Just talked to Heliopan about the variable ND filters - good news.

Not advisable. Looking for the shortest way to happiness. You can find most sizes from about 49mm in step up to 77mm from the chinese on ebay. Work perfectly fine, $2 per adapter. Just takes a long time to get to your house.
 
I really wish this thread would die so I would stop being reminded I spent $425 on a Heliopan without front filters and it's still in customs!
 
KMarandi said:
Just ordered the 82mm thinking biggest is best (then you just use step-up rings).<br>
<br>
While looking for rings, I'm noticing that going up to 82 involves additional intermediary step-up rings.<br>
<br>
Should I have gotten the 77mm ND filter instead?<br>
<br>
The group's feedback would be greatly appreciated, as I'm just getting into the world of lenses...<br>
<br>
Is stacking step-up rings not advisable?
Click to expand...
<br><br>My largest lens thread is 77mm so I have a 77mm step up ring permanently attached to every other lens and 77mm filters.
 
yoclay said:
That is exactly what I am saying and the benefit is obvious.
Independent darkening of the sky, elimination of reflections plus an addtional 5 stops of control.
Click to expand...

Have you tested this?

All Vari-NDs consist of two polarizers, & further darken the image when they're rotated out of phase. Can't imagine many situations where they aren't already darkening the sky, & eliminating reflections.

My biggest beef with Vari-NDs is I don't use polarizers on most shots since they deaden skin.
 
Two polarizers placed on top of each other cancel out the polarizing effects. A third one brings the effect back in.

I have tested it. The issue is not deadened skin. The issue is the color shifts that happen with all but the best filters. The reason why Heliopans are so good is their completely neutral dye and Schott glass. You can stack them and they remain neutral.

Further, their HT polarizers only cut a 1/2 stop, are multi-coated and super resistant to soiling and scratches.

Look if it didn't work, why would Singh Ray sell them?
http://www.singh-ray.com/varinduo.html
 
Singh-Ray doesn't appear to be selling a stack of three polarizers, rather this model has an additional ring that allows the Vari-ND to rotate so it's polarizing has maximum effect.

You could achieve the same effect taking the glass out of a polarizer, & stacking the ring under the Vari-ND.
 
Has anyone from the USA actually received a Helipoan from these guys? I'm wondering if customs or international shipping would be a problem.
 
We'll see, I just submitted my order now. Based on the procedure, seems like it's not the first time they've sold to US customers.
 
DrHST said:
We'll see, I just submitted my order now. Based on the procedure, seems like it's not the first time they've sold to US customers.
Click to expand...

drhst-

do you have a sense what the total cost (vari nd + ship) in us dollars?

thanks in advance.

be well

rob
smalltalk productions
 
I just got my follow up email (about two days after sending in my order).

Receipt shows 28 Euro for shipping for a grand total of 227,95 Euro which comes out to 296.9277 USD (this is for the 77mm version)


Does Paypal automatically convert my USD to Euro? Anyone know how this works? I'm unsure how to proceed at this point.
 
arroway/frank-

i did what i thought was the proper way of entering the info on the order form but there was an error of some sort-i had not provided the correct info on the address page-but i was unable to figure out what i did wrong.

very frustrating.

i will try again but i wish the site had a "world" version.

ymmv

be well

rob
smalltalk productions
 
I had that same problem Rob. I'd bet dollars to pesos (or Euros to dollars for that matter) that your problem is the date of birth formatting. It's DD.MM.YYYY if I remember correctly. If that doesn't work try DD/MM/YYYY and/or DD:MM:YYYY
 
Frank's directions worked for me. It cost me $ 304.76 with shipping via DHL to Boston. They sent a tracking # and email confirmation in English day after ordering. I used paypal, using a link they provided, and entered the cost in Euros, 227.95, and paypal converted it to dollars and handled it just like any other PayPal transaction.
 
Rob, you need to leave the first to fields "Kundennummer" and "Geburtsdatum" blank - this is just for returning customers with a own customer number.

Formatting for date of birth is DD.MM.YYYY

Frank
 
Arroway,

Did Fotomayr ever send you a shipping confirmation email after you sent the money over PayPal. I've sent them my money through Paypal last week and it went through, but never received any sort of confirmation about it being shipped after that. I am assuming it has been shipped, but it would have been nice to receive something to confirm it.
 
Nope, no purchase confirmation or tracking number. It just showed up one day.

The filter arrived really dusty (cardboard dust i think). The hard plastic filter holder it comes in has a lot of openings so it probably accrued all the dust on the way over. This was initially off-putting until I remembered how little I paid for it...

;)

Thanks again Postmaster!
 
arroway said:
Nope, no purchase confirmation or tracking number. It just showed up one day.

The filter arrived really dusty (cardboard dust i think). The hard plastic filter holder it comes in has a lot of openings so it probably accrued all the dust on the way over. This was initially off-putting until I remembered how little I paid for it...

;)

Thanks again Postmaster!
Click to expand...
I bought a Heliopan from a US distributer and it arrived with the case broken and dirty. The Heliopan was also faulty (The hard stops were incorrectly placed). I had to return it for a replacement. They should package the filters better... Both Heliopan and the distributors.
 
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