nat Loc: Martha's Vineyard, MA

Thank you. Good advice. I'm interested in shooting water (ocean, rocks, piers) and getting that real smooth effect. Will look into the stepdown rings.

bruswen Loc: Eugene OR

For the effect you are talking about you will need a good tripod and something like a 10 stop filter. A 10 stop filter lets in so little light that you have to focus your lens with the filter off, turn off autofocus, (I also tape the focus ring with gaffer's tape so I don't accidentally bump it out of focus) add the filter and manually set the aperture and shutter speed. There are apps you can get that will make the calculations for these settings for you like NDCalc on Android.

nat Loc: Martha's Vineyard, MA

I have the tripod, but the 10 stop filter is way too pricey. I have decided to shoot at sunset, which should help that problem. Have watched videos on long exposures. Guess it helps to use live view, also. Thanks for the tip on preventing the manual focus ring from moving; I was wondering how to do that. Don't have a phone for getting apps. I know that stacked filters don't give the sharpest image, but at my advanced age and static income, I just want to have fun, learn stuff, and maybe get some half decent photos.

IsoBob Loc: Hamilton, NJ

Is that why the movie industry uses them??

speters Loc: Grangeville/Idaho

No need for that, just take one shot with the filter and set a Custom White Balance in your camera and you're done.

amfoto1 Loc: San Jose, Calif. USA

Tiffen, like every filter manufacturer, makes various quality levels of filters.... some quite good, some not so good. For example, I don't know if it's still the case, but Tiffen used to be one of the few manufacturers offering rectangular, graduated NDs that were glass (most are optical plastic).

I agree with bruswen... if your primary use is still photography... you should be able to get by with just one or two ND filters. Depending upon how strong you need for what you want to do with it, a 6, 8 or 9 stop filter should suffice and for stills you can adjust shutter speed, aperture and ISO to give you an extensive working range, even with a single filter.

Weaker filters for more "fine tuned" adjustment are more often needed for videography, because there's so much more limited range of shutter speeds available to work with (ISO and aperture still offer a range, though).

At a price of $119 for three filters, I'm pretty sure that set of Tiffen filters are "plain", uncoated or single coated glass.

Depending upon the size and strength needed, a single, high quality multi-coated filter such as B+W MRC Schott glass in a brass frame would cost a bit more. There are Hoya and Marumi of similar quality that cost less (but might be mounted in aluminum rings and not quite as high quality glass).

Anyway, I'd recommend instead to get a single, better filter instead... if your only or primary use is still photos.

Here's an interesting comparison of 10-stop (3.0 or 110) ND filters. http://www.the-digital-picture.com/Reviews/10-Stop-Neutral-Density-Filter.aspx Warning: the Tiffen does fare very well (uncorrectable color cast)! Hoya Pro doesn't do all that great either (has the least color cast, but has strong image softening effect).

jrushphoto Loc: Flint, MI

You want to get step-"up" rings. Get the filter to fit your largest lens and use the step-up rings to go from your smaller lenses "up" to the size of the filter.

GENorkus Loc: Washington Twp, Michigan

Since you have a very limited budget, there is no questions. Get the Tiffin filters until a later time that you feel so inclined to get higher quality... or not.

19104 Loc: Philadelphia

did you check out Ebay, you can save a lot of money if your dont mind buying used.

nat Loc: Martha's Vineyard, MA

I decided that I'd rather have new filters, fearing used ones may be scratched.

nat Loc: Martha's Vineyard, MA

That's just what I did. They should arrive in a couple days.

loperR Loc: Medina ,Ohio

Try KEH for B+W FILTERS