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Best ND filter for d800E

tashley

Subscriber Member
It seems quite difficult to find out which is the best high density or variable ND filter offers the best quality in terms of both resolution and colour accuracy. We don't get Singh Ray in the UK, but Kenko, Hama, Hoya, Tiffen, Lee, B+W and others make versions and it seems hard to work out which are the best.

Any tips folks?

Thanks!
Tim
 

Jack

Sr. Administrator
Staff member
Tim,

I use the Tiffen IR-ND filters. My main use is for blurring moving water in landscapes. For this, you need about 8 or 9 stops total off ISO 100 if lit by direct Sun, less if in more subdued light. The best resolution is always achieved if you limit to one filter, however two stacked on a non-shifting application remains very usable. Hence, my collection is a 0.9 (3-stop), a 1.8 (6-stop) and a 2.7 (9-stop). The issue with the 9-stop is you really cannot see through it well enough to compose when it's mounted. The 3-stop is really only useful in low light or when stacked on top of the 6-stop for additional strength. You can see well enough through a 6-stop to compose, and since most of my moving water shots are not lit by direct Sun, I find it my most-used filter.

You need IR cut ND's because the regular old style ND will leak IR and will color pollute digital images, leaving them kind of a nasty yellow-ish brown color you cannot balance out. Even the IRND versions set color off a bit, but it's easily correctable with a WB adjustment. Best bet is whenever you use the IRND is to shoot a gray card or passport frame for white reference.

PS: Ironically, coatings on filters have a negative effect on resolution and multi-coating is worse than single, but no coating can generate unwanted reflections or flare spots. As such a single-coated option is a best compromise, so avoid all the higher-priced, fancy name multi-coated options. (You can reference a Schneider article on this topic several years back; after which, neither Schneider nor Schott offered MC filters. Tiffen dropped them a few years from later except for video applications, where absolute resolution is not as critical as controlling unwanted reflections and flare.)

Hope this helps,
 

ErikKaffehr

Well-known member
Hi,

I have used Kenko Variable NDX, it is quite OK. I wouldn't say it goes the ND 3.0 (1000X) but ND 2,0 (100X) is OK. Not much of color shift but tends to be uneven past 100X.

I have used it on 24-70/2.8 and 70-400/4.0-5.6 on a full frame Sony Alpha 900.

Best regards
Erik

It seems quite difficult to find out which is the best high density or variable ND filter offers the best quality in terms of both resolution and colour accuracy. We don't get Singh Ray in the UK, but Kenko, Hama, Hoya, Tiffen, Lee, B+W and others make versions and it seems hard to work out which are the best.

Any tips folks?

Thanks!
Tim
 

Shashin

Well-known member
B&W 13 and 20 stop ND filters have a great deal of IR contamination. I am enjoying the 9-stop Hoya NDX400 ND filter that give fairly good colors--all of these filters mess with the colors to some degree or another. The nice thing about the Hoya is that in bright sunlight, you can still compose though the viewfinder.

Variable ND filters suffer from the black X at maximum ND. The wider the lens, the worst it is.
 

Jan Brittenson

Senior Subscriber Member
my collection is a 0.9 (3-stop), a 1.8 (6-stop) and a 2.7 (9-stop).
Same here; I have a 3 stop Lee, 6 stop Hitec, and 9 stop Hitec. Mine are 4x4 resin and glass though, but I have no problems with IR hot spots or color shift. Never noticed anything significant, certainly nothing even close to resembling film reciprocity shift which was often rather severe in comparison.
 

ErikKaffehr

Well-known member
Hi,

I have seen the black X phenomena on my Kenko NDX at maximum density, I think it is OK to about 100X (ND 2.0).

Best regards
Erik

B&W 13 and 20 stop ND filters have a great deal of IR contamination. I am enjoying the 9-stop Hoya NDX400 ND filter that give fairly good colors--all of these filters mess with the colors to some degree or another. The nice thing about the Hoya is that in bright sunlight, you can still compose though the viewfinder.

