ND Filters

Dan Brockett · April 27th, 2009, 12:56 PM

If you put on a matte box, you instantly receive a job promotion to "big movie guy", which for some of us is a promotion from our current job title and for some us, it becomes a huge nuisance. "Are you shooting a movie?" "What are you shooting?", etc.

I have the Cinevate mattebox and it is larger than the 5D MKII itself, with the french flags and wings, it is huge and would look really stupid walking around shooting hand held.

Dan

Peer Landa · April 27th, 2009, 01:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dylan Couper

Or you could get a matte box, and buy a set of 4x4 filters that you could use on both lenses.

Although a Singh-Ray Vari ND is very tempting, I would need at least two of them, alas it would be more expensive than going the mattebox route. Hence, a mattebox is what I'm getting.

-- peer

Dylan Couper · April 27th, 2009, 01:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dan Brockett

If you put on a matte box, you instantly receive a job promotion to "big movie guy", which for some of us is a promotion from our current job title and for some us, it becomes a huge nuisance. "Are you shooting a movie?" "What are you shooting?", etc.

I have the Cinevate mattebox and it is larger than the 5D MKII itself, with the french flags and wings, it is huge and would look really stupid walking around shooting hand held.

Dan

Even though it was my suggestion, I completely agree!
I have 3 matteboxes for various sizes and purposes, but won't use them for street shooting for exactly the reason you suggest. The best thing about the 5D2 is being invisible (ok ONE of the best things).

I do however carry some cheaper 4x4 filters in my backpack to hold up in front of the lens for one time shots.

You could get the Cinetactics MatteBlox which is much less eye grabbing than a conventional matte box. I have one of those as well.

Nigel Barker · April 28th, 2009, 01:59 AM

What do people think about the quality of the Cokin filters? They use a system of an adaptor that screws onto the lens & then the filters (up to 3 I think) drop into a holder that clips onto the adaptor. You buy a specific sized adaptor for each different sized lens & then the filters & holder are common. It is much cheaper only getting one set of filters rather than a set of filters for each different size of lens. It's also cheaper as the filters are just glass & not in a threaded frame. It's sort of like a matte box except there is no matte & it's not a box:-)

COKIN Creative System - The Holder System - Standard Holder & Pro Holder - A/P/Z/X Series

Tom Hardwick · April 28th, 2009, 02:13 AM

I bought into the Cokin filter game and found it fairly useful. The filters were not glass and not coated, but for a one-off (and assuming you hooded the filter effectively) they worked well.

tom.

Dan Brockett · April 28th, 2009, 08:25 AM

I own about 20 of the Cokin filters but have found myself drifting away from them lately as the system is not very well crafted. The filters have an undesirable brownish colored tint on grades that should be be pure grey (NDs and ND grads), the circular Pola does not fit into the P2 holder very well and overall, they are disposable, the resin scratches too easily. Okay for a beginner if you don't want to spend much but not really very good quality overall.

I have the Cokins and I also have the Formatt, B+W and Schneider 4x4 glass filters and a bunch of random circular filters. One thing I learned that I never knew, the Tiffens are the best circular ND grads to get, almost all of the others are actually plastic, even otherwise great brands like B+W, etc. So if you are buying circular ND grads, get Tiffens.

It all depends on how many lenses you have of which diameters but another good trick is to buy all of your circulars in 77mm. On smaller diameter lenses, just use step up rings an you will never have a vignetting on wide angles this way and you can use just one filter of each type, regardless of how many different size lenses you have. Yes, you can't use a hood but hoods are overrated anyway, when I see flare, I use my hand as a shade but I rarely see flares unless shooting almost straight into the sun.

Dan

Luis de la Cerda · April 29th, 2009, 02:57 PM

Is tiffen's HT coating really worth it? I haven't seen any comparos online to be able to judge. I've been using tiffen regular uncoated 4x4 filters for quite some time, and unless shooting straight into the sun, I've never found reflections to be much of a problem. In any case, I firmly believe that shooting straight into the sun should be done with a naked clean lens to be of any use.

Tom Hardwick · April 30th, 2009, 01:05 AM

Are you asking if it's worth using coated as against uncoated filters Luis? You don't need to be pointing at the sun to get flare from uncoated glass in front of your lens. Try this. Put a white sheet of paper on a dark background in any light you choose. Frame this up in your v'finder so that the paper occupies the top left hand corner (say) of the frame. Now look around the dark background and remove / add the filter. You should easily see the flare generated.

tom.

