10 stop filter for £2 - really :D

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I sent my partner to work with mine yesterday to file down the edges so I don't cut myself :P nice & smooth now :D
 
As im going to try and get back into photography ive ordered a couple of these... great find Mr Ajophotog.

And i would advise Darkmutton to put an advert in the forums "Classified" or "Retailer" sections, that way he could get the sales and promotion from TP, and avoid Ebay fees... just a thought.
 
nigpd said:
I have been thinking about doing the same before my cheap holder arrives from China. What did he use to smooth the filter edges?
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Ok got it, he used a grinding disc on an electric grinder. Now, I have no idea what that is.. apart from an electric grinder.. but now my glass is silky smooth, so I don't care :D
 
This is an awesome idea. Going to order one right now. I already use cokin P filters, so should be very easy. Only thing I don't understand is why they need to be light sealed on a Cokin P holder if they are the same size as P filters?
 
mrpink123 said:
This is an awesome idea. Going to order one right now. I already use cokin P filters, so should be very easy. Only thing I don't understand is why they need to be light sealed on a Cokin P holder if they are the same size as P filters?
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Because you don't want light to leak in as these are very long exposure shots and they will be ruined if light leaks in through the sides.
 
mrpink123 said:
Sure, but why isn't this a problem with standard Cokin ND filters?
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I guess it is the length of exposure being the problem but you are right, I have no problems with using my nd 8 4 or 2 in the filter holder.
 
OK, well I guess I'll just try it and see when it arrives :thumbs:

Cheers for sharing this Ajophotog, this is a great option for experimenting with very long exposures without shelling out silly money.
 
Ajophotog said:
Because you don't want light to leak in as these are very long exposure shots and they will be ruined if light leaks in through the sides.
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surely the length of exposure doesn't make much difference to light leaking as light travels at 299,792,458 metres per second ? i.e if its gonna leak it will regardless of exposure time

or does it make a difference ?

i'm not trying to be awkward here , i just wondered thats all :)
 
I'd guess that with a short shutter speed, if you have a tiny gap letting a little light in, the actual 'amount' of light hitting the sensor will be very small. If however, you have a very long exposure, the light continually hitting the same place for 30 seconds, or a minute or whatever will have a much more obvious effect.
 
darkmutton said:
Yes, sorry guys i've had a few emails about them being broken. I need to try another way of wrapping them, i've tried bubble wrap in the past and a few were still broken. I need something light and cheap but thin enough to keep the packages below 25mm.

Dont worry though i'll get everyone sorted out with replacements but please bear with me i have names, addresses and shades coming out of my ears at the moment :help::help::help:
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Received my replacement - thanks mate:thumbs::thumbs:
 
mrpink123 said:
This is an awesome idea. Going to order one right now. I already use cokin P filters, so should be very easy. Only thing I don't understand is why they need to be light sealed on a Cokin P holder if they are the same size as P filters?
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They are quite thick glass (about 2-3mm thick) and on standard Coking filter holder they will only fit into middle section. The closest section to the back of the holder that gives you a tight fit without light leaks is possible but you'd have to break those plasticy springs in the filter holder slots for this glass to go in.
 
mrgas said:
surely the length of exposure doesn't make much difference to light leaking as light travels at 299,792,458 metres per second ? i.e if its gonna leak it will regardless of exposure time

or does it make a difference ?

i'm not trying to be awkward here , i just wondered thats all :)
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It's not the speed that matters in this case - it's a quantity of light. Over long exposure the leaks let in sufficiently more light to affect your exposure.
 
