the type of camera you are using. 10 stops blocks approximately 1/1000 of the visible light. An otherwise insignificant amout of IR leaking through the sensor hot filter (dependent upon camera body) can now yield an annoying color cast.
Cokin is too soft and creates a cast, Hoya creates a magenta cast (in colour images) but is negated when combined with a LEE.
LEE creates a blue cast which is easily remedied and I now have a set of LEE ND grads, a Big Stopper and 0.6. Even with two LEE filters stacked I fail to see any loss of image quality.
LEE pick the best quality glasses for their filters and that is the key reason why their filters are not always available - their standards cannot always be met!
A lot of people push towards those (yes they are expensive), but apparently quite astonishingly good. a case of "buy once for a lifetime" kind of price/quality.
A lot of people push towards those (yes they are expensive), but apparently quite astonishingly good. a case of "buy once for a lifetime" kind of price/quality.
Thoughts?
Yes, i hear VERY good. And I think they make filters that fit the Lee filter system. I think...but don't know. I have the Lee filter system and just one .9 Grda ND.
To OP, I bought from a vendor on Ebay that's extremely affordable and can get just about any LEE filter (and other companies I believe). PM me if you're really interested & I'll get his username
I bought one of those and took it back the next day. Weird color cast - not uniform, but worst, it visibly softened the image. While some things made in China are top quality, this is not one of them.
I use a brand called "Light Craft Workshop". It works ok on my d800 as long as I don't exceed a 5 stop exposure reduction. To get a reasonably sharp image, I need to close the viewfinder and turn off the long exposure noise reduction. Very minimal loss in resolution can be seen when looking images at the pixel level. Color cast has not been a problem.
LEE and Singh-Ray are at the top of the class. After that Cokin, B+W and then rest of the market. Filters are one of those things that you need to get good ones that work well and don't add too much gibberish color cast that can drive you nuts.
I had a set of cokin filters for a bit...and i HATED (i don't use that word much) the output from them. I've since switched to combo of Lee and Singh-Ray.
Try 2filter.com very nice people to work with.
