[Bubba]

Any recommendations for filter brands/series that are good quality but don't break the bank?

No point in having (and can't afford) the very best for my average lenses.

I currently have some really old Hoya UV filters on the lenses for protection but it's probably time to replace them as they're not in the best state.

Would also like to play with Polarizing / ND Grads - would prefer ones that you rotate on the lens rather than slide into a holder - less faff.

[Johnny Brown]

Personally I don't use 'protection filters', I'm not convinced of their worth. Lens hoods are more effective protection and actually improve the image quality. And I say that as someone who drops his lenses annoyingly regularly, my 12-24 now has two chunks chipped off it...

I'm not sure if you can even get screw-on ND grads anymore. Even if you can, don't bother. The whole point is being able to align the graduation with the horizon. Being forced to have the horizon across the middle doesn't make for great compositions.

Polarisers are expensive, full stop. £50 for one of any size, my 105mm was £120 and that was a good deal. It covers all my lenses and hopefully it'll last a long time too though.

Options on reasonably priced grads are either Cokin or Hi-tech, I think the best option is a Cokin holder and polariser plus a set of Hi-tech grads. The other option is to get a screw-in polariser to fit your biggest lens and then fanny around with adaptor rings. Neither is great, if you've got any lenses that are really wide (less than 18mm on consumer SLRs) expect vignetting with either option.

Last year I bit the bullet and got a Lee kit and the big polariser to screw on the front. It was ludiscrously expensive but is great to use.

[Bubba]

Cheers - see your point about screw on grads not being much use.

Think i'll be forgetting polarizers for a while then at those prices - seen some quite cheap on ebay but they're probably crap.

[slackline]

I was looking at getting a circular polariser recently and have always put it off as they seemed mucho money for the 72mm thread on my best lens (still not pro though).  I found a Hoya (reasonable brand, but not their pro range) for £32.50 which I thought was quite a good price (although its from a "seller" rather than amazon themselves, so add on postage).

Chatting with a friend the other day about it and the advice he was given in a shop (can't remember where he said it was) is that if you've got really good glass in the first place, you're not going to notice that much difference between consumer and pro filters.  Obviously gear freaks and pros will want the best money can buy, but I'm neither and just dabble.

[dave]

before anyone gives up on polarisers for being too expensive, walk into harrisons and have a look at their box of old filters - you can often pick up a polariser there for no money at all. just check its no scratched to fuck and make sure its a circular polariser rather than linear. Also check the used filters section on FFordes - I picked up a 77mm blinging singh-ray one for less than I sold my old hoya 67mm one to some guy on ebay. actually I think I've got a brand new 67mm hoya one unopened that i got from a stiff if anyone's interested.

I think shit places like 7dayshop still do wack screw-in grads. don't buy one. Like the showpony says get a cheap cokin holder - again, mine was £1 from harrisons filter box, which is handy since with a wide lens you may have to saw the front slots off. I did that with mine and got no vignetting even down to 10mm.

don't buy cokin grads though. get hitech. cokin are shit, nowhere near neutral, and scratch easily. I've actually got an oldpair of Cokin 2stop soft and 3stop hard grads if you want to test the water or see how shit they are. you can get away without a filter holder if you don't mind using blutack too. its fidly but no chance of vignetting.

the bog standard hoya quality filters are fine - manufacturers like to scare people into buying stupidly expensive ones but it makes no difference 99% of the time. cheaper non-multicoated filters are actually easier to clean.

[SA Chris]

If you want to, there is nothing to stop you holding the ND grad in front of the lens with your hand and moving it up and down. It's not ideal but possible. Saves on expensive holders etc. Easy if you are using a tripod though. I have seen various Heath Robinson contraptions with elastic bands and stuff in the past. None of which work.

[slackline]

The plastic holders are about £10

[dave]

If you want to, there is nothing to stop you holding the ND grad in front of the lens with your hand and moving it up and down. It's not ideal but possible. Saves on expensive holders etc. Easy if you are using a tripod though. I have seen various Heath Robinson contraptions with elastic bands and stuff in the past. None of which work.

the problem with holding them in front is that you can't hold them against the lens incase you cause the camera to shake, but if you hold them any distance away from the lens you're gonna invite reflections/flare n shit. plus if its a long exposure of a few seconds its actually quite hard to hold one in exactly the same position for the duration. once you've taken the shot and had to use your hands again then if you want to repeat the shot you've lost the position of the filter and have to start again. I speak from having done this myself here. 95% of the time it actually works out quicker overall to use a holder or blutack.

[SA Chris]

Like I said - not ideal but possible.

[Johnny Brown]

I'll second the Harrison's bin (not what it used to be mind, rummage is going out of fashion in camera shops) plus blu-tac option. Until I bought the Lee kit, all my widest shots were taken with blu-tacked on filters. I have done the hand-hold method too, I wouldn't agree with Dave about not holding them against the lens, if you hold it right there's no reason to worry about shake.