Variable ND filters suffer from the black X at maximum ND. The wider the lens, the worst it is.
 

tashley

Subscriber Member
That is a priceless set of advice, thanks to all for sharing. I am wondering, pursuant to Jack's comments about composing, about the variable ND ones. I was about to buy one a few weeks ago but the salesman said something about how they weren't really useable over a few stops because they degraded resolution with some strange interference pattern and they had colour balance issues. Assuming they are no good, and given the need to have them in 67 and 77mm sizes, I'll start with Tiffen 9 stop and then if the technique is suiting my work, get a few more thereafter.

Thanks again people.
 

Guy Mancuso

Administrator, Instructor
Buy the biggest you need in my case 82mm than buy step down rings. 82-77, 82-72 and 82-67. Or 82-77,77-72,72-67 and stack them. The step down rings are not very expensive so you can have several. I actually have a 82 and 77 of the same filter than step down from there. I use the 6 stop version of the Tiffen. That's all I carry, I don't like stacking filters themselves.
 

Jack

Sr. Administrator
Staff member
Guy,

FYI I'm pretty sure your 82mm is the same as mine and they're 9-stoppers (2.7's), not 6's (1.8's). You might want to check ;)
 

Guy Mancuso

Administrator, Instructor
My bad yes the same as yours as we bought them together for the 18mm lens. I ll go check my 77 as that maybe the 6 stopper. Crap my memory is toast
 

Jack

Sr. Administrator
Staff member
The advantage of the 18 with the 9 stop is you can point in the general direction to compose and be pretty close LOLOL!
 

Guy Mancuso

Administrator, Instructor
Should be mentioned here with live view with camera on manual you can dial down your shutter speed obviously in good light and can see pretty well with the filter on using live view. I actually like using manual here since I can also open up more to see than dial down to see the exact exposure I am getting before I actually shoot. To me this takes a load out of guessing exposure like the old days as we would guess exposure with these filters on as you can't see. That has all changed with live view. That 18 mm shot above at 30 seconds took very little time to set up . Before you would go through a lot more work and guessing exposures. Big plus for live view and ND filter type work today. This is something folks should try out.
 

Guy Mancuso

Administrator, Instructor
My bad yes the same as yours as we bought them together for the 18mm lens. I ll go check my 77 as that maybe the 6 stopper. Crap my memory is toast
Sorry my 77mm filter is a 1.8 and 82 is the same as Jacks . So I do have. 6 stopper and a 9 stopper.
 

Landscapelover

Senior Subscriber Member
Hi Tim,

I have square ND filters, I've used with Lee filter holder...Lee Polarizer (2-stop) , 3-stop Lee, 7-stop Hi-Tech and 10-stop Lee. I've also had 10-stop circular B&W. They work just fine.

Best,
Pramote
 

Paul2660

Well-known member
Guy, the waterfall shot is a great one. Love the play of light.

Jack, question on the IR pollution, which I have noticed a bit on longer exposures with a IQ160, will a LCC help on removing the cast? When I am shooting longish exposures on the 160, with tech lenses, @ 10 seconds or longer, when I take the LCC I remove the ND since I don't want to take a LCC for 20 to 25 seconds. I might try taking one for the longer time frame with the ND on and keep it as a preset for IR pollution.

Trying to avoid a 95mm IRND cost as they are well over 500.00

Thanks
Paul
 

Jack

Sr. Administrator
Staff member
Paul,

I always take my LCC's in exact same trim as my filtration. I know it's an extra bother, but IMHO well worth the effort since all sorts of negative anomalies get evened out. LCC in itself will not (and should not) correct a global WB issue, but does even out localized color *casts* occurring across the frame. However, IF you set or shoot your main image and LCC at the same WB settings, then you can dropper the LCC frame for a very good starting WB for the image frame.
 

tashley

Subscriber Member
I am going bonkers trying to find the right one online: the Tiffen website is a total mess and the only ones I can find on Amazon UK or my dealer's website are 0.3 0.6 and 0.9 which don't seem strong enough since they seem to translate to 1, 2 and 3 stops respectively - and there's no mention of the IR blocking feature. If Guy or Jack were able to tell me what it says on the ring of their 9 stop versions I'd be very grateful!
 
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