grfern Loc: Bloomington, Illinois

I own a Canon 40D and have slowly built my glass collection. I recently decided to start adding ND filters when I had a lot of trouble getting motion in a wind turbine's blades on a sunny day. I used low ISO, high f stop, and still was overexposed with a 3-5 second exposure and my motion was not adequate. My question is this; what do people think of the variable ND filters that will adjust from 2-8 stops? I want to buy good filters but the cost of a set that can be stacked to 8 stops seems to be about 1/3 more than buying a good brand that can be adjusted to 8 stops. If it was just for 1 lens I wouldn't mind stacking them, but I would like to do this for all of my glass. Since 5 of my 6 lenses are different diameters this would make a hell of a lot of filters. I can save space and money by buying the variable ND filters. Any comments?

Thank you-
Gary

snowbear

Buy filters to match the largest diameter lens, then get inexpensive step-up rings to match the other lenses.

For example, let's say your lens diameters are 52mm, 67mm, and 77mm. Buy 77mm filters, then get step-up (or step-down) rings to adapt the 77mm filter to the 52mm and 67mm lenses.

grfern Loc: Bloomington, Illinois

Thanks Snowbear- great idea. Will there be much vignetting or lens fall off from a 77mm to a 58mm ( my lens range) step down? I like this idea but part of my original question was whether the idea of a variable ND filter was equal to stacking? I am not a pro so even if the quality of the variable was not as good as a stack I like the idea of screwing on 1 filter instead of 3-4 filters.

Thanks

snowbear

I don't really know about the stacking - I only have three primes, all being 52mm filter size. Our situation is a bit strange . . .

Me: 67mm on my 18-135mm DX kit zoom - CP, ND2 and ND4. Only 52mm screw-in filter is an orange used for B&W film (the 50mm and 24mm were dedicated N90x lenses.)

Son: 52mm CP for his 18-55mm kit zoom and the 35-80mm zoom (dedicated to my F90 he is borrowing.)

Son's 18-55 zoom breaks, so I loan him my 18-135 zoom with the CP & ND filters. I take his 52mm CP for use on my 50mm prime.

I had also purchased an older 105mm macro, which uses a 52mm filter. I have since obtained a few Cokin square filters (red, yellow, green, grad ND2) with lens adapters for 52mm & 67mm; I don't see myself expanding this much.

So far, I have not needed to use the full NDs on the film body. If I end up needing to, I'll go with the step-down rings. Any future round filters I get will be 77mm to match planned Nikon Trinity, and use step-downs for the 52mm lenses. Son can then keep the 18-135 kit with the CP & NDs.

bdsnuffy Loc: Union, Kentucky

Gary, I have the Sing Ray variable ND filter and have used it many times for water, sky and other photographs to add time. The only problem I have experienced is vignetting when you are at fullest or wide open aperture. In my case, if you go to around 12 - 14 mm you will lose the corners. The glass itself is very good but is a little too thick for the ultra wide lenses. You focus at the minimum setting so either you or the camera can focus on your subject. Then you can start turning the dial to darken the image and slow the speed.

Kalina54 Loc: Flagstaff, AZ

Hi Gary, Lee Filters makes 4x6 inch hand held ones that you can easily stack and do not have to mount onto the lens. With these you can choose whatever density would want. There is no vignetting with rectangular filters. You can even stack a graduated 2 stop with a ND8 to stop a waterfall with ambient sunlight.

Nevada Chuck

You do not want to stack several filters in order to get to the equivalent of ND8 or so. Forst off, too much glass = degraded image. Second, many filters = good chance of vignetting.

Best solution: buy the biggest variable that you need or are likely to need in the future (probably a 77mm) and use step-up rings in order to mount it on smaller lenses.

grfern Loc: Bloomington, Illinois

Hello all........
Thank you for all your help. I see different solutions to my problem all of which will be worth considering. Right now I will be purchasing a 77mm variable with step downs. The hand held filters seem like they may be a hassle with fingerprints and I don't know how hard they will be to clean. I decided to try the variable to conserve space and time especially if I am going to experiment with different stops. It will save some time installing or uninstalling filters. If there is a quality issue I probable will never see it. In the future I may be acquiring another body that will fit my glass (Canon 7D) so at some point I may need another filter if I am changing body's to use another lens. Until that time I'll try one filter with the step down system.
Thanks again-
Gary

slickrock Loc: jacksonville

The Singh-Ray variable is an 8-stop screw-on . Faster and more portable in use than a stacked assortment. Mr.Singh is very personable and helpful if you have questions. http://www.singh-ray.com/

Uriah

Beware of stacking unless you use top quality filters or else image quality will be effected, highly noticeable when sizing images up for large prints

ngc1514 Loc: Atlanta, Ga., Lancaster, Oh. and Stuart, Fl.

I bought one of the Genus 77mm 2-8 stop variable ND filters a couple years ago and have found it very useful. No, it's not a Singh-Ray quality piece of gear but at half the price, it works very well. Other than a slight warming, there is no objectionable color shift as you go from 2 stops to 8 stops of filtration and I see no loss of image quality on the D300.

I tried stacking with the Cokin P-series filters, but there was a huge color shift that made the stack unusable.

While the filter is great for slowing exposure time, I really like it for allowing shallow depth of field in bright light. I can shoot f/2.8 at high noon.

grfern Loc: Bloomington, Illinois

Thank You!!!!!!!!!!!! :-)