Anyone Using Singh-Ray Vari-ND?

L

larrys

Well-known member
I have never used an nd filter.

I am wondering, for the GH1 stock lens, which size is best to order? 77mm standard or thin? Or the 82mm. And what is a good step-up ring for this?

Also, do you have any sample video with the filter in use?

Thanks!
 
I used the 77mm Thin extensively with my GH1 (footage below). It works like a charm. I also used a stock step-up ring from my local photo shop. Nothing special about it.

Here's some footage for you…

 
Thanks Stephenmick! Great looking footage!

With the widest setting of lens, do you get vignetting with this filter?

By the way, what do you have the GH! stabilized on?
 
Glad you enjoyed it. :D

No vignetting with just the Singh-Ray, but in some shots there is some vignetting when the Singh-Ray was stacked on a circular polarizer. Not much, and I like the look, actually.

In 80% of the shots, the GH1 is stabilized only on a Zacuto Tactical Shooter with a Z-Finder as well. The rest of the shots are straight handheld with no stabilization at all, other than the OIS of the kit lens.
 
Well, I just went to your website and watched the "finding wild florida" video. Wow, beautiful work! Was this also done with the GH1? What are you using for audio with the GH1?
 
"Finding Wild Florida" was shot on the HVX200 a couple of years back. (Glad you liked that too.)

As far as audio on the GH1 goes, out on the water I used a Rode Stereo VideoMic connected directly to the GH1 (with a RadioShack adapter). The sound is good, though in that environment and those conditions (open water, breeze and wave sounds) the auto gain control (AGC) didn't really rear it's ugly head.

For mission critical audio (interviews, narrative, etc.) I would use a Zoom H4N or similar recorder. Do a search for "Zoom" and you'll get a ton of info.
 
No sharpening, no color-correction, no nothing. That is just raw GH1 footage, converted using NeoScene to Cineform codec. Edited in FCP 6.
 
That's the thing about the Singh-Ray… It's a "variable" ND filter, so the level changes smoothly as you rotate the front element. According to the S-R web site, it offers 2 to 8 stops of ND "power." But I can't tell you exactly how much was being used on each shot.
 
When you get them Soroush, be sure to post your review here. I'd be interested in seeing how (if at all) it differs from the Singh-Ray.
 
> Also, do you have any sample video with the filter in use?

Here's a time-lapse video using 1/2 second shutter speed in the middle of the day with a Vari-ND (77 mm standard ring):

http://vimeo.com/6868854

I haven't figured out how to size a vertically formatted video on Vimeo. So please click on the "Fullscreen" button in the lower right corner of the video to resize it better.

Mike
 
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