Fader ND is killing my sharpness

PaPa said:
Dude, honestly, that looks like it's been zoomed a good 400X...
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Absolutely not - as i wrote before its a 1:1 comparison in lightroom (no zooming at all). But there has been a posting by "bonifaceleung" one of the manufacturers of the fader nd several weeks ago:

Hello. I am sorry to tell that we find the existing Fader ND will cause the image blurry when it is used with Canon 70-200 and 100-400L on photo taking.
We found that the problem only exist when it is used for photo taking and videography is fine.
Due to this issue, we are making a new version Fader ND that could probably solve this problem.

Thank you.

- bonifaceleung
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So, perhaps the newer ones are better in terms of sharpness than the older units? Indeed, he wrote that the slight blurring is only visible in photo mode with some specific zoom glasses but a lot of other users see it in video mode too. I wait for other guys with some telling footage here...
 
See this for more info from Mr. Leung"

"The new version is now testing, we expect the item will be available in April or May, to be confirmed. From our first testing, the problem should be solved."

Which may explain why his ebay auctions now specify a 5-week delay in order fulfillment.

Aside: That cinema5d thread mentions the product being made of "soft plastic". Can you please verify that what you have from LCW is glass? Thanks.

[Edit: This is the kind of company I like to do business with.]
 
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Uwe Lansing, that looks like this product.

Is it from the same factory? Could be.

Is it designed by the same engineers? Well, the form factor is different. So, that is questionable.

Could we please hear from someone who has the LCW branded product on it's glass material? Thank you.
 
bluesgeek said:
Uwe Lansing, that looks like this product.

Is it from the same factory? Could be.

Is it designed by the same engineers?...
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Hmm..., obviously there are existing different versions - one with plastic and one completely made of glass. That could explain the difference in quality. No doubt, mr. bonifaceleung will get an email by me. Perhaps there is a possibility to trade it off...?
 
Zissou said:
i believe it is; dont quote me on that. im about 5,000 miles away from the camera its attached to.
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Do you remember if it has the tapered front? The Nature brand appears to have a front that looks like a conventionally tooled filter. (Uwe Lansing, can you please confirm my observation?)
 
bluesgeek said:
Do you remember if it has the tapered front? The Nature brand appears to have a front that looks like a conventionally tooled filter. (Uwe Lansing, can you please confirm my observation?)
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i have an older one and one that i believe is identical to the Nature brand one, with a tapered/contoured 77mm-82mm. i usually shoot (photog) with a custom mattebox and a UV filter over the fader. the Nature one may have a plastic front element. ive never noticed a quality drop in sharpness with any of them, and im psychotic about pixel level sharpness. i even removed the AA filters on my backup D300.
 
i dont have nd , i have linear and circular polairzers stacked together but wanted to get fader ND because my solution was degrading footage too much and it makes everyything too soft .
Brands are fujiyama and quantaray,second one is a bit better when used alone,but both of them have blue tint when closed too much.
They dont degrade footage that much when used alone, fujiyama is a bit softer and i have also hoya polarizer which doesnt have blue tint but makes footage softer than quantaray and fujiyama.So its quantaray,then fujiyama and then hoya qualitywise for me.
 
Sorry, bwwd. I misread your first post in the thread. My bad.

And vroom, I see from an earlier post that you are hoping to find time to provide some shots. Thanks... and thanks for starting the thread.
 
OK, here's 2 test shots with and without FaderND, to test sharpness.

Taken on GH1 (i know it's a Canon thread), with Canon FD 50mm f1.4

First shot: WITH Fader ND set to second to last dot nearest to MAX level. F1.4, shutter speed 1000 (it's bright out today!) 7 feet from subject (turtle pool), focused on eye on screen-left. (turtle's right eye)
1271627886.jpg


Second shot: WITHOUT FaderND. stopped down to f5.6, shutter speed 1000, same focus point, etc.
1271628050.jpg


definate loss of detail WITH the Fader on. but, that could be the difference in f-stop. how else do you do a test like this? there's no way i could have gotten similar results shooting in the day at f1.4 without stopping the lens down? i wanted similar exposure...hmm
 
You have a loss of sharpness because you're shooting wide open with a much shallower dof. The sharpness for lenses often goes down the more wide open you shoot. You shoot at a 1.4 and it's not going to be equal sharpness to shooting at a 5.6.
 
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