Good 4x4 ND's

D

DDirector

Veteran
I am going to B&H tomorrow morning and I've been on the lookout for some ND's (3,6,9) 4x4"
To put into a mattebox or a filter holder for photography.

I don't want to spend a whole wad of money. Something that does the job.
In my local store I saw some Cokin ND's for $20ea. So, $60 for a set of 3.

I wanted to know if getting the Cokin ND's will serve me well, or will it?
 
Meh. I'm personally not a fan of the Cokin stuff. The filters seem hit-or-miss, and the holder feel cheap and flimsy. (But others may feel differently.)

I'd say invest in quality 4x4 filters and build a set over time. Chances are, you'll have them much longer than you own any single camera.
 
Yeah, Ive been reading on reviews and they all say they have a purply ting to them.
Lee's are just too expensive.
What about Cavision ND's? They are a bit less than Hitech.
 
I think the Cavision ones are decent, from what I've heard. I've got a combination of Schneider and Tiffen, which I recommend. Depending on where you live, you might also be able to rent 4x4 filters as needed.
 
You have 2 issues with ND's - color purity and optical quality.
Color you can see directly -just make sure your ND's are truly neutral. Most are not.
Optical quality is harder to discern. if you have a long lens - ideally 200mm - Hold it up to the camera and using the 5 & 10 magnification in your screen compare the sharpness with and without the ND. You will need to keep f stop constant , so use shutter speed to keep exposure equal.
A poor filter will degrade the image on a long lens. Best to have some kind of loupe like a hoodman to see the picture well.

Lee filters are supposed to be high quality resin which is cheaper than glass but more prone to scratching.
If you want to save money just get a set of 77mm glass B+W filters and buy adapters for your lenses. Even Hoya's will be way better than Cokin's.
 
If you spend a ton of money on expensive quality glass, you don´t want something lesser in front of it.
It would be completely silly to degrade your lenses and picture quality with a cheap filter.
You could as well have bought a cheaper slower lens.

I know it hurts, but good filters last forever (when you keep them well) so you cry only once.
Tiffen, Schneider, Heliopan and you are golden for years.

If you are on a budget, buy used ones.

my ct. 2

Frank
 
Old thread now, but as someone else would be searching about Cavision filters like I was a few weeks ago:

DDirector said:
What about Cavision ND's? They are a bit less than Hitech.
Click to expand...
1) I've ordered one, ND 1.5 and so far I'm impressed with it. I've wrote about it here.
2) Can't tell for now, but I've bought a HiTech set recently, I can always post results when I'll get them.
Stephen Mick said:
I think the Cavision ones are decent, from what I've heard.
Click to expand...
As I wrote in the other thread, so far, there's virtually no (or very slight) color shift in the picture, toward blue/cyan. Nothing that can't be corrected in post. Maybe with some higher end filters it wouldn't appear, but for the price I can certainly live with it.
That being said, I'll check with the HiTech filters and I even plan to get another Cavision filter (probably 0.6 or 0.9) to complete my set later. But so far, Cavision appear to have some nice filters for the price.
 
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