Filter Help Please

C

ChuckJr

Member
My HVX200 just arrived!

Now I am looking at filters and I know I want to go with the B+W MRC filters for polarizer and UV Haze.

My question is do I go with slim, extra wide, normal? They all say they are 82mm. Do they all work with the camera? What is the difference? Will the lens hood for the camera still connect to the camera with the filters on?

Thanks in advance!

Chuck
 
Personally I would go for a matte box and use 4X4 filters except for an 82mm clear filter (B+W) that I would mount as a protective glass in front of the main element on the lens. You'll have much more flexibilty with the 4X4s. Get a pola (B+W makes a great pola) as well as some graduated ND's (great for white skies and snow covered fields). A favorite of mine is the 81B warming filter. It adds just a touch of warmth and I use it often. Black pro mists are also very nice with C/U females and portraits. I like the 1/3. Although I have not yet used that particular filter with the HVX yet.
 
Chuck Jr,

I just ordered my HVX also [missed delivery today so I have to go and pick mine up tomorrow] but my Formatt matte box came this morning when I was here. Its a lightweight matte box that attached to the camera lens via an 82mm ring. It has two 4x4 filter slots, one of which is rotatable.

It only cost me £92.00 for the matte box, £15.00 for the ring adapator for the HVX ([82mm] and £7.50 next day postage from a guy on Ebay. It was brand new, never been used and he frequently sells them.

It looks the nuts and it will be flexible for using any 4x4 filters [just check the thickness it can take online].


Getken,
Those sound like nice options to have in filters [I'm new to filters but can already see potential]. Have you got any screengrabs of shots you've done with the various filters?

Thanks

Richard M.
 
the formatt matte boxes are very nice for the price, I had one once but I couldnt adapt it to my rail system so I got a Cavision.
 
Yeah, when I finally get to invest in either an M2 or an SG PRO [my favourite] 35mm adaptor with rail system I'll have to invest in a new matte box. But for now this will do me perfectly. A shame as the formatt is a neat little product. They should manufacture some rail supports for it as an add on.

Ta!

Richard M.
 
If you're going to stack filters at all, go with the slim. They're not as thick as a normal filter so you have less chance of vignetting.

I'm not sure what an extra wide is. Maybe it flares out a little at the end to lessen the chance of vignetting. I don't know. That sounds kind of dumb though because you couldn't stack the same size filter onto the end.
B&W is a quality filter. I used them in my still photography days and never had any issues with them.

I'd agree with those who say get a mattebox. It's the route I took as well. But, I wanted to at least give you the info on the slims if you still want to go the screw in route.
 
So far I've stuck with 82mm because they are much much cheaper and when I get a Mattebox I want one with fully rotating stages.
For me a matte box is for grads, not for looking cool.
Also even with a mattebox you can probably use the 82mm filters and stack grads in the mattebox in front

My tests show you can stack 3 (count em 3) normal width 82mm filters on the HVX with no vignetting. And one of mine is an extra thick spinnning polarizer. And you can still put the HVX lens shade over them

Thin and extra wide filters are made for wide angle lenses so they don't vignette, the problem is they usually do not have filter threads on the outside so you cannot stack another filter on top.

BTW I also got an 85 because outdoor work should be less noisy if you are not pushing the red gain to accommodate the blue cast outdoors.

Lenny Levy (San Rafael, CA)
 
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