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What brand of ND filter to get?

moonpeep
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p.1 #1 · What brand of ND filter to get?

Want to pickup a 6 or 10 stop ND filter to experiment with.

Don't want to spend much more than 100.

Any reason to do B+W?

Or is Hoya or some other brand just as good and slightly cheaper?

I've been having a hard time figuring out what to go with quality wise.

Jan 28, 2013 at 01:21 AM

moonpeep
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p.1 #2 · What brand of ND filter to get?

fwiw... probably looking at 77mm. Primarily on nikon d800, if that means anything...

Jan 28, 2013 at 01:28 AM

mpmendenhall
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p.1 #3 · What brand of ND filter to get?

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).

Jan 28, 2013 at 01:36 AM

moonpeep
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p.1 #4 · What brand of ND filter to get?

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.

Jan 28, 2013 at 01:57 AM

JustinR
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p.1 #5 · What brand of ND filter to get?

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.

-Justin

Jan 28, 2013 at 06:10 PM

chez
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p.1 #6 · What brand of ND filter to get?

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.

I'll never buy another Hoya filter.

Jan 28, 2013 at 07:09 PM

Mike K
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p.1 #7 · What brand of ND filter to get?

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.

With that caveat, the 10 stop filters that seem to be effective with minimal color cast are Lee big stopper and the HItech (or Formatt) Pro Stop
http://blog.robertstrachan.com/archives/1314/hitech-pro-stop-review/
Mike K

Jan 28, 2013 at 08:43 PM

wayne_eddy
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p.1 #8 · What brand of ND filter to get?

I have tried Hoya, Cokin and LEE.

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!

Feb 02, 2013 at 02:37 PM

pjheller
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p.1 #9 · What brand of ND filter to get?

How about a vari-ND?

Try the Genus Eclipse. Link to the website: http://shop.genustech.tv/collections/genus-eclipse-nd-fader

Feb 03, 2013 at 01:40 AM

RedOak
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p.1 #10 · What brand of ND filter to get?

anyone's got an opinion on the Singh-ray NDs? http://singh-ray.com/varind.html

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?

Mar 16, 2013 at 11:49 PM

lsutigerfan
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p.1 #11 · What brand of ND filter to get?

RedOak wrote:
anyone's got an opinion on the Singh-ray NDs? http://singh-ray.com/varind.html

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

Mar 21, 2013 at 01:28 AM

Peter Figen
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p.1 #12 · What brand of ND filter to get?

"Try the Genus Eclipse. "

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.

Mar 21, 2013 at 08:54 AM

howardm4
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p.1 #13 · What brand of ND filter to get?

Definitely take a look at the Tiffen Variable ND too

Mar 21, 2013 at 12:44 PM

sjms
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p.1 #14 · What brand of ND filter to get?

howardm4 wrote:
Definitely take a look at the Tiffen Variable ND too

that is what I own.

Mar 21, 2013 at 01:00 PM

matoqui
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p.1 #15 · What brand of ND filter to get?

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.

This is the link to the product I have: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/742531-REG/Light_Craft_320_72mm_Fader_ND_Mark.html.

Mar 21, 2013 at 03:14 PM

Sunny Sra
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p.1 #16 · What brand of ND filter to get?

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.

Mar 21, 2013 at 09:49 PM

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