Luis de la Cerda · April 30th, 2009, 02:01 PM

I just bought an HT coated tiffen grad ND. I should probably do the test you mentioned with both a regular ND and the coated grad ND to check if flare looks different.

April 27th, 2009, 12:56 PM	#16
Dan Brockett Inner Circle Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Los Angeles, California Posts: 2,109	If you put on a matte box, you instantly receive a job promotion to "big movie guy", which for some of us is a promotion from our current job title and for some us, it becomes a huge nuisance. "Are you shooting a movie?" "What are you shooting?", etc. I have the Cinevate mattebox and it is larger than the 5D MKII itself, with the french flags and wings, it is huge and would look really stupid walking around shooting hand held. Dan

April 28th, 2009, 01:59 AM	#19
Nigel Barker Inner Circle Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: Norwich, Norfolk, UK Posts: 3,531	What do people think about the quality of the Cokin filters? They use a system of an adaptor that screws onto the lens & then the filters (up to 3 I think) drop into a holder that clips onto the adaptor. You buy a specific sized adaptor for each different sized lens & then the filters & holder are common. It is much cheaper only getting one set of filters rather than a set of filters for each different size of lens. It's also cheaper as the filters are just glass & not in a threaded frame. It's sort of like a matte box except there is no matte & it's not a box:-) COKIN Creative System - The Holder System - Standard Holder & Pro Holder - A/P/Z/X Series

April 28th, 2009, 02:13 AM	#20
Tom Hardwick Inner Circle Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Billericay, England UK Posts: 4,711	I bought into the Cokin filter game and found it fairly useful. The filters were not glass and not coated, but for a one-off (and assuming you hooded the filter effectively) they worked well. tom.

April 28th, 2009, 08:25 AM	#21
Dan Brockett Inner Circle Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Los Angeles, California Posts: 2,109	I own about 20 of the Cokin filters but have found myself drifting away from them lately as the system is not very well crafted. The filters have an undesirable brownish colored tint on grades that should be be pure grey (NDs and ND grads), the circular Pola does not fit into the P2 holder very well and overall, they are disposable, the resin scratches too easily. Okay for a beginner if you don't want to spend much but not really very good quality overall. I have the Cokins and I also have the Formatt, B+W and Schneider 4x4 glass filters and a bunch of random circular filters. One thing I learned that I never knew, the Tiffens are the best circular ND grads to get, almost all of the others are actually plastic, even otherwise great brands like B+W, etc. So if you are buying circular ND grads, get Tiffens. It all depends on how many lenses you have of which diameters but another good trick is to buy all of your circulars in 77mm. On smaller diameter lenses, just use step up rings an you will never have a vignetting on wide angles this way and you can use just one filter of each type, regardless of how many different size lenses you have. Yes, you can't use a hood but hoods are overrated anyway, when I see flare, I use my hand as a shade but I rarely see flares unless shooting almost straight into the sun. Dan

April 29th, 2009, 02:57 PM	#22
Luis de la Cerda Regular Crew Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Mexico City Posts: 181	Is tiffen's HT coating really worth it? I haven't seen any comparos online to be able to judge. I've been using tiffen regular uncoated 4x4 filters for quite some time, and unless shooting straight into the sun, I've never found reflections to be much of a problem. In any case, I firmly believe that shooting straight into the sun should be done with a naked clean lens to be of any use.

April 30th, 2009, 01:05 AM	#23
Tom Hardwick Inner Circle Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Billericay, England UK Posts: 4,711	Are you asking if it's worth using coated as against uncoated filters Luis? You don't need to be pointing at the sun to get flare from uncoated glass in front of your lens. Try this. Put a white sheet of paper on a dark background in any light you choose. Frame this up in your v'finder so that the paper occupies the top left hand corner (say) of the frame. Now look around the dark background and remove / add the filter. You should easily see the flare generated. tom.

April 30th, 2009, 02:01 PM	#24
Luis de la Cerda Regular Crew Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Mexico City Posts: 181	I just bought an HT coated tiffen grad ND. I should probably do the test you mentioned with both a regular ND and the coated grad ND to check if flare looks different.