Neutral Density Filters

Ok all I am thinking about getting a set, mainly to hold back skies and to slow down shutter speed for water, suggestions as far as stops and brands go???

I've also been meaning to order a set of these myself. Haven't ordered em yet, due to my uncanny ability to put things off and put things off.

Been looking at a cheap Cokin filter system and a high-quality rectangular Singh-Ray graduated neutral density filter. Use the category links on the above pages to browse for adapter rings that will fit your specific lenses. You'll need an adapter ring, a filter holder, and a set of filters. The nice thing about rectangular filter systems is that you can buy a filter holder and a set of filters that will work for all your cameras and lenses. You just need to buy an adapter ring that will fit the thread size on whatever lens you're using.

I think I'm going to go for a 3-stop hard for sunsets and maybe a 2-stop soft for general experimenting. As I'm sure you know (but included here for the benefit of others reading this thread), if your goal is to simply slow down shutter speeds for the water-silk effect, you only need a regular ND filter, which are produced as threaded screw-on filters and as squares for filter holders. I've got an NDX8 (3-stops) that seems to work well, even for older lenses that only go up to F/16. However, I find myself using it only rarely, as I prefer to wait for the early morning/evening light where shadows and highlights are more evenly distributed.

Edit: I'd be curious to know if anybody's ever used Lee or Hitech or some other filter system other than Cokin and what their experience was like.

This post has been edited by Rhavethstine on July 15, 2007 07:53 pm

Well, got my Cokin P system in the mail yesterday, along with a soft 3-stop GND glass filter from Tiffen. Went out and played with it today and I've got to say I'm in love.



This post has been edited by Rhavethstine on July 22, 2007 03:36 am

I have Cokin P system and I don't like it. The filters scratch easily as well, I dropped one by accident (temperature was cold, shaky hands!) into some Heather and even that scratched one.

When I upgrade, I'm opting for Lee Filters. If they are good enough for Professionals like Colin Prior, they must be good. They are expensive though.

This post has been edited by MarkShannon on April 09, 2008 09:30 am

The Cokin P system describes the filter holder and filter size. You can buy whatever brand filters for the system that you want. Including Lee filters. I use glass Tiffen GNDs. Cokin makes cheap plastic filters.

That being said, I've since found the P series to be far too small for my wide angle uses. I have taken to leaving the filter holder off my lens and hand-holding the filter in front of the lens to prevent vignetting (which is obviously less than ideal, but better than nothing). I would definitely recommend upgrading to a larger filter holder/filter size for anybody looking to do wide-angle landscape work with a filter or two.

I was wondering that about the P sized filters and if they would vignette to hell and back or not....hmmm....I did pick up some soid ND's for next to nothing off ebay, screw on types, that have suited me well thus far. Now I just need some ND8s to REALLY get the ball a rollin'!

kkart, would this be the filter you are holding in your hand on your webcam picture on DA ?

I've never heard of such thing! Now you know how much of a newb I am with pictures lol