Richard2673 Loc: Eastern Oregon

Good Morning, Everyone. Just sent for a Canon EOS 5D Mark III, a 24 - 70 mm f4, 100 f2.8 macro and a 200 mm f2.8 (all "L" series Canon) and a tripod an a couple other things..but need to know more about ND filters. Most of my photography is going to be landscapes, flowers and some local wildlife. Have got a circular polarizer picked out - will get with some of the rebate money and hopefully enough to get a(?) ND filter. Like B+W brand.

PixelStan77 Loc: Vermont/Chicago

B&W is a fine optical filter. I prefer Hoya Optical at a more realistic price. I always carry ND filters when I want to use a low ISO on a sunny day and capture motion with a tripod. Have fun with your new equipment and creat some outstanding images..

davidrb Loc: Half way there on the 45th Parallel

Call either Adorama or B&H and talk to their techs. They know their products better than most other people. They love to talk shop and will steer you where you need to go. One note on the subject, price is fairly uniform at even levels of quality. The high priced filter of most manufacturers will be about the same. They all make high end and they all made low end.

steveg48

Before you go to far, you have to decide whether you want a screw on circular system or a rectangular system that requires an holder such as Lee Cokin. This will determine what type of circular poarizer to get.

Carl D Loc: Albemarle, NC.

I use Lee/Cokin square/rectangular type. Much easier to deal with and only have to have the adapter ring for the lens that you are using.

mapster Loc: Wisconsin

:thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup:

ptcanon3ti Loc: NJ

If you are set on circular ND filters, depending on the density, I suggest the Haida brand. I use 10 stop ND filters regularly. I have a 10 stop B+W and a 10 stop Haida. I prefer the Haida by a wide margin as I find the color cast on the B+W to be very pronounced on the magenta side. The Haida is MUCH more neutral to the eye.

wolfman

I would suggest taking a look at the Lee system.
With that system you can combine ND, ND grads, and a polarizing filter all in one holder if necessary.
I started with screw on filters, and found the Lee system more convenient to use.

Cdouthitt Loc: Traverse City, MI

Save some money and get the same quality of Lee by looking into Haida filters. I use their 100x150 series.

ptcanon3ti Loc: NJ

What holders etc are you using with your Haida filters?

Cdouthitt Loc: Traverse City, MI

Filter dude through amazon. But Haida makes one as well

rmalarz Loc: Tempe, Arizona

Richard, I'm with you on B+W. Not only great products, but honest discussions with their employees.
--Bob

amfoto1 Loc: San Jose, Calif. USA

Are you aware of the different types of ND filters?

What do you need the ND filter for?

Normally a standard ND (gray all over) is used to make it possible to use larger apertures in brighter light, for shallow depth of field effects... or longer shutter speeds, for motion blur effects such as making running water look "creamy".

For example, the lowest settable ISO on the 5DIII is 50, so on a bright sunny day with f16, without any filter you'll need to use 1/50 shutter. If you wanted slower, rather than going to a smaller aperture (that would start to cause loss of image quality to diffraction), an ND filter can be used. A 4-stop would get you down to about 1/3 second shutter speed... a 6-stop would get you to around 1 and 1/3 second... and an 8-stop would make possible up to a 5 second exposure (you could increase the ISO and/or use a larger aperture to vary the exposure with any of these).

Does that sound like something you'd want to use?

There also are Variable ND filters. Those can be rotated to change the strength of the effect... typically a range from about 2 to 8 or 4 to 10 stops. However, a lot of the more affordable ones (none are exactly cheap) tend to have uneven effect and cause ugly color tints. The best give better results, but are still not perfect.. and are VERY expensive. They also aren't really necessary for still photography.... One or two fixed strength NDs are usually more than adequate. Variable ND are more needed for videography, which has more limited exposure controls than.

There are also Graduated ND filters that some people use for landscape photography... those are half 1, 2 or 3-stop gray and half clear. They are used to hold back the bright sky and balance the exposure with the rest of the scene.

I used Grad NDs a lot in the past... But I don't any more, now that I'm shooting everything digitally. With stationary subjects I just make two shots... one exposed for the brightest part of the scene, the other for the foreground, etc. If a subject is moving, only a single shot is possible so I shoot RAW, then double process it adjusting one for the bright sky, the other for the foreground. In both cases, I then combine the "correct" portion from each image in Photoshop, to make a single image.

To me these methods a lot more precise and controllable than using filters... And it's easier than carrying around a set of Grad NDs. Those have to be the large rectangular type of filter, along with a filter holder/adapter and cumbersome lens hood. (Round, screw-in Grad NDs are available, but not very usable because they force you to put the horizon right across the exact center of every image.) Most Grad NDs are made of optical plastic, too... and none I'm aware of are multi-coated the way round glass filters might be. Plus, the graduation is always a straight line... and few of my images have a perfectly straight horizon. There's nearly always a mountain or a tree or a building or something breaking up the horizon line. Still, some people like to use them.

Do Grad NDs sound like something you'd want to use?

B+W MRC (multi-coated), Hoya HD, HMC and SHMC, Heliopan SH-PMC, Singh-Ray, Schneider, Nikon are all good brands of filters. I also hear really good things about Marumi, though I haven't used them.

In the rectangular Grad NDs, Lee and Singh-Ray are all good. Schneider and Tiffen make glass ones. Most others are optical plastic. Cokin are cheap, but might be be good to experiment with.

Most manufacturers sell different grades of filters. For example, B+W has cheaper uncoated and single coated, as well as better but more expensive multi-coated and "nano" coated (the latter have even more coatings, some of which make them more dust and scratch resistant, easier to clean... but of course are the most expensive). The cheaper B+W use aluminum mounting frames, while the more expensive use brass that's less likely to get jammed on a lens (but many lenses these days use plastic threads anyway, that aren't prone to stuck filters anyway). Hoya probably makes the most different grades of any manufacturers.

The Canon 24-70/4L uses 77mm filters, the 200/2.8L II uses 72mm, and the 100L macro uses 67mm (the 100/2.8 USM uses 58mm).

It is possible to use a larger filter on a lens with "step rings".... However that makes it impossible to use the standard lens hood, which I feel is always important and even more-so when using a filter. I recommend getting the correct size filters for each lens. However, of your three lenses I'd be far more likely to take the type of shots requiring a C-Pol or ND with the 24-70mm, than with the other two. So I might only buy that size... at least until a real need arose for any other size.

You won't need a more expensive "slim" filter with any of your lenses. Those can be more prone to getting stuck on a lens and some don't have front threads... But with B+W even their "standard" filters are pretty darned thin. I've used those on much wider angle lenses than yours, without any problem.

Richard2673 Loc: Eastern Oregon

Amphoto1: Thank you and the others too for their ideas and info. The main thought behind buying a ND filter was for slowing down water, ie., waterfalls etc... but around here in Eastern Oregon's desert, there aren't many of those, a few in the Columbia River gorge though. You mentioned using more than one exposure (basic HDR) to adjust exposure...which sounds like a more sensible way of doing things. Will be sending for a good tripod soon and shooting raw files when I get the Mark III.