Equipment Filters and nd filters

Anyone know any decent filters that won't break the bank? Was thinking if getting some nd filters and do polarising work? Are they work it? Want to put them on my efs 15-85 mm

 

I always use Hoya for polarize and UV filter

Hitech are making very good (Square) ND filters now.

And for circular ND filter, B+W are best, price depends on size of filter and how many stop you are looking for

 

Kood are cheap and reasonable. Of course they won't compare to B+W, Cokin, etc but they'll be a fraction of the cost.

 

I was having a look in Digital SLR Photography magazine this weekend (as I'm thinking of giving the 5 subscriptions for a fiver + a free monopod trial a go) and they suggested Borwin might be good for cheap (think less than £25 for a set of 4 filters - UV, polarising, soft focus and ND or ~£35 for a set of 3 different ND filters)

I've ordered one of the 4-in-1 sets - I'll report back!

 

All my filters are Hoya - at least I think they are, my uv and polorised ones certainly are.

 

The price range is massive!

 

I know - it's crazy isn't it. You can pick up a UV filter on ebay for £1.70 or if you prefer spend into the hundreds...

 

Its same difference in terms of both price and quality that you get between "kit" lens and "L" lens

 

Does it really differ that much?
I have invested in a fairly cheap set at the moment to see what's it like before jumping in and getting the "l" series

 

I suppose it depends on how much you're going to use them and what you're going to use them for... I also would guess that it's hard to compare unless you own both a cheapy set and the expensive alternatives. I'm still waiting on delivery of my cheapy set - I'm hoping they'll be here later. I have some lenses that take 52mm filters and some that take 58mm filters - I've got a cheapy step up ring to sort that problem

 

Well it depends, if you are happy putting a £2 piece of glass on the end of your £600 lens. Cheap filters generally result in unwanted flare/haze/reflections in images, especially if you are shooting into light sources.

I don't really use screw-in filters as UV filters offer no benefit to image quality and circular polarisers have limited use on wide angle lenses. I find ND/ND grad filters are the most useful so I would suggest looking a filter system like Cokin. A basic set with holder/adapter shouldn't set you back more than £50.

 

I have the Cokin Z Pro starter ND grad kit, only used it a few times. Far easier to just hold the piece of square glass in front of the camera. My advice is buy a single 3 stop soft or 2 stop hard ND grad glass, see if it's your thing before investing in a system.

For 10 stop ND, Haida 10 stop are highly rated for its good value. I found it to be great, I can totally recommend it.

CPL, it's an odd one. It's great fun to use and produces fantastic results on sunny days. But it requires you to check setting every time you take a photo. I've got Hoya HD CPL, only used it a few times but loved its result. With my move to Fuji x100, the B+W CPL purchased for x100 was rarely used, due to bulk and extra steps required.
But it's worth getting a good CPL, otherwise its effect is so tiny, might as well not bother. Hoya HD, B+W are the ones I can totally recommend.



Personally, I think it's better to work around the limitations (eg, by changing composition) rather than carry all those bulk to make photography less fun. So x100 and spare battery is all I use now, an off camera flash at most.