[Guest]

I've compiled various information on these filters,

see http://photonius.wikispaces.com/Filters

http://photonius.wikispaces.com/ND+gradient+filters



First, you have to decide what size, which depends on the camera you use (FF/crop), and the lenses you have.

Depending on your wide-angle needs, you need larger filters.

The smallest you can use are P sized filters, but you can only use a single filter on, e.g. the Canon 10-22mm UWA,

otherwise you have vignetting: http://photonius.wikispaces.com/Vignetting



As mentioned by others, these filters can be large, and if they become too cumbersome, you won't take them with you.

So, I settled on P, though I find even this large (compared to the A series, which I used just fine on small primes in film days).

So, you can choose between Cokin, Hitech, Singh-Ray. Lee seems to have P size too, though on their web site so far I only see 100mm filters.

I have the Hitech ones, which seem to be a decent enough compromise between cost and performance.



The Magenta cast can occur with all these resin filters, but probably to different degrees. One major reason seems to be the transmission

in the Infrared range, where these filters do not block.

[ragsnoldiron]

I find graduated neutral density filters to be my most important accessory for imaging with a point and shoot these days. I really like the cokin-P system on my powershot G9, and most often use the singh-ray 2 stop soft step, and the polarizer together. I shoot RAW only with them on and find that my point and shoot really does well for snapshots. I also use the Coking X-Pro system along with the P on my big cameras with a mix of cokin and singh-ray filters. I think that the colour cast issue is over rated if you shoot in raw, and that the biggest issue is evenness of tint across the sheet of material. I find the cokin to be more even than the singh ray width wise, but I like the distribution of graduation top to bottom in the singh-ray; this is important if you are stitching for panoramas.

[Guest]

[quote name='Symple' date='23 June 2010 - 07:00 AM' timestamp='1277269219' post='660']

I find graduated neutral density filters to be my most important accessory for imaging with a point and shoot these days. I really like the cokin-P system on my powershot G9, and most often use the singh-ray 2 stop soft step, and the polarizer together. I shoot RAW only with them on and find that my point and shoot really does well for snapshots. I also use the Coking X-Pro system along with the P on my big cameras with a mix of cokin and singh-ray filters. I think that the colour cast issue is over rated if you shoot in raw, and that the biggest issue is evenness of tint across the sheet of material. I find the cokin to be more even than the singh ray width wise, but I like the distribution of graduation top to bottom in the singh-ray; this is important if you are stitching for panoramas.

[/quote]





Indeed, few filters (even expensive) are totally even, most notably the transition zone doesn't seem to be totally straight. It's probably the manufacturing, since it

probably involves layering the resins in liquid form on top of each other.

The other thing is that the transition zones are different between manufacturers, e.g., the hard transition filters have a thinner transition zone with some brands, and wider with others. So that can also guide your choice of filters.

[topcamera]

Find them yourself. Why are people always asking others to do their googling for them...?





Camera Charger

[exuvia]

Have you even read the starting messages? he asked for opinion, not for models and prices. Gee.. take it easy.

If you have nothing useful to add to the thread, just go away. That's how a forum should be used.

[scottburgess]

[quote name='Comte' date='19 June 2010 - 02:37 PM' timestamp='1276983449' post='618']

So you all use the Cokin system? I have thought about buying it too, but there are many bad opinions about the optical quality of the Cokin filters.

Can you confirm that? Do they really spoil resolution and scratch easily?

[/quote]



I have both a graduated ND and a 4-stop regular ND filter, both made by Singh-Ray. I seldom use the graduated ND now as Photomatix does a great job creating believable HDR images out of multiple exposures. The regular ND filter gets pulled out whenever I need to draw out the exposure time--such as to "candy" water motion. I have tried the new HDR subroutines in CS5, and they appear to be much improved, so some photographers may not want to put $$ out on Photomatix anymore. When ND filters were the only way to get the shot, I still cringed at how phony the results felt--even in Galen Rowell's capable hands. But then I mostly shoot macro and landscape stuff, and others don't seem to mind the feel of ND filters so much.



I don't use the Cokin brand P-series filters, as I also heard many bad things, but then most of their stuff seems to be cheap plastic. I prefer P-series filters made by Singh-Ray. Only carry a few in my gear, but the polarizer and warming polarizer do the most work. My wife and I play tug-of-war over the warming polarizer. :-)



While I buy P-series filters, I don't always used the P-series holder from Cokin. I only pull it out when my hands are busy shading the front of the lens, when I am in an awkward position where I can't hold still enough, or such. Otherwise, I just hold the filter in my hand up against the front of the lens--wastes less time. I got that idea from Dewitt Jones, who wasn't even carrying the Cokin holder in his gear. He prefers Tiffen P-series filters. I've heard others swear by 3-inch Lee filters, too, so there are different choices.



Scott