Hi, I have a question that need your help for clarification. I am very interested in Singh-Ray vary-ND duo or Trio filters, but they only offer 77mm size. As I have sold my 17-40L to stick with my 16-35LII, I don't have an option here. I just wonder if I could use a 82-77 step down ring to use these kinds of filter. What will be the image look like if i set it up like this? Will the image have dark corners around the edge due to the smaller size of the filter? How severe it will turn to be? Wish you guys that had experience of using it like this could give me some idea or suggestion. If you have any previous sample shots to demonstrate, that will be great!

Thanks a lot!

I have a Singh-Ray vary-ND filter and it's quite thick. I'm traveling and don't have access to it right now, but if I remember it correctly it will vignette even on a 24mm lens. If you're trying to use a 77mm filter on an 82mm lens I would imagine you're going to see some problems at all FLs.

Yes, a 77mm filter will vignette on that 82mm lens with the step down ring, particularly the Singh Ray which is really thick. Don't do it.........

this is one of the reasons I hesitated getting the 16-35 II, because of the 82mm lens size. Had to invest in all new filters, but it led me to upgrade my Cokin system to the Lee system for my graduated filters, which has been a big improvement. For my solid filters, I just bit the bullet and bought 82mm ones. Expensive, yes, but the 16-35 is worth it, it's such a great lens!

Jo

Thanks guys for your response. That's too bad! Now I begin to hate the 82 mm diameter. 16-35LII is much better than 17-40L in the color rendering and I really didn't want to stack several filters together to produce the effect that a single vari-ND-duo could make.

For those of you use 16-35LII, how could you resolve this problem? Just stack polarizer, GND together? And I found if I stack more than one piece of filter in front of the lens, the color cast would be a problem. Though I might use grey card tricks to deal with it, the color rendering becomes really dull. Any suggestion? Thanks.



Jo Dilbeck wrote:
Yes, a 77mm filter will vignette on that 82mm lens with the step down ring, particularly the Singh Ray which is really thick. Don't do it.........

this is one of the reasons I hesitated getting the 16-35 II, because of the 82mm lens size. Had to invest in all new filters, but it led me to upgrade my Cokin system to the Lee system for my graduated filters, which has been a big improvement. For my solid filters, I just bit the bullet and bought 82mm ones. Expensive, yes, but the 16-35 is worth it, it's such a great lens!

Jo

silentwings wrote:
For those of you use 16-35LII, how could you resolve this problem? Just stack polarizer, GND together? And I found if I stack more than one piece of filter in front of the lens, the color cast would be a problem. Though I might use grey card tricks to deal with it, the color rendering becomes really dull. Any suggestion? Thanks.Jo


You will find that even the SR VND will have problems of maintaining consistent density at very wide angles at 6-8 ND. This is discussed in another current thread with examples
http://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/1070123
All of the Variable NDs do this with wider angle lenses when you push the density.

Also as you get to stronger ND filters (>8 ND) all filters have some sort of color cast. A 10 stop ND filters out 1/1000 of the visible light, and the IR leaking through your sensors hot filter starts to affect the residual color cast as there is so little visible light.

You will find on UWA lenses that they either have an 82mm thread, or don't take filters at all due to their bulbous front elements (like the 17 TSE, Nikon 14-24, Samyang 14, etc). The system of broadest applicability are the 4" resin filters from Hitech, Lee, Singh Ray, etc. They are available up to 10ND from Lee(Big Stopper) and Hitech/Formatt (Pro Stop). Lee and Singh Ray make excellent GND filters in the 4X6" size. Lee seems to be the most popular 4" filter holder, but they can be hard to find in stock.
Mike K

Thanks very much for your comments. I just got a Hi-tech 10 stop ND filter and use Cokin P holder to use it on my 16-35LII. The blue color cast is quite obvious, and after color cast correction, the color is definitely not vibrant. If the pic is transformed into B&W, that's not a big problem. But to recover the real colors, it seems to be a little bit complicated.

Mike K wrote:
silentwings wrote:
For those of you use 16-35LII, how could you resolve this problem? Just stack polarizer, GND together? And I found if I stack more than one piece of filter in front of the lens, the color cast would be a problem. Though I might use grey card tricks to deal with it, the color rendering becomes really dull. Any suggestion? Thanks.Jo


You will find that even the SR VND will have problems of maintaining consistent density at very wide angles (16mm) at 6-8 ND. Also as you get to stronger ND filters (>8 ND) all filters have some sort of color cast. A 10 stop ND filters out 1/1000 of the visible light, and the IR leaking through your sensors hot filter starts to affect the residual color cast as there is so little visible light.

You will find on UWA lenses that they either have an 82mm thread, or don't take filters at all due to their bulbous front elements (like the 17 TSE, Nikon 14-24, Samyang 14, etc). The system of broadest applicability are the 4" resin filters from Hitech, Lee, Singh Ray, etc. They are available up to 10ND from Lee(Big Stopper) and Hitech/Formatt (Pro Stop). Lee and Singh Ray make excellent GND filters in the 4X6" size. Lee seems to be the most popular 4" filter holder, but they can be hard to find in stock.

the B&W 10 stop is really an 8 stop or less at 900nm. most of my bodies have good enough IR cut filters that it doesn't matter but i gather a lot of Canon bodies leak enough IR for it to be really obvious. i measured this using my Fuji IS-Pro which is designed for IR capture.

Herb...

Mike K wrote:
Also as you get to stronger ND filters (>8 ND) all filters have some sort of color cast. A 10 stop ND filters out 1/1000 of the visible light, and the IR leaking through your sensors hot filter starts to affect the residual color cast as there is so little visible light.