What is going on with Lee Big Stopper's?

L55GDS

L55GDS

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Gareth Spiller
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I finally get a Lee filter holder after a very long wait and when I do want to buy a big stpper they are not available anywhere apart from those jumping on the money grabbing band wagon on flee bay.

Why Oh Why can't a UK manufacturing company just pull their finger out and start supplying the demand?
 
It is ridiculous, I'm looking for a SW150 kit and even at the stupid price of over £320 they can't be found - 'made in Britain' isn't what it used to be :(
 
L55GDS said:
I finally get a Lee filter holder after a very long wait and when I do want to buy a big stpper they are not available anywhere apart from those jumping on the money grabbing band wagon on flee bay.

Why Oh Why can't a UK manufacturing company just pull their finger out and start supplying the demand?
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I haven't seen any available on the usual photographic retailer websites for several months.

I have no idea what is happening with Lee at the moment. They issued a message stating production will have increased by autumn 2011 but have seen little change in the situation
 
Lee filters in general are in short supply. Understand the QC and being handmade, still seems a curious business, a product in high demand that you can't buy for such a long period.
 
I've recently managed to get a hold onto a DSLR starter kit and a 0.9 ND filter (the dealer had just one left from a recent shipment). But for the Big Stopper I was put on a waiting list.
One dealer in Munich told me that Lee are concentrating more on the industrial market (e.g. military) and that photographers are not the first priority...
However that is just one opinion. Lee themselves are saying that they are trying to keep up with the demand but didn't expect it.

I am hoping that I will get my Big Stopper before the end of March.
 
I understood when I spoke with a company before placing my order today, that Lee don't even manufacture these themselves.
Its a third party, apparently Lee provided the wrong specs, hence a production mess up. Also to echo others, they didn't foresee its popularity.

Having said that, its been in high demand for some time now. Noticed that WEX have stopped advertising it all together.
 
I heard that the reason for the delay of filter holders was that their mould for it got damaged and they couldnt get another to replace it very quickly.
 
gramps said:
It is ridiculous, I'm looking for a SW150 kit and even at the stupid price of over £320 they can't be found - 'made in Britain' isn't what it used to be :(
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Well I found one ... good old Robert White had one left :clap:
 
This morning, they are sending it RMSD so may have it tomorrow!
 
Did anybody else watch that video and feel a bit frustrated ?

Part of me felt a bit miffed as it became clear why the prices are so high but I couldn't help thinking that it shouldn't be so.....
 
I used to work for a pcb manufacturer and watching the Lee vid made me think that things were quite similar, the laminating, cooking, manual input and constant cleaning and inspection.

You probably could automate parts of this process but it'd be difficult to keep the quality up and if you increase the number of items handled at one time and something is slightly out of spec or contaminated it's easy to end up with a large batch that's scrap.
 
dinners said:
Did anybody else watch that video and feel a bit frustrated ?

Part of me felt a bit miffed as it became clear why the prices are so high but I couldn't help thinking that it shouldn't be so.....
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I had the exact opposite thought, if they are completely hand made and take today's to make the labour costs won't be cheap, and then you don't know how much the optical resin and dues cost
 
TBH I felt like I was watching something from some Asian street 'factory' with a shortage of workers - if it's really that labour intensive get some more staff, the cost of the stuff would surely cover wages!
 
gramps said:
TBH I felt like I was watching something from some Asian street 'factory' with a shortage of workers - if it's really that labour intensive get some more staff, the cost of the stuff would surely cover wages!
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I don't think the video showed the quality control off very well, I can imagine that there is a high level of items failing the strict quality control which would add to the cost
 
Thats a crazy process as an Engineer I'd do one of 2 things see if you could buy the resin sheet in from another manufacturer it may cost more but if you buy it in bulk and produce more filters it reduces your labour costs, if that's not an option buy another oven. Also I'd look at automating the dying which should be pretty simple to do. Cutting could also be automated with a water jet cutter it wouldn't damage the filters. With the increased production you would still need all those people to run it, inspect them, etc. I am amazed it would probably also reduce rejects as well.
 
L55GDS said:
I finally get a Lee filter holder after a very long wait and when I do want to buy a big stpper they are not available anywhere apart from those jumping on the money grabbing band wagon on flee bay.

Why Oh Why can't a UK manufacturing company just pull their finger out and start supplying the demand?
Click to expand...

Just buy a Hitech Pro Stop 10 I've just got one 10 days ago from Bristol Cameras for £61 delivered and the difference between that and the Lee is minimal. Get the 1.5mm gasket version and it will fit perfectly into your Lee holder. If nothing else it gives you something to play with until Lee get their act together.
I initially owned a Hitech which I sold when I bought a Lee. Whilst using the Lee I realised that there was virtually no difference so I then sold the Lee and bought Hitech again.
Yes it has a colour cast but so does Lee and once corrected in Photoshop I could not tell the difference.
 