dalex_257 said:
They are quite thick glass (about 2-3mm thick) and on standard Coking filter holder they will only fit into middle section. The closest section to the back of the holder that gives you a tight fit without light leaks is possible but you'd have to break those plasticy springs in the filter holder slots for this glass to go in.
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Ive ordered a cheapy Cokin filter holder replica from China off ebay. Cost a fiver, which is peanuts. I can modify it by breaking those springs so I will then have a dedicated holder just for this glass :thumbs:
 
dalex_257 said:
They are quite thick glass (about 2-3mm thick) and on standard Coking filter holder they will only fit into middle section. The closest section to the back of the holder that gives you a tight fit without light leaks is possible but you'd have to break those plasticy springs in the filter holder slots for this glass to go in.
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I see, thanks. So another solution would be to just stick another filter (like a 2 stop ND or something) into the back slot. Alternatively I have a wide angle cokin holder which it may fit in. Hopefully mine will come today so I can start experimenting!
 
mrpink123 said:
I see, thanks. So another solution would be to just stick another filter (like a 2 stop ND or something) into the back slot. Alternatively I have a wide angle cokin holder which it may fit in. Hopefully mine will come today so I can start experimenting!
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That's a good idea.

I have got 3 of those filters 10 and 13 grades from that chap I mentioned (rounded safe edges) and 12 grade from darkmutton. I did have some old and large 85mm UV filter lying somewhere so I'll attempt to cut a round one off the darkmutton's glass and fit it into that round filter instead of UV glass - should have a proper round 10-11-whatever stops ND then...
 
Cool. My dad is a welder, im gonnna ask him to get me some :)
 
Just found this thread and was looking on ebay for a filter. Then, I realised, I have a welder and had a new mask with glass already in it. So, I now have a dual purpose 10 stop filter!

Allan
 
I got one from Machine Mart for £3.50, and it works! (As you would expect!) It has a darkness rating of 11, although they also had 9 and 10. This turns out to be 15 stops. It is also quite a strong green colour.

While works, it is not without its drawbacks. You can do quite a good job of correcting the green cast with custom white balance, but you end up with greens being a bit lighter and reds being darker, as you would expect. Nothing you can really do about that without some jiggery pokey in post processing. Contast is also considerably reduced and images look very flat; this has probably as much to do with inevitable noise from the very long exposures as it has to do with the slightly foggy nature of the filter - bit of both. In-camera noise reduction helps, but does not get rid of it - other noise reduction programmes will probably do a better job but you can't blame the filter for that. With a bit of experimentation you could probably build a reasonable set of correction profiles for most of these things and once done, they could be easily applied to future images.

Optically it isn't perfect and sharpness is slightly reduced, but you have to look carefully at direct comparisons. I didn't test it with a long lens which usually emphasises sharpness problems with filters, but you're unlikely to use it with a long lens I would guess, so I don't think I would hold that against it. Being plain uncoated glass, I expect it will cause quite a lot of flare from bright lights, but I didn't check for this.

For the tests, I used blu tack to stick it to a high quality screw-in UV filter (Hoya Pro1) and seal it completely from light leaks. I also put black tape around the edges of the glass which are not only sharp, but I expect that incident light would find it's way in there and fog the image even more.

The thing I didn't like is the way you have to mount it, faffing about with blu tack and a mount, then still having this great big slab stuck to the lens. You cannot just slot this thing into your filter holder and go - it has got to be 100% light sealed which pretty much means a screw-in mount. Maybe you could get it cut circular and then glue it to a stepping ring - that would be a neat job for an extra fiver.

But I'm not going to bother. It just seems a bit too compromised and impractical. I guess I'm just not prepared to put the work in when what you end up with is still a bit of a bodge ;) And it's very dark - 15 stops is a huge amount. It turns a 1/125sec exposure into four minutes. The ND filter I've got my eye on is the Hoya X400, which is nine stops and multi-coated. I've not tried one though, because it's special order only, ie wait several weeks and pay a fortune, but if anyone's up for a group buy, count me in :)

Edit: now that the sun has come out, and I could cut the exposure short to a mere 30secs :eek: just an update to say that this filter does flare a bit shooting into the light. Only to be expected I guess, but nothing dramatic. No worse than any other uncoated filter. And sharpness, to be fair, does not seem to be adversly affected by any noticeable amount using normal focal length lenses.
 
