How to use a circ pol filter and a nd filter at the same time?

etrust

Well-known member
Hi Guys,

I'm using a Canon 7D and a Canon 17-55mm lens.

I have a shooting in the middle of the sea and there is very bright. I want to use a circ pol filter (1 stop) to reach a nice sky and contrast an a nd4 (2 stops) filter to not loose my DOF.

Which expirience do you have using two filters at the same time?

And how to attach them together right?

I'm asking because I will order it soon.
 
I have recently ordered a polarizer, and I intend to use it in conjunction with my ND filters

but I have absolutely no experience in this field: it is my first polarizer ever, so all I can say is I hope it works fine, and I guess I'll learn soon enough if any incompatibilities arise...
 
ok! I ordered it a pol and a nd filter too. I heard, that you should not screw it together because you can not loose it anymore because of a vacum. That's why I asked here the question.

I'm really interested to know if other guys there are using 2 filters in video mode wit a DSLR. And if yes how they screw it the filters???
 
You can screw them together, I haven't heard of any vacuum sticking them together before, I occasionally would lazily put a CP on top of the UV I keep on my lens when I'm casually shooting. The main issue I think is that both those filters have a tendency to deteriorate image quality, on their own, it's mostly null, but together you might notice some quality loss, but I still imagine it would be minimal at worst (assuming you have high quality filters). The other thing is vignetting from the filter ring being partially visible in the frame, so I would recommend a step-up ring (this will also help future proof your filters for larger future lens purchases), but since you are on the 7D with the APS-C sensor I don't think this should be a problem, and if it is, stop it down 1 or 2 stops to eliminate it.

I can only make an educated guess on which order to mount them (lens/ND/CP or lens/CP/ND), I would guess CP on outside just for adjustment convenience and that the ND on top of the CP might make the CP less effective.
 
Hi natums. Interesting.

About Vacuum: A girl from a shop told me that sometimes people go to the store because they can not loose the filters anymore and they have to break a filter :=(

About my filters: B+W 77mm (MC) CIRCULAR POLARIZER FILTER + B+W 77mm (MC) #102 (ND.6) FILTER. I can not use a Step Up Ring because tehy have the same size.

About quality: I will have to test it. You think I would loose sharpness or something else?

About mounting: Yes CP outside for adjustments. What's about: Lens.>ND->CP->UV?
 
that "vacuum" thing can happen with any two filters, it's a matter of screwing them together too hard, I've had trouble unscrewing two ND filters (I usually need .6+.9 on sunny southern Spain), but never so bad as to have to break one of them

about your filters: those are good ones, they shouldn't induce big IQ problems (which, if at all, could be related to both sharpness and color cast) (I plan to stack .6+.9+pola, and I know it will induce some softness, but I'll test it before against my One Dollar Resolution Chart to see if it is too bad)

on the step up ring thing: unless all your lenses have 77mm threads, you're going to be using a step up ring, as natums suggested (it doesn't need to be between the filters)
 
Vacuum: What Bates said is probably what they were referring to, so don't cinch it down tight.

77mm filter: the 17-55mm has some mild vignetting that will be more noticeable with the filters, so I recommend shooting at F4, especially if your shot has sky or solid tones in it.

Quality & UV: UV filter will likely only increase loss in quality, wouldn't put one one, less glass is usually better. I would say chromatic aberration and lack of sharpness are the 2 problems you might run into.
 
The trick is to get two rubber bands and then you can unscrew them. No need to break one.

With the polarizer, just keep it 90 degrees from the sun, and then rotate it until you see the effect take place.
 
oh, I forgot about the UV thing:

the lensrentals blog (written by a guy that knows more about cameras and lenses than I could ever hope to learn) says:

http://www.lensrentals.com/blog/2010/12/the-glass-in-front-of-your-glass-all-about-filters
"If you have a Leica M8.2 you need UV/IR filters, etc. but not many other people do, so we’ll limit this to filters of general usefulness"
and then
"UV. There, I listed it. I’m not going to even get into the discussion about lens protection. I just want to point out that the need for UV filters are basically a film need, the majority of digital cameras don’t benefit from filtering UV light. That function is built into the camera. So if you feel the need for a protective filter a UV, clear, haze, skylight or whatever will give you the same benefit."

and, because of that, they won't even rent you a UV filter unless it's for a leica M8.2:
http://www.lensrentals.com/rent/leica/accessories/uv-ir-filter-for-leica-m8.2
"UV/IR filters are only available along with the rental of one of our M-mount lenses"
 
Hi Guys,

thank you for all posts!!

- I will screw the filters together. Not so hard :=)
- What I like on my UV Filter ist, that I have only to clean the UV Filter and never the Lens itself. I will have to compare te quality with and without UV Filter.
 
You can use an ND filter and a Polarizer in conjunction with no problem. As usual, it is better to buy high quality when putting anything in front of your lens.

I just shot outdoors last Friday with a 7D and my standard rig with a matte box and filter holder.


Example is attached. This is raw from camera.

28mm Nikon @ f2.8
ND.9 Filter
Polarizer
ISO 100
HTP Off
Marvel Cinestyle Picture Style

No grading done. Only the highlights reflecting in the water and the small pieces of sky in the upper right clipped.

http://i766.photobucket.com/albums/xx303/jscottprice/500_Still.png
 

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