Nisi, Lee, or Formatt/Hitech Filter kit?

[dave.gt]

This forum has amazing photos posted everyday. Obviously, there are different preferences for filters with each photographer.

As we prepare for our first in a series of photo shoots at a local hospital, the final acquisition of the appropriate ND filters is the last piece of the puzzle we need to decide upon. the title of this thread has three kits that I am looking into...are there others I should consider?

 

[MGrayson]

Breakthrough. Their hype is annoying, but the filters are actually very color neutral. I have the 6-stop and 10-stop in 105mm. I also have the Lee 10 stop and it is much worse on color.

--Matt

 

[JohnBrew]

Formatt. I have both Breakthrough and Formatt. I find them both color neutral, but the Formatt are quite a bit less expensive and they now have a US warehouse. Also when I emailed Breakthrough about a potential problem (actually user error) they failed to respond.

 

[voidshatter]

Lee has just released ProGlass IRND, with virtually no color cast / vignetting / additional flare / inflated stops when stacked with GND / any leakage. I have tested and am very satisfied. These are huge upgrades over the Big Stoppers.

 

[dave.gt]

Formatt. I have both Breakthrough and Formatt. I find them both color neutral, but the Formatt are quite a bit less expensive and they now have a US warehouse. Also when I emailed Breakthrough about a potential problem (actually user error) they failed to respond.

Do you recommend both the Formatt holder and the Formatt filters? Sometimes I have seen different holders.

Using the H5D, we will need to be shooting portraits alongside a morning sunlit lake and at a small waterfall, using a monolight. I presume a 6 or 10 stop ND filter would work?

 

[JohnBrew]

Dave, I only use screw-on filters. At Death Valley this year Vieri Bottazzini had a full complement of the Formatt square slide-in filters. You could PM him or look on his site - I believe he has a write up on them. If you use grad ND's, then that is the only way to go. However, I have a friend who uses square filters and hand-holds them. So many ways to do this...

 

[hcubell]

Do you recommend both the Formatt holder and the Formatt filters? Sometimes I have seen different holders.

Using the H5D, we will need to be shooting portraits alongside a morning sunlit lake and at a small waterfall, using a monolight. I presume a 6 or 10 stop ND filter would work?

The Formatt Firecrest ND filters are excellent optically, but I have been very disappointed at how easily they scratch. The coating is VERY delicate. If you look at them the wrong way, they will scratch.

 

[Christopher]

I currently use the Haida system with my XF. Really like their stuff and pricewise it's quite attractive in Europe.

 

[algrove]

I use Nisi and find them color neutral.

 

[bab]

I have both Nisi and Lees as a matter of fact I also have screw ins (first off as the OP suggested hand holding square filters.....wont work for several reasons light flares and accidental camera vibration many images ruined thinking this system could work maybe with a 1/500 sec exposure but not with 1/80 or below.

I shoot an H6D formally a H5D for the 28mm lens you must have 150mm x 180mm square filters or you'll get vignetting also you must shade the filters or you will get flare from frontal light sources. ( use a large golf umbrella for best results)

I have abused the NiSi filters and mine are Nano coated glass(I cant even get tape to stick to the surface) can say I see any scratches, also good to note shooting H camera the filter will produce some color corruption on long exposures, so its best to shoot a gray card image for easy color correction.

All filter holders presently made for still photography are "crap" if anyone reading this can point me a different direction your advise is welcome (you might check with professional video supply houses) meaning hard to slide the filters in and out of the holders...that's what we have to live with until someone who uses them in the field understands how to makes the correct system. Wine Country might as of now ( I was told maybe late summer) but I think at this time they only offer the 100mm holder which looks promising because it also has a REAR circular polarizer (DUH! novel idea this is how I mount my NiSi with the aluminum filter holder and adapter ring screwed into the circular Pola on the lens PITA).

Hasselblad should make a filter holder for 100mm and/or 150mm lenses but they don't. Why I don't know maybe because they want you to watch a video of a "photographer" shooting a project with loud obnoxious music and very creative and perfect images flashing up on the video Hasselblad expects you to believe if you push the orange button the dynamic range is so great, color is so accurate in daylight or flash all images come out of the camera that way, just like I Phones images it's marketing HYPE!

 

[dave.gt]

I have both Nisi and Lees as a matter of fact I also have screw ins (first off as the OP suggested hand holding square filters.....wont work for several reasons light flares and accidental camera vibration many images ruined thinking this system could work maybe with a 1/500 sec exposure but not with 1/80 or below.

I shoot an H6D formally a H5D for the 28mm lens you must have 150mm x 180mm square filters or you'll get vignetting also you must shade the filters or you will get flare from frontal light sources. ( use a large golf umbrella for best results)

I have abused the NiSi filters and mine are Nano coated glass(I cant even get tape to stick to the surface) can say I see any scratches, also good to note shooting H camera the filter will produce some color corruption on long exposures, so its best to shoot a gray card image for easy color correction.

All filter holders presently made for still photography are "crap" if anyone reading this can point me a different direction your advise is welcome (you might check with professional video supply houses) meaning hard to slide the filters in and out of the holders...that's what we have to live with until someone who uses them in the field understands how to makes the correct system. Wine Country might as of now ( I was told maybe late summer) but I think at this time they only offer the 100mm holder which looks promising because it also has a REAR circular polarizer (DUH! novel idea this is how I mount my NiSi with the aluminum filter holder and adapter ring screwed into the circular Pola on the lens PITA).

