What ND filter(s)?

Apretext

Apretext

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James
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I have a Sigma 300mm F4.0 which is great, but as its an old lens, it only does F4. Which, as I mainly use it for motorsports, makes it hopeless for tracking shots.

A friend suggested I get some ND filters for it, which should help it become a bit more versatile.

So, I know Hoya are good (I have a nice Hoya Polarising filter for my main lens), but are there any other makes to consider?

Also, I am assuming the variable ND filters aren't worth bothering with? (especially the ebay £12 jobbies!)

Finally, what ND filters do I need? I understand that ND2 is 1 stop, 4 is 2 stop, 8 3 stop, etc but I'm not sure how that relates to shutter speed. I normally like to do tracking shots at about 1/125, so what would i need to achieve to do this? I think av mode generally results in shutter speeds between 1/400 and 1/2500 (bright sunlight).

Oh, and its a 77mm thread, if that makes any difference.
 
That seems to be focussed more on 9/10 stop filters, which I think may well be overkill (a 30 second exposure would generally result in the car being half way round the lap by the time its over!).

Is there any online calculator to figure out exposure from shutter speeds/aperture/ISO?
 
Apretext said:
but are there any other makes to consider?
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You may "consider" any of the other ones listed on any e-commerce website. :D

If you meant worth considering.... B+W are a decent name.

Otherwise you could go down the Lee route.
 
Apretext said:
Also, I am assuming the variable ND filters aren't worth bothering with? (especially the ebay £12 jobbies!)
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Actually I have one, it's no good at maximum ND (you get a weird X effect caused by the two polarising filters), but the first 3/4 of it's range are not too bad. The only problem is the lack of fancy multicoatedness ( :) ), which means a greater risk of lens flare and other nasties creeping in.
 
Also, there are a couple of blog posts up at lensrentals.com (who occasionally do post quite useful stuff on their blog, such as a great article on how to clean lenses properly.... so worth keeping half an eye on).

Hidden amongst their replies to comments on blog posts the subject of filters (e.g. http://www.lensrentals.com/blog/2011/06/good-times-with-bad-filters and http://www.lensrentals.com/blog/2010/12/the-glass-in-front-of-your-glass-all-about-filters) are two little gems....

(1)
Top end B&W and Heliopan filters are recognized as the best, but good multi-coated Tiffen and Hoya are nearly as good for a better price.
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(2)
If it cost $22 in 77mm size, it’s a crappy filter.
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haida do some grades, I have a 3 stop one that works well but never tried it for motorsport!lol!

basically though if your looking at 1/400 at iso 100 f4 currently you'll need around 2 stops of ND to get down to 1/125 you need to get some blur, but even further may be good to get better background blur, so perhaps a 3 stop would be good.

bright sunlight with 1/2500, about 3-4 stops?

that's if my rough pigeon 'mafs' is holding up
 
Coop said:
haida do some grades, I have a 3 stop one that works well but never tried it for motorsport!lol!

basically though if your looking at 1/400 at iso 100 f4 currently you'll need around 2 stops of ND to get down to 1/125 you need to get some blur, but even further may be good to get better background blur, so perhaps a 3 stop would be good.

bright sunlight with 1/2500, about 3-4 stops?

that's if my rough pigeon 'mafs' is holding up
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Perfect, so Possibly I need an ND4 and an ND8, or ND16?

I might try one of the cheapo ebay jobbies to play about with, as I'm not too concerned with flare as I always have the hood on the lens, and get a proper 4 and 8 anyway.
 
OK, you want to shoot at around 1/125 but your lens requires a shutter speed of between 1/400 and 1/2500 - so you need to drop the amount of light by anything from 1/3 to 1/20 which is 1.6 to 4.3 stops. I'd get a 3-stop ND and then change the ISO to get the required shutter speed.
 
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Looking at my shots, I inadvertently put it on ISO 400 at some point, which would account for 1/2500 speeds, the fastest shutter speed at ISO 100 was 1/1000. So, if I'm right (and I'm usually not) at 1/1000 I'd want to drop the light by 8 times, so a 3 stop would be perfect, right? (or wrong!)
 
applemint said:
The Haida 10 stop ones get good reviews on here but they also do a 3 stop one for £15 - not sure if the quality,coatings etc are as good as the 10 stopper ones though as it seems very cheap! Might be worth a punt for 15 squid though?
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Haida-77m...y-Filter-ND8-0-9-3-Stop-ND-8-77-/251265683640
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For some reason this ^^ doesn't work.....

It opens the encoded URL:

ht-tp://www.null.com/?id=null&xs=1&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fitm%2FHaida-77mm-Neutral-Density-Grey-Filter-ND8-0-9-3-Stop-ND-8-77-%2F251265683640&xguid=bf295212761c1cfb9c6349663cc348b7&xcreo=0&sref=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.talkphotography.co.uk%2Fforums%2Fshowthread.php%3Fp%3D5604010%23post5604010&pref=
 
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Apretext said:
Looking at my shots, I inadvertently put it on ISO 400 at some point, which would account for 1/2500 speeds, the fastest shutter speed at ISO 100 was 1/1000. So, if I'm right (and I'm usually not) at 1/1000 I'd want to drop the light by 8 times, so a 3 stop would be perfect, right? (or wrong!)
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Time to discover the histogram feature on your camera ? :D

Play around with filters and compensation a bit, you'll soon get the hang of it.
 
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