Fader ND ( Neutral Density ) : Questions

User error.

I owned the very expensive Singh Ray Vari ND and the I presently own three of the Fader NDs. If you understood how these filters work, you would understand how to use them.

1. The filters are two polarizers sandwiched together in one filter menchanism. Whether you are using the Singh Ray or the Fader, you can only rotate the filter to a certain point. After that, the effect becomes too much and you begin to see artifacts like the ones in the posts shown above.

2. In one of the above posts, the photgrapher states that he "bought the Fader ND to use specifically on his 10-22mm Canon lens." Any still photographer worth his salt knows that you do not use polas on wide angle lenses and both the Singh Ray and the Fader ND are essentially polarizing filters. Any pola on any wide angle lens will result in uneven polarization effect across a frame. For wide angle lenses, a regular ND or ND grad is a better choice.

Both the Singh Ray and the Fader ND are excellent and work very well when you know what you are doing. If you don't, yes, you will get some funky results as some of the posters above did. You have to use a tool correctly to obtain a desirable result. That holds true for all video/film/photo gear.

Dan
 
May I ask what is considered to be "wide" for this filter?

is 35 is too wide?
 
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Thanks

What filter size?
is the 62 is ok on the stock lens or should I take the bigger one?
 
My two primes (EF 50mm 1.4 USM and EF 28mm 1.8 USM) both took 58mm so I only got one FaderND in 58mm. None of my lenscaps fit on the FaderND though...
 
mhood said:
My two primes (EF 50mm 1.4 USM and EF 28mm 1.8 USM) both took 58mm so I only got one FaderND in 58mm. None of my lenscaps fit on the FaderND though...
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Thanks

Someone with stock lens can say if the 62 is good or I need to order the 72?
 
puredrifting said:
2. In one of the above posts, the photgrapher states that he "bought the Fader ND to use specifically on his 10-22mm Canon lens." Any still photographer worth his salt knows that you do not use polas on wide angle lenses and both the Singh Ray and the Fader ND are essentially polarizing filters. Any pola on any wide angle lens will result in uneven polarization effect across a frame. For wide angle lenses, a regular ND or ND grad is a better choice.
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Listen to Dan, he knows what he's talking about.

Think about how a polarizer works -- it works most effectively at 90 degrees to the sun, right? And at 0 degrees or 180 degrees to the sun, a polarizer doesn't work at all. Well, when you use a super-wide-angle lens (like that 10mm Canon!) you might be seeing a field of view that stretches all the way from barely-working to full strength and all the way back to barely working again!

Read a little more here: http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/polarizers.shtml

Both the Singh Ray and the Fader ND are excellent and work very well when you know what you are doing. If you don't, yes, you will get some funky results as some of the posters above did. You have to use a tool correctly to obtain a desirable result. That holds true for all video/film/photo gear.
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Somehow this simple truth seems to keep getting lost. You can't take a Fader or Singh-Ray Variable polarizer into every possible shooting scenario, just like you can't take CMOS everywhere, etc. Know what it does, know what it can do, and know what it can't do, and you'll keep yourself out of trouble.
 
Thank you all for your info.

Can someone please tell if I need to get a wider filter for the stock lens (to avoid vignetting) , or if the 62 filter size will do good?
 
so what would be the minimum(widest) when using a fader ND? i'm waiting on my tamron 17-50mm 2.8 vc to arrive. thanks.
 
so what would be the minimum(widest) when using a fader ND? i'm waiting on my tamron 17-50mm 2.8 vc to arrive. thanks.
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Last weekend I tried to use mine with the Canon 10-22mm and had some crazy unevenness when I stopped it way down, but this weekend I used it on my Tamron 28-75 and it was perfect all the way across as far as I could tell.

I'll be interested to hear how well it works around the 17mm end of the Tamron because that may be my next lens.
 
We have to take into account the 1.6x or 1.5x crop factor in cropped sensor cameras. On a 7D, your 17mm FOV is actually the FF equivalent of 27.2mm FOV. Like everything else in this business, YMMV. You need to test before attempting to use a pola on anything even remotely wide angle. You may or may not find the artifacts in the polarizing to be objectionable.

AFAIK, there is no standard rule on focal length, just that polas don't usually work out very well with true wide angle lenses which in the still photography world begin at around 28mm FF. Generally 35mm focal length lenses are regarded as "normal wide" focal length with FF cameras. With cropped sensor cameras, 35mm focal length is a normal FOV lens.

Dan
 
Side note: With my Light Craft Workshop 72mm Fader ND they sent me a 72mm lens cap, but the front threads of the filter is 77mm so it doesn't fit. Vendor error or are you supposed to put the 72mm cap on the back and buy a seperate 77mm cap for the front?
 
They come in the box with the foam cutout and one lens cap. If you want anything more, you need to furnish it.

Dan
 
Update: I contacted Light Craft and they acknowledged the mistake and are shipping the correct sized lens cap for the filter. Very nice to deal with.
 
adys said:
Thank you all for your info.

Can someone please tell if I need to get a wider filter for the stock lens (to avoid vignetting) , or if the 62 filter size will do good?
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Adys, I'd get the 72/77 just to be safe. It should help to avoid vignetting, plus you can use it on different lenses with larger filter screw sizes. You'll need to get a stepup ring (62 to 72), but those are very inexpensive.
 
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