Polarisers might be expensive but they don't half work - they can seem like cheating at times. The price problem is partly modern lenses having massive filter threads but still needing extra thin filters. Seeing as polarisers become awkward to use unobviously on very wide lenses (you get uneven polarisation basically) you could not bother with one that covers your widest lens at first.

[SA Chris]

To drag this out of the grave, rather than start something new...

Out of curiosity, does anyone actually use their filters much?

I rarely bother, but sometimes wonder if I should more.

[dave]

polariser and grads all the time.

[Johnny Brown]

Ditto. I go easier on both now I have digital, but always take them out. By go easy I mean err on the side of a weaker grad, and beef it up in Lightroom if necessary. Histogram is a godsend with grads, much as I loved spotmeters. Polarisers need some restraint, especially with super wides, but its a great effect. I often shoot with and without just in case.

[Paul B]

Are you using square filters and a holder or something circular and step up rings etc. ?

[dave]

I've got 100mm Lee shit for tripod type landscape work, and a handful of screw-on polarisers for walkaround type stuff.

[Paul B]

I often shoot with and without just in case.

any chance of a side by side? I follow one blog and the guy seems to get some vivid reds and greens that I just can't get near in post. I've been wondering if it'd been to do with polarisation or whether I'm just being a numpty.

[Johnny Brown]

Point us at the pics? He may well just have slumped on the saturation sliders...
Some side-by-sides here: http://www.edbergphoto.com/pages/Tip-polarizers.html

I'm not familiar with the camera profiles for Canon but that's another avenue to pursue.

[Paul B]

http://fjallsport.blogspot.com/

Hmmm I'd meant to look into the invariant & untwisted camera profiles as certain sliders wreak havoc on skintones etc. using the default canon offerings in Lightroom but it doesn't appear to be the difference between say std and landscape, or normal and acid trip as they should be labelled. Maybe it is just leaning on the sliders heavily or selective saturation?

Post production 

[Johnny Brown]

You've lost me there; I can't see anything unusual about those colours, what browser/ monitor are you on?

No one in their right mind would use a polariser for a shot like that, so I doubt its a filter. It is heavily vignetted but that's probably in post.

Playing with the Nikon profiles suggests you need to zero all other controls first to avoid acid-trip colours - they're more a function of the default settings elsewhere.

[Paul B]

... what was that guys number again? (Some samsung thing).

[Johnny Brown]

Baking powder?

Some reading:

http://www.mountainlight.com/articles.html

Not much about filters, but 'Sharpness on the mind' might answer your other question.

[SA Chris]

After doing sone early morning seascapes recently I've decided I need a ND grad in my life, after fiddling around with levels forever to get where I want with exposures.

Trouble is I have one of these;

http://www.srsmicrosystems.co.uk/2797/Sigma-12-24mm-F4-5-5-6-EX-DG-Aspherical-Lens---Pentax-Fit.html

with a permanently attached lens hood. It appears to have an internal threading of some sort, but not sure if this is just decorative. The cap says 82mm, but not sure if this is the exact internal thread diameter, and if you can get a filter mounting system that will fit it?

Or is it easier than dicking about with rings etc to get a nice big filter and hold it by by hand / use blu tac? I'm usually using a tripod anyway. 

 

[dave]

Lee have a 150mm filter system that clamps over lenses like yours wi integral hoods. They developed it for the nikon 14-24mm, and is priced accordingly.

Does your lens not have one of them weird two-part sigma hoods that takes filters?

Failing that, just blutack a grad to the front of the hood.

[Paul B]

Cokin do one too but:

"you're looking at a whole world of hurt"

Blutack or some form of DIY matte box/filter holder rig? Like this perhaps:
http://reedingramweir.wordpress.com/2010/04/07/diy-filter-holder-for-nikons-af-s-14-24mm-%C6%922-8-g-lens/

Regarding the OP, if anyone is sat on the fence or considering a circular polariser I'd jump in with both feet. After perhaps my nifty fifty it has been the best value thing I've bought (even if I do overbake my wide-angle shots).


I don't have grads but to mimic them I shoot RAW and bracketed at -2 and -1 (or more). Then from LR you can load the original and an exposure into PS for the sky (whichever is correct), and use a gradient mask on the layer to act as a pseudo ND.

[SA Chris]

I don't have grads but to mimic them I shoot RAW and bracketed at -2 and -1 (or more). Then from LR you can load the original and an exposure into PS for the sky (whichever is correct), and use a gradient mask on the layer to act as a pseudo ND.

I shot in RAW and bracketed very widely. Only got GIMP at the moment, need to get down with using gradient masks.

Cheers for the DIY options, I think it's the way to go without horiffic spenniness.