I have a Hitech and a Lee, the cast on the hitech is not actually that bad.

If you take into account Price, Cast, Availability, Resilience, there's not much between them.
 
pablo_paul said:
Thats a crazy process as an Engineer I'd do one of 2 things see if you could buy the resin sheet in from another manufacturer it may cost more but if you buy it in bulk and produce more filters it reduces your labour costs, if that's not an option buy another oven. Also I'd look at automating the dying which should be pretty simple to do. Cutting could also be automated with a water jet cutter it wouldn't damage the filters. With the increased production you would still need all those people to run it, inspect them, etc. I am amazed it would probably also reduce rejects as well.
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The problem is the first oven would still be as expensive as the first one, employees need hired, trained and given the same salary as existing workers. Reducing costs at purchase wouldn't be sufficient I'd guess. With high end products like Lee them hand made is part of the appeal, and doing that they can afford to be expensive. If people want mass produced filters there are plenty of Japanese or Chinese made filters.
 
The filters could be put in racks then placed in the dye and the racks could then be automatically agitated. But of course there has to be a build up before there's enough to fill the racks and the next production stage has to be able to handle the larger batch too.

There'll be other ways in which the throughput could be increased but at the moment they can sell every filter they make at the price they want to charge.
 
stormcrow said:
Just buy a Hitech Pro Stop 10 I've just got one 10 days ago from Bristol Cameras for £61 delivered and the difference between that and the Lee is minimal. Get the 1.5mm gasket version and it will fit perfectly into your Lee holder. If nothing else it gives you something to play with until Lee get their act together.
I initially owned a Hitech which I sold when I bought a Lee. Whilst using the Lee I realised that there was virtually no difference so I then sold the Lee and bought Hitech again.
Yes it has a colour cast but so does Lee and once corrected in Photoshop I could not tell the difference.
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So am I right in saying the Hitech 10 stopper is slightly thinner and this is why you mention the gasket? One of my friends has the Hitech and he posted a shot recently which had a massive blue colour cast, I know Lee still has a cast but I think I right in saying it's nowhere near as bad? The question is if you shoot in RAW does that cast matter if it can be corrected later? If those using the Hitech give it a positive rating based on price I think I will have no other option than to buy one and try it as I'm not paying £200+ for a Lee and I need one by August.

A 5 minute search threw up this review and I'm think the Lee big stopper can take a back burner for now, it looks like the Hitech one will fit the bill for now.

http://blog.robertstrachan.com/archives/1314/hitech-pro-stop-review/
 
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L55GDS said:
So am I right in saying the Hitech 10 stopper is slightly thinner and this is why you mention the gasket? One of my friends has the Hitech and he posted a shot recently which had a massive blue colour cast, I know Lee still has a cast but I think I right in saying it's nowhere near as bad? The question is if you shoot in RAW does that cast matter if it can be corrected later? If those using the Hitech give it a positive rating based on price I think I will have no other option than to buy one and try it as I'm not paying £200+ for a Lee and I need one by August.
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The big stopper has a gasket too.
 
L55GDS said:
So am I right in saying the Hitech 10 stopper is slightly thinner and this is why you mention the gasket? One of my friends has the Hitech and he posted a shot recently which had a massive blue colour cast, I know Lee still has a cast but I think I right in saying it's nowhere near as bad? The question is if you shoot in RAW does that cast matter if it can be corrected later? If those using the Hitech give it a positive rating based on price I think I will have no other option than to buy one and try it as I'm not paying £200+ for a Lee and I need one by August.

A 5 minute search threw up this review and I'm think the Lee big stopper can take a back burner for now, it looks like the Hitech one will fit the bill for now.

http://blog.robertstrachan.com/archives/1314/hitech-pro-stop-review/
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The gasket is to stop light leaking into the camera from the sides. The Lee has a gasket as well for the same reason.

I did a few random tests a while ago and both the Lee and Hitech had colour casts the strength of these seems to vary though for both the Lee and Hitech. One of the Lee's I tested had a more severe cast than the Hitech.

This is a test I did with my previous Hitech I haven't done any with the one I have just bought. As you can see there is an obvious blue cast but the corrected image has been done in lightroom with one click of the white balance tool on the white of the red paint tube.

oeh4o.jpg
 
I ordered Lee starter kit, and Big stopper from Morco - http://www.morco.uk.com/leefilters.htm - from ordering kit to delivery think it was a little under 3 months for the Big stopper and around 2 months for the starter kit.

Service from Morco was superb and best of all never took payment until the items were in stock and ready to be delivered unlike a few others I had enquired to.

