Fader ND filters - Any recommendations?
 

Have been on the lookout for an added ND filter. I'd prefer to get one of the fader ones, so that on a shoot, I'm not faffing around changing lens filters.

There are quite a few on sale on ebay (I live in the UK), and I wondered if anyone out there had bought one of these and if there were any differences in quality between them? What should I be expecting to pay for one of decent quality?

here's a link to one.

Fader ND Filter ( ND2 to ND400) 55mm Neutral Density - eBay (item 140410646817 end time Sep-21-10 08:41:40 PDT)

Thanks

I have the Singh ray and it works great. A couple of stepup rings make them fit all my lenses.
That eBay one looks interesting. Certainly better price than the $390 one I have!

$390!! yikes! - I wasn't expecting to pay anywhere near as much as that! I thought could pick one up easily for about £50 ($70/$80)

DIY with two linear polarizers. You can check out the Fader ND and Genus ND but you'd probably want to do a search for the limitations and image quality degradation of those filters before deciding if it is right for you.

I personally would just use straight ND filters... no sharpness loss and minimal colour casts. They are pricey though, especially the better ones.

as you say, there could be a loss in sharpness with the fader, although just noticed this filter - which is the only one I can see that guarantees it's for HD.

Fader ND Filter ( ND2 to ND400) 77mm Neutral Density on eBay (end time 17-Sep-10 15:41:07 BST)

Personally, I think that filter is a POS.

As many will tell you, the image quality with the Singh ray is awesome. Considering what you'd have to spend with individual nd filters and stacking, it really isn't that bad a price. plus the one I got is the thin one and it doesn't vignette nearly as bad as the thick one. And it's only on my Tokina 11-16 at 11mm that you see any at all.

That said, if the eBay ones work well and keep the image sharp, I'd probably pick up a different sized one so I wouldn't have to move the Singh ray around.

Who's going to pull the trigger and give us a report?

by POS - you mean possibility?

I bought mine on eBay for a little over a $100 and it works great.

Why? Did you buy one from that particular eBay seller & test it?

You should buy from the manufacturer Light Craft Workshop Light Craft Workshop FADER ND Filter mark II (MK2) 55mm - eBay (item 140433606432 end time Sep-27-10 11:35:36 PDT)

These variable ND filters are excellent quality & work well. Depending on filter size size they are priced around $75-$125 delivered.

the link above is also from LCW.. I have the original and Mark 2 versions, they both work well but give a very strong green/yellowish colour cast

I bought several of the original version direct from LCW & none of them have a green/yellowish colour cast or indeed any colour cast. When it is set at maximum there is a patchy dark blue/green cast but if you back off a little from maximum then it is fine.

The problem is definitely worse the more you turn the filter, mine is a definite green/yellow colour though.. do you manual white balance? im wondering if using the presets is a bad idea and doing a custom WB would solve the tint.. i will try it out

in any case heres some testing done regarding the colour tints on different ND filters..

ND filters | Blog: David Harry Stewart, Photographer/Director

I bought from eBay seller, lightcraftworkshop-official-store. The filter came in the brown box with the hologram, so I'm pretty sure it's legit. They mention "fakes" floating out there but I seriously think they are the ones who are the fakes. I was initially happy with using it, but then I didn't know any better.

After doing some tests with the Fader ND mk2, and several other ND filters, ranging in price from $12 to $125, the Fader ND was the only filter to 1) soften the image above 85mm 2) introduce a very strong greenish/yellow colour cast, 3) rendered bokeh in a very ugly way. All other straight NDs performed significantly better. I've concluded it is better to just use straight NDs because the drawbacks to the Fader ND were too much vs. the convenience of variable ND strengths.

I now only shoot with the Tiffen ND IRs in strengths of 0.9, 1.5 and 2.1. And I can be assured my images look their best. There is great comfort in that.