Filter Question - New in HDSLR video.

[Andrius Simutis]

Ok - go out it minus 10, put on some gloves, it is the end of the day, the director is behind on the shot list, the light is going fast, pressure pressure pressure. If you can screw perfectly in such conditions you are a very cool cat indeed.

As someone who shot for many years in exactly those kind of conditions, there are other considerations at work there. If you're out in the freezing cold, you're also likely to be in nasty weather and then a matte box tends to become unwieldily and more trouble than it's worth. The bare filter holder systems don't work with hoods, so then you've got that issue especially when the weather's getting onto the front and back of the filters. The filter holders also have to be attached and those can be just as finicky or more so than a screw on filter.
I've used the drop in filters for effects back in the day (before you could do digital effects in post) and they were ok when the weather was nice, but in really rough conditions nothing is better than keeping the whole setup minimal and nothing is more minimal than simple screw on filters. If you've had issues with them and the drop in holders work better for you, great, but I found the opposite to be the case in really taxing conditions.

 

[alaskacameradude]

Ok - go out it minus 10, put on some gloves, it is the end of the day, the director is behind on the shot list, the light is going fast, pressure pressure pressure. If you can screw perfectly in such conditions you are a very cool cat indeed.

A set is not a lab.

-10? You think shooting in -10 is bad? I mean you even have gloves. Light? You actually get light there in the winter? I'll stay away from the question of who can screw perfectly in such conditions.

 

[Samuel H]

The more I think about how my 3D-printed mini-mattebox would be, the more I realize how difficult it is to improve upon a "one single xune" system. You need one adapter for the lens, and screwing it in is just one more step in the lens-change process. You'd also have to do that with my 3D-printed holder. The only advantage my system would have is when you need to stack filters. And price, possibly.

How much would you pay for a plastic holder that allows you to slide in your current 77mm or 67mm glass filters?
* You'd have to take the filter out of its original metal ring (I'll give you a tool to do that, it's easy on Tiffen filters) and put it on a thin plastic tray instead
* Metal threads on the side that goes to the lens (actually, I'd borrow the cokin design: this goes to the lens, the adapter is just held there, so you can easily rotate it)
* On the side that goes forward, small plastic barn doors and plastic thread that's only good for holding the lens cap
* total width without the barn doors is "like two filters", maybe one mm more
(if you don't say at least $60 I'm not going to make this )

 

[morgan_moore]

As someone who shot for many years in exactly those kind of conditions..If you've had issues with them and the drop in holders work better for you, great, but I found the opposite to be the case in really taxing conditions.

Different systems will of course work with different people and situations.

I have round filters and a MB/4X4 system too - Im not sure which I find least bad - I think it changes depending on how many lens changes, if your zooms get longer, and a multitude of factors.

One thing I have found is that often a filter needs flare protection in a way that a naked front element does not - but when I go 'round' I attach a french flag to my handlebars

Overall I was disputing Samuels claims that screwing was simple - it isn't in some situations

S

 

[Sol M.]

I own both matte box with slide in filters, as well as screw on filters, and each type has their place. But, after over 35 years of using screw on filters, I have never cross threaded one. Asking for trouble? Please.

For every anecdotal account of someone having great success with something, there will be (at least) the same number of anecdotal accounts discussing its many drawbacks. Different situations result in different experiences.

I'm fortunate in that I don't often need to shoot outside in -10 weather, though my shooting does frequently bring me to deserts, beaches, and other environments with a lot of fine dust. I'll just say that grit, though fine, is utterly unforgiving on filter threads. You'd be surprised the havoc a tiny speck can cause in the thin threads of a filter. If you spend most of your time in the safety of a studio then I can see how you might never get threads stuck, but it does happen nonetheless.

I'm not discounting the potential for user error also contributing to instances of stuck filters, but the simple reality is that there are several other factors at play when you have little to no control over the environment that you shoot in. My focus is on mitigating those issues as much as possible, which is where the Xume adapters come in.

As Samuel noted, Xume's lens adapters are 3x the cost of the filter adapters, which I simply cannot understand looking at both adapters side-by-side. Aside from that issue, I get along fairly well with 2 lens adapters, which allows me to swap lenses quickly and use up to 2 filters at once.