David
 
Having bought my lee DLSR starter kit a few weeks ago,I today purchased a hitech pro stop 10 from teamwork photographic,as I don't want to wait until I could get hold of the lee big stopper.having read people's comments on here,I may be inclined to stick with the hitech version....
 
stan the man said:
Having bought my lee DLSR starter kit a few weeks ago,I today purchased a hitech pro stop 10 from teamwork photographic,as I don't want to wait until I could get hold of the lee big stopper.having read people's comments on here,I may be inclined to stick with the hitech version....
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Any feedback, I'll go the same route if there's no colour cast and it's up to the job.?
 
Vass said:
Any feedback, I'll go the same route if there's no colour cast and it's up to the job.?
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The hitech has a definite colour cast but so does the Lee both are very easy to correct in PP though. I've posted an example of the Hitechs colour cast and a corrected version.
 
Vass said:
Any feedback, I'll go the same route if there's no colour cast and it's up to the job.?
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If you want a 10 stop without the hassle of removing a colour cast you are better off getting a B&W but then you have the hassle of having to screw the filter onto the camera.

I’ve just done a little test to show the level of colour cast on my 10 stop filters.
I began by doing a custom white balance for my camera with an expodisc.

I then did 241 second exposures with my B&W uncoated; B&W MRC & Hitech pro stop 10 filters. As you can see the B&W’s hardly have any colour cast at all these images are straight out of the camera no adjustment at all. Whereas the Hitech has a definite blue cast however with one click of the white balance tool in lightroom the colour cast is quickly removed.

I should also add that when I had a couple of Lee 10 stop filters they also had fairly strong colour casts like the Hitech, one more so than the other.

4op3g.jpg
 
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The comparison above doesn't show two images that look the same, I understand that you can correct in post but surely that should then agree with Expodisc sample?
 
Bennp2000 said:
The comparison above doesn't show two images that look the same,
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I don't understand what you are getting at? It was never my intention to try to get them to look the same!! as I clearly stated the B&W images are untouched straight out of the camera my intention was to show just that.


I understand that you can correct in post but surely that should then agree with Expodisc sample?
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The only PP was 1 click with the white balance tool in lightroom on the Hitech image I think most people would agree that it makes a pretty good job of correcting the image. I never intended to try to correct the image to make it exactly like the expodisc version if I had wanted to do that though the white balance tool certainly makes the job easier to accomplish?
 
Bennp2000 said:
The comparison above doesn't show two images that look the same, I understand that you can correct in post but surely that should then agree with Expodisc sample?
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Less than 60 sec in photoshop and I've got the Hitech version pretty close to the expodisc. I'm not going to get too anal about matching the colours exactly but I think it demonstrates that even though there is a colour cast you can still get a very close match to an unfiltered image.

5LEyc.jpg
 
stormcrow said:
I don't understand what you are getting at? It was never my intention to try to get them to look the same...

The only PP was 1 click with the white balance tool in lightroom on the Hitech image I think most people would agree that it makes a pretty good job of correcting the image.
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Sorry I was just confused as to what you were hoping to show (or for me to understand :bonk:) as the post I replied to didn't really do a great job of correcting the colour cast in my opinion. Ok it removed the blues but it pushed it way into magenta.

Your second comparison is much much better.

I was just wary as the 'one click' solution didn't seem to work all that well in the case I highlighted above where there's clearly a neutral colour to work with. In a landscape shot I thought this could prove to be quite tricky, although I'm guessing a few controlled tests should allow for a LR corrective preset to be made?

I also found this whilst searching:

New Pro Stop from Hitech vs. Bigstopper from Lee by Paulo "Santa Cruz" Dias, on Flickr

its comment has a good rundown of the two filters.
 
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Bennp2000 said:
Sorry I was just confused as to what you were hoping to show (or for me to understand :bonk:) as the post I replied to didn't really do a great job of correcting the colour cast in my opinion. Ok it removed the blues but it pushed it way into magenta.

Your second comparison is much much better.

I was just wary as the 'one click' solution didn't seem to work all that well in the case I highlighted above where there's clearly a neutral colour to work with. In a landscape shot I thought this could prove to be quite tricky, although I'm guessing a few controlled tests should allow for a LR corrective preset to be made?

I also found this whilst searching:

New Pro Stop from Hitech vs. Bigstopper from Lee by Paulo "Santa Cruz" Dias, on Flickr

its comment has a good rundown of the two filters.
Click to expand...

The level of colour cast on the Hitech and Lee filters can to some look horrendous so I just wanted to show that with 1 click you can dramatically improve the image to a point that if you wished it would just require a little further adjustment to get the colours back to normal.
That's a good link you have posted worth a read if you are considering getting a 10 stop Hitech or Lee.
 
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