Cheap ND square filters?

[elliotedwards]

I was wondering about the cheap ND filters from fleebay (The £15 kit ones). How well are they? I'm not in the situation to shell out for Lee or Hitek filters, otherwise Id go with a lee.

I run with a 5D3 and a 17-40 F4. How bad will these cheap filters be? Does anyone have any examples, as I'm finding it hard to side with getting them or not.

 

[Andy80F]

There is a chap who runs photo day courses, I got my son one of the days when he bought his first DSLR, who warns his students against the cheaper ND filters due to their tendency to give colour shifts. I cite him only because he sees a lot of results from different kit and seems a decent sort of chap.

 

[elliotedwards]

I have seen some people talk about slight shifts and also magenta ca. I wonder if I could get away using a colour checker to correct the shifts?

And surely there are some mid range brands out there that could offer a few for £30-40 or so?

 

[kimo]

Buy cheap buy twice. That's what I done go for the hi tech or Lee

 

[kimo]

Buy cheap buy twice. That's what I done go for the hi tech or Lee

 

[quango2k]

buy nice or buy twice

I recently ditched a load of cokin filters and got the lee foundation kit with hard and soft ND grads, and the little and big stoppers plus a few other ND filters and 105mm polariser....couldn't be happier!

the cokin filters had terrible colour casting, not very nice at all.

 

[Tringa]

Have a look here - http://srb-photographic.co.uk/

I can't vouch for their ND filters but their ND grad ones seem OK to me and I assume the dyes used in both will be the same.

Dave

 

[rpsmith79]

Have a look here - http://srb-photographic.co.uk/

I can't vouch for their ND filters but their ND grad ones seem OK to me and I assume the dyes used in both will be the same.

Dave

I have one of their ND's (10 stopper) and can vouch for that being very nice indeed, very little (if any) colour cast

 

[julianhj]

Moving from Cokin's P system to Hitech made a lot of difference to my images. As you've already got some decent kit, it would be a shame to hobble it with cheap filters. I'd been aspiring to Lee glass after seeing my wife's filter kit. Whilst they are very nice, I recently read this article:

http://digital-photography-school.c...-to-formatt-hitech-for-landscape-photography/

I'm planning on sticking with Hitech.

 

[quango2k]

So, the reviewers only bad comment on lee filters is because when pointed at the ground with a heavy filter on, the holder can come off the adapter ring.

This is what we call pebcak in the it world! "Problem exists between chair and keyboard"

 

[Jonnybrad2001]

Started buying into the Lee system last year after coming back with some back to back shots between my 15mm fisheye (non filtered obviously) and the 17-40mm with Kood filters and seeing just how car out the colour cast was and binning every shot as I couldn't get them anywhere near right in LR within the time I'm prepared to spend buggering about in lightroom.

That said I've not yet bought all the ones I want, and I've been looking at the 84.5 filters http://www.84dot5mm.com as James Grant has been giving good feedback on them and the lack of colour cast. http://www.jamesgphotography.co.uk/2014/04/100mm-filters-ultimate-line-review/

 

[dandeakin]

I've bought a couple of cheap ones before and always regretted it - colour shifts, flare and scratch easily. I'd save you're money and buy one decent one.

 

[Mongwopman]

I learned the hard way and went cheap, only to get bad results, images were not sharp, weird colors etc, so eventually I just got some hitech filters and didn't look back.