Hasselblad should make a filter holder for 100mm and/or 150mm lenses but they don't. Why I don't know maybe because they want you to watch a video of a "photographer" shooting a project with loud obnoxious music and very creative and perfect images flashing up on the video Hasselblad expects you to believe if you push the orange button the dynamic range is so great, color is so accurate in daylight or flash all images come out of the camera that way, just like I Phones images it's marketing HYPE!

Interesting! With your H camera experience and Nisi filters, I have to ask: since I will be using the 80mm lens (and I have a 503cxi w/ 80mm lens), at least for awhile only I will be using only the 80mm lens, should I stay with the 4"x4" (100x100) filters and holder with CPL? At what point with H lenses do the 100x150mm, or 150x180mm filters become necessary?

Thanks!

 

[hcubell]

Hasselblad expects you to believe if you push the orange button the dynamic range is so great, color is so accurate in daylight or flash all images come out of the camera that way, just like I Phones images it's marketing HYPE!

Always works for me. You may need a replacement orange button. Call Tech Support.

 

[tcdeveau]

Interesting! With your H camera experience and Nisi filters, I have to ask: since I will be using the 80mm lens (and I have a 503cxi w/ 80mm lens), at least for awhile only I will be using only the 80mm lens, should I stay with the 4"x4" (100x100) filters and holder with CPL? At what point with H lenses do the 100x150mm, or 150x180mm filters become necessary?

Thanks!

Dave, if you're only using the 80mm, the 100mm square ND filters be just fine. The 100x150mm size is generally for graduated ND filters, which will also be fine on the 80mm HC lens.

For best results on the H system, larger filters than that generally are used on the 24mm HCD, 28mm HCD, 35-90mm HCD, and 35mm HC (ie wide angles). The potential issue with the 100mm filters on these lenses is vignetting. I never had any issues with 100mm filters on the 35-90mm HCD but can't speak for the rest. I did also use 165mm x 165mm filters on the 35-90mm and 28mm HCD, but the tradeoff with those is that they were very large and difficult to keep free of debris (dust, etc) in the field because of sheer surface area. They're also a lot more expensive than smaller filters. 150mm square ND or 150mm x 180mm grad ND filters (or larger, like the 165mm filters I used) would work best on these lenses, but you can get away with smaller filters depending on use.

If you're only planning to stick with the 80mm HC, the 100mm x 100mm filters for ND and 100mm x 150mm grad ND filter sizes will be just fine for now, although you may want to think about larger filters at some point if you're ever thinking about picking up any of the above lenses (24mm HCD, 28mm HCD, 35-90mm HCD, or 35mm HC).
-Todd

 

[Frederic]

Hey Christopher,

Where do you get them from in euroland ? All I could find was an eBay outlet, and a lot of models were missing.

Thanks

I currently use the Haida system with my XF. Really like their stuff and pricewise it's quite attractive in Europe.

 

[Christopher]

Hey Christopher,

Where do you get them from in euroland ? All I could find was an eBay outlet, and a lot of models were missing.

Thanks

Amazon Germany and two local camera shops in Munich have them stocked. Where are you located ?

 

[SrMphoto]

OnLandscape magazine published a good analysis of fourteen 10-Stop ND filters (https://www.onlandscape.co.uk/2017/07/nd-filters/). The full article is available for subscribers only. Haida filter gets high marks.

When using H6D-100C you need to use a 150mm filter system with HCD 24 and HCD 35-90 to avoid vignetting.

 

[bab]

Interesting! With your H camera experience and Nisi filters, I have to ask: since I will be using the 80mm lens (and I have a 503cxi w/ 80mm lens), at least for awhile only I will be using only the 80mm lens, should I stay with the 4"x4" (100x100) filters and holder with CPL? At what point with H lenses do the 100x150mm, or 150x180mm filters become necessary?

Thanks!

Well that a question for you if you buy the set of 100mm filters you will spend a lot of money $1000+ for a full set, then when you acquire a wider lens you will need a new set of larger filters.

If I were doing this for a living (professionaly) then I would want two bodies (in case of failure) and I would buy both sizes. since for me its not my only source of income and a small part at that I suffer thru with the larger set 150x180 and I bought a set of step up rings for 10.00 (which I should buy another set drop one in the water at Yosemite two months ago luckily I reached down and grabbed it as the current was taking it away) the 6,10,15 stop ND are square.

 

[bab]

Always works for me. You may need a replacement orange button. Call Tech Support.

Genius idea do you have their number?

 

[voidshatter]

OnLandscape magazine published a good analysis of fourteen 10-Stop ND filters (https://www.onlandscape.co.uk/2017/07/nd-filters/). The full article is available for subscribers only. Haida filter gets high marks.

When using H6D-100C you need to use a 150mm filter system with HCD 24 and HCD 35-90 to avoid vignetting.

This article is great and definitely worth the £4. Haida Nano Pro MC, Kase KW100 Wolverine, Lee ProGlass IRND and Nisi were recommended in the summary (very good control of both cast and reflection).

 

[dchew]

After flipping through Tim Parkin's images in the On Landscape test, it looks like the Nisi and Formatt filters have some polarizing characteristics.

Dave