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Hoppy no one say it would be perfect or simple but it does give the folks that don't want to spend £70+ on a 10 stop the opportunity to have a go. It is very much what you make of it and I don't mind trying to make it work as that is part of the fun I guess.
I have fitted mine in a cokin filter holder and it seems very easy to use and in fact easier that a screw filter as I can just slide out the glass halfway focus and align and slide it back in again. I am going to get out this weekend and give it a trial but I can't see any problems using it.
 
Ajophotog said:
Hoppy no one say it would be perfect or simple but it does give the folks that don't want to spend £70+ on a 10 stop the opportunity to have a go. It is very much what you make of it and I don't mind trying to make it work as that is part of the fun I guess.
I have fitted mine in a cokin filter holder and it seems very easy to use and in fact easier that a screw filter as I can just slide out the glass halfway focus and align and slide it back in again. I am going to get out this weekend and give it a trial but I can't see any problems using it.
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I quite agree :)

Unless you seal the filter against the lens, you will get light leaks. I don't see how you can avoid this using a square filter holder, which is where the faffing about starts.
 
With regards to the light leaks problem, I cut the elasticated top off of one of Chris' thick socks last night. If you pop it on the lens first it's easy to pull it over the exposed area once you're ready :).
 
just ordered these from ebay. looking forward to some fun. as a mere novice, with no accessories, and knowing nothing about them, would someone mind telling me how they are attaching them to the lens, apart from with elastic bands? :)
 
appletart said:
just ordered these from ebay. looking forward to some fun. as a mere novice, with no accessories, and knowing nothing about them, would someone mind telling me how they are attaching them to the lens, apart from with elastic bands? :)
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Checkout post #94 of this thread ;)
 
appletart said:
you're a star :)

do the holders come in different sizes, or can i get any?
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You need a cokin P size, get the cheap ebay ones and the glass will fit in the centre slot, you will need to get a ring that matches your lens filter thread and some way to seal the light from behind the filter, Jo had a good idea, cutting the foot off a sock and using that pulled up against it to light seal. I am trying her method tomorrow.
 
sorry to be a pain in the arse, but not 100% Sure what i am looking for when it comes to the cokin P...

I have a 58 sized lens, and a 77 sized one. would someone mind linking me to something suitable....


cheers!
 
Just ordered one myself, best offer of £1.00 from darkmutton, look forward to playing with it!
 
How long did everyone elses take to come who ordered from DarkMutton? been waiting 6 days now and now sign of them.
 
Darryn said:
How long did everyone elses take to come who ordered from DarkMutton? been waiting 6 days now and now sign of them.
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Mine took a couple of days Darryn, maybe you should send him a ebay message asking what has happen of has he sent it yet.
 
HoppyUK said:
I quite agree :)

Unless you seal the filter against the lens, you will get light leaks. I don't see how you can avoid this using a square filter holder, which is where the faffing about starts.
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I just bought another holder, or more specifically, just the adaptor to the cokin P to fit my screw thread (52mm in my case). This is flat on the other side, so you can just gaffer tape it along the edges of the glass directly to the adaptor. Yeah it'll only fit a 52mm lens, but it screws directly on, no light leaking at all. Plus you smooth off the glass edges. Another painful 'paper cut' to the thumb prevented.
 
appletart said:
sorry to be a pain in the arse, but not 100% Sure what i am looking for when it comes to the cokin P...

I have a 58 sized lens, and a 77 sized one. would someone mind linking me to something suitable....


cheers!
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77mm to 58mm step down item number - 320382334327

Means you only need one set of filters for both lens

77mm ring and holder for Cokin P - 370241927128

the more experienced people will be able to confirm if thats right
 
Just ordered one, can't complain when it's less than the cost of a pint!

Big thank you to the bandwagon and seller.
 
Daryyn has your order arrived yet. They have all been dispached so if you havnt got it yet it may be lost in the post. About 5% of my mail goes missing and its really annoying.
 
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