Variable ND weirdness

[Polar01]

Lori you stated that the filter has no name, bells should be going off and at $69.00 US when the Tiffen 77mm is $143.00 with their variable ND filter rated on the low side.
The article that Mark post has some names of manufactures of variable ND filters check out their products, I am going to add a link to a supplier in the US that I use for filters in New Hampshire. They carry a wide selection and the ladies on the desk really know their stuff as all they sell are filters.
http://www.2filter.com/

Singh-Ray variable ND filters are probably the best, but you pay for that. Good filters should last as long as your lens, a good thing to do is buy the largest filter say a 77mm then a step down ring from the filter's 77mm to one that will mount onto your lens say 67mm.
Another thing I found I use to have a D7000 and never had any problems with light leaking in on long exposures (minutes), however when I went to a D600 Full Frame light leaks in, so I have a dark cloth that I put over the viewfinder to prevent any light from leaking in.

Cheers: Allan

[LoriGBermuda]

Hi Allan, I must confess this is not the first time I've bargain shopped with less than outstanding results. Live and learn? Apparently not. One of the posters gave me a link to an informative site on ND filters (see above) and it seems this is a potential problem with all the variable ND's, although perhaps not as noticeable as this. I love the look of outdoor, wide open portraits and thought I'd give this a go just to see how it would work out. I put the Scott Lim filter on my 70 - 200 and stopped it right down to something like F8 for 2 seconds. I didn't see any vignetting, however it wasn't sunny either, so I imagine my results may have been different if it were. Are you using a variable ND and if so which one and how are your results? Thank you for the link to the filter ladies. I'll have a talk with them. May have to bite the bullet and get a better filter.

[Polar01]

Lori I do not use a variable ND filter as they had not come out when I first started shooting in 2010. I purchase some Tiffen screw in ND filters including their 10 stop and a B+W ten stop filter. What I found was I could not darken down parts of the image I wanted to, say only the sky with the screw in type so I went to the Lee system of filters. Now I still use the screw in filters when I figure I only want to control the bright light. Example shooting lowest ISO 100, need to use f/2.8 for effect, camera states shutter at 1/4000 is not fast enough, so what do you do, well screw in a 3-stop ND filter and presto you now have a shutter speed that you can use. That said if I am driving 2 hours to get to a location I want to shoot, well I then make sure that I have my Lee's with me to allow me to create the best shot possible.

Cheers: Allan

[LoriGBermuda]

Hmmm, starting to regret giving away my 10 stop B+W filter. It seemed too much like a math project. Lee filters? More to think about!
Thanks for your response Allan.

[andrewaxford]

I have a lower cost vari nd filter which I have used a couple of times and I had the same effect as Lori. When I opened the aperture a couple of stops it disappeared. So could it be to do with the aperture setting ?

[LoriGBermuda]

Andrew, I think you may be on to something. Next time I see sunshine I'll try opening up a couple of stops and see what happens.

[Mark von Kanel]

Lori opening the apeture will help, that what i found with mine anyway.

[Dave Humphries]

LOL! All hail the vario ND! Don't get that with a 10 stop, do you now?!?! I do seem to remember a certain member of CiC lauding the vario ND at every oppo

Yes, but he did point out that you needed to buy Singh-Ray (as he used) and that cheaper brands were very likely to be a waste of money.

The problem (for most of us) is that a S-R Vari-ND costs about the same as a small lens!
But if you want to shoot with a Vari-ND, it seems there's no alternative.

Even the cheaper fixed NDs can often have a bad spectral response curve, leading to colour rendition and/or WB issues that are very difficult to fix - not much of an issue if you shoot monochrome though

I think you'll find out its something to do with your Aperture focal length combination , have a read of this . http://havecamerawilltravel.com/phot...ter-field-test

That's a very useful link Mark, thanks.

[Mark von Kanel]

Hi Dave, i actually had the same problem 2 years ago and addressed it somewhat in this thread, should have put the link up earlier!

Project 52 by Mark von Kanel

I do on occasion use my variable ND but i have the lee system on my wish list

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Dave, i actually had the same problem 2 years ago and addressed it somewhat in this thread, should have put the link up earlier!

Project 52 by Mark von Kanel

I do on occasion use my variable ND but i have the lee system on my wish list

Ah yes, I must have missed that after my initial post in your thread.

Your Post #5 with graphic illustration


I have added the have camera link to my store of such useful links for future use.
Along with their one demonstrating the issues of using a CPL and an Ultra WA lens.

Thanks, Dave

[LoriGBermuda]

Mark, thank you for this most informative link. I'm going to do some research on singh ray and lee filters. I should have taken up something less expensive, like sketching or poetry.