New Heliopan Variable ND with very noticeable Green Cast. Pics attached.

G

Gene Sung

Veteran
Pics are below

I just got a new Heliopan Variable ND Filter from Fotomayer in Germany and right away, I noticed a green cast just by looking through the filter. In fact, it has the same amount of green shift as does my much cheaper Genus ND (Not good).

I took the following photos early in the AM on a cloudy day, used the preset Daylight white balance on my 60D. All photos were within 10 minutes of each other, so the light was consistent. I used a Canon 70-200mm F2.8 IS II set at f4 at shot 200mm focal length. The ISOs varied a slight bit to compensate for proper exposure.

I noticed that out of the 3 Fader setups (Heliopan, Genus and the DIY method), the DIY had the least color shift (slight blue). The Heliopan and Genus both had a very noticeable green color shift. The Heliopan is very sharp though.

My dilema is, many people have raved about the Heliopan and how it has no color shift and is neutral. Could I have got a BAD SAMPLE? From the very long Heliopan thread a while back, seems like the Quality Control on Heliopan is not so good since a number of people reported problems with their samples from missing screws, to the X, to arriving broken.

To Nirv, I believe you also have a Genus VND. Would it be possible if you compare you Genus to your Heliopan and let me know if you get the same green cast? To the others who own the Heliopan, are you experiencing this green cast as well?

filter1.jpg

Note: Sorry, but I had to black bar out my housemates name and our house address on the .jpg. I didn't realize his info was on the box till after I shot the photos.
 
Haven't notice anything like that on mine. Probably you got a bad one. You can contact them and tell them about it. Anyone else got it?
 
I have not seen any green cast to speak of.

I haven't used the Genus since acquiring the Heliopan which is a 67mm 1st generation with no filter thread on the front.

Edit:
I have just reviewed a load of footage with a lot of white yachts shot a few days ago and had a good look at the scopes. Zero green cast. The whites are bang on balanced until later in the day when I stopped white balancing to capture the warmer tones.

The lens used was a Nikkor 35-135 Manual.

Hope that helps.
 
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Ok, so I must have got a bad one, as the green cast is pretty sever in that I noticed it right away just by looking through the filter. The problem is, I have to mail it back to Germany, then have them mail me a new one :( Going to take forever.

On a second take, the Heliopan actually looks more green than the cheapo Genus :(

Maybe I'll have Sally at Fotomeyer check another one out and making sure it's a good one before mailing me the replacement.
 
Could you not balance the cast out with a preset?

Add some magenta in the WB controls and save yourself the hassle of sending back the filter.
 
I suppose I could, but for $300, I hope to get one that is in good working order with no color casts. Thanks for your responses Nirv. Much appreciated.
 
well i also got mine from fotomayr Germany from Sally. I do have a slight green shift which was the first thing i noticed. I also then noticed my "X" pattern on anything wider than 35mm. Well to be honest it would start to vignette and then the cross pattern. However I contacted them about the cross pattern and After testing, Sally said this to me.

"Hi Darren,
Sorry to have kept you waiting so long for a proper reply.

The variogray filters have now been thoroughly tested again by us and by Heliopan using different filters, different lenses, etc. Unfortunately, the conclusion is that there is definitely a general problem when using the filter at full intensity together with a wide angle lens. This variogray filter is not a replacement for a gray filter from ND 1.2 upwards in combination with lenses with a focal length less than 35 mm. This is exactly the situation you have experienced and described, and, as you say, does not occur with lenses 35 mm and above.

Unfortunately, this means we cannot send you a replacement for your filter because they all have the same "problem". We can, of course, offer to take the filter back and reimburse your money. If you need to work with a wide angle lens together with the filter at full intensity, the only possibility is to add, say, a 0.9 gray filter between the lens and the variogray. Like this, you can reach the full effect up to approx. 2.0.

Please let me know your thoughts, so that we can find the best solution for you.

I look forward to hearing from you

Best regards
Sally"

However the Green Tint is slight on mine and with a proper custom white balance everything is fine. I Also decided to keep my Heliopan becasue it is the best of the bunch retaining the sharpness even on telephoto lenses. Super convenient with a couple drawbacks. I do have normal screw in ND's also so if i need to go wide and have the time to change filters i can.
 
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I do not know about the 60D, but the FS700 manual does indicate to white balance to cast off any tint from external ND filters:

" Adjusting the color tone
Adjusting white balance

... Setting the A/B value
Select A or B for recording with the white balance setting stored in memory A or B.
See page 48 on how to store the adjusted value.
• When using a commercially available ND filter, this adjustment is recommended. "
 
Hi Frank,

Thanks for taking the time out to do your test. Much appreciated.

Aaarrrgghhh.... once again, it's an issue of the computer saying one thing and the human eyes saying something else. LOL

Since I live in LA where there are countless film / video stores, I spent the morning and checked out a number of Variable ND filters (Hoya, Kinko, Fader, Tiffen and a 2nd copy of the Heliopan). Guess what? They all had the EXACT SAME cast / color shift compared to NO filter, from the cheapest to the most expensive, so I guess I'm just going to stick with the Heliopan since at least it's very sharp at 200mm. The Kinko VND was really nice, but pricey at around the same cost as the Heliopan. It was sharp, but the it was about 2/3rds the thickness which was nice.

I then messed around this afternoon using the FS700 with the Heliopan on it. Even with the built in NDs, for run and gun in bright daylight, the VNDs are still nice just because you can adjust the exposure so fast compared to fiddling with the ISO and / or the Aperture. I just set the Internal ND close to what was needed, and then fine tuned it with the Heliopan which only cut down about 1 to 2 stops, thus only using the Heliopan for minor light cutting as opposed to the darker / drastic light cutting settings which tends to introduce problems.
 
I find AWB can be a pain.. introducing a random element to the shooting process

What I did was build a PP for my tiffen filter by adding a magnta shift in the profile, my PP2 is my 'lots of ND' profile..

First image - the shift, Second image corrected with profile, third image AWB

skytest.jpg
 
Yeah, AWB sucks, so I never use it. I usually just set the Kelvin or do a custom white balance. For the Fader tests, I just set the Kelvin since I was inside the store with hurried Salespeople that probably knew I wasn't going to buy anything :)
 
Custom WB is what I was talking about

Remember a Kelvin WB is controlling the R->B shift and wont help with a G-Mag shift caused by heavy VND use, to correct G->M and use the kelvin wheel you will need a PProfile with a Mag shift applied as per my test above

S
 
What would be important to see is if you have a shift in the colors when you change the level of ND. If it is consistent, you just can have some preset in post production. If there is some big difference then it is another matter.
 
gene_can_sing said:
Thanks for the tip Morgan. Good info. There's so much to these FS cameras. Another thing to learn and think about :)
Click to expand...

Gene

Sony must have realised a camera without ND filters needs WB and colour cast tweak-ability. That's what the various WB settings are there for.
 
They even say so in the manual.
But reading manuals seems a bit out of fashion these days.

Frank
 
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