GH3 Looking for a solid Vari ND filter recommendation

S

shipwrecked

Member
Hey all,

I've got an SLR Magic t.14 Lens coming in the mail this week and would love to use it on an upcoming shoot.

Can anyone recommend a solid Vari ND filter that's less than $150?

Anyone used the Light Craft Workshop Vari ND filter and can vouch for it?

The lens accepts 52mm filters.


Cheers,

Ship
 
To get one that doesn't mess with sharpness, colour cast - you need to spend a bit more - genus eclipse is the cheapest decent fader nd that im aware of
 
It's not going to happen at that price. Do yourself a favor, save your money, get a higher quality larger size like 77mm and use step rings to adapt to smaller diameter lenses.
 
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Tiffen seems to be pretty good at $100 this guy did a pretty extensive test, 12 min not so exciting video, but he has a conclusion if you don't want to watch the whole thing.

 
My Heliopan VND filters don't have front threads so I picked up several of Tiffen's also.

I've never tested them directly against each other but the Tiffen's have performed well even at 300mm.

One nice feature of Tiffen's VNDs is the front filter thread is two sizes larger than the back, so on a 58mm VND the front thread is 67mm. This means it can be mounted directly on lenses like SLR Magic's 12mm without the need for their overpriced step-up ring & a hood can still be attached without vignetting.
 
David W. Jones said:
It's not going to happen at that price. Do yourself a favor, save your money, get a higher quality larger size like 77mm and use step rings to adapt to smaller diameter lenses.
Click to expand...

What's the point in adding a stepup ring to the whole thing? Doesn't it force you to forego the lens' hood?
 
I think what he means is that by going with a 77mm filter size it's cheaper to get various size step up rings for your collection of various sized lenses. That way one (filter) size fits all. That's the route I took so I have step-ups for 52mm to 77mm, 58mm to 77mm and so on and each lens can be made to fit my 77mm polarizer, 77mm ND filters etc. Hood-wise, well lets just say if I'm in a situation where I need a filter, I need it more than I need a hood. I do have a large collapsable rubber Tiffen lens shade that's about 5" across and w/various inserts it can clamp onto any size lens I'd ever have on my GH3 including one w/a 77mm filter on it. But I rarely bother w/that when I can just use my hand as a momentary "hood" if I need to kill a glare.
 
^Exactly^

Then add collapsible rubber hood and you have covered all your lenses with one filter instead of filters in various sizes.
 
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