The first ND filter you should buy if you're on a budget!

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Fellipe

Active member
So while deciding if I should get or not a variable ND filter, I thought a little about a old-school photography 'rule'. Since even the most expensive variable ND filters cannot deliver the same IQ of a regular ND filter, I gave up on the variables and decided to get a regular one.
Since I'm purchasing a lot of other stuffs (audio and lighting gear, rig, and so on) I had to pick only one to be my very first ND filter :thumbsup:.

So, based on the famous Sunny 16 "rule", chances are great that we would get this particular exposure on a bright sunny day:

Shutter Speed 1/50
F-stop 16
ISO 50

And by bright sunny day, I mean this:

3129092533_1c783d4342.jpg




Since we don't have ISO 50 (At least on Canon Dslr), our Sunny 16 rule become:

Shutter Speed 1/50
F-Stop 22
ISO 100

Ok. Now we need to get the fstop all the way down to f/4 or even f/2.8 to get that pretty on trend shallow depth of field:

From f/22 to f/2.8: - 6 stops
From f/22 to f/4 : - 5 stops

So if you're on a budget and have to choose one ND filter, the best choice IMHO, is to get a 1.8 ND filter (6 stops).
The reasons are:
- You're fine if you're outside on a sunny day (the worst case scenario).
- If needed (i.e there isn't that much available light), you can dial up your ISO and get at least 3 stops (iso 800).

Another tip is:
Buy the biggest ND filter you can afford, even if your lens thread is smaller.
Remember: you can always use step-down rings!

Hope this makes sense and helps people.

<<<< Update >>>>

Maybe a 4-stop ND (1.2) is a better idea because if you are at the worst scenario (sunny day) you can set your exposure to:

shutter speed 1/50
iso 100
fstop 5.6

And still get a nice background and you cover most 'intermediate' scenes.
 
Last edited:
Fellipe said:
So while deciding if I should get or not a variable ND filter, I thought a little about a old-school photography 'rule'. Since even the most expensive variable ND filters cannot deliver the same IQ of a regular ND filter, I gave up on the variables and decided to get a regular one.
Since I'm purchasing a lot of other stuffs (audio and lighting gear, rig, and so on) I had to pick only one to be my very first ND filter :thumbsup:.

So, based on the famous Sunny 16 "rule", chances are great that we would get this particular exposure on a bright sunny day:

Shutter Speed 1/50
F-stop 16
ISO 50

And by bright sunny day, I mean this:

3129092533_1c783d4342.jpg




Since we don't have ISO 50 (At least on Canon Dslr), our Sunny 16 rule become:

Shutter Speed 1/50
F-Stop 22
ISO 100

Ok. Now we need to get the fstop all the way down to f/4 or even f/2.8 to get that pretty on trend shallow depth of field:

From f/22 to f/2.8: - 6 stops
From f/22 to f/4 : - 5 stops

So if you're on a budget and have to choose one ND filter, the best choice IMHO, is to get a 1.8 ND filter (6 stops).
The reasons are:
- You're fine if you're outside on a sunny day (the worst case scenario).
- If needed (i.e there isn't that much available light), you can dial up your ISO and get at least 3 stops (iso 800).

Another tip is:
Buy the biggest ND filter you can afford, even if your lens thread is smaller.
Remember: you can always use step-down rings!

Hope this makes sense and helps people.
Click to expand...

Good post.

This is the first I'm hearing of the Sunny 16 rule so thanks for educating us on it.
 
I pretty much agree.
But even if you go the fixed ND route, it has to be a quality ND that doesn't degrade image quality with sharpness loss and/or color cast. So you will end up paying for your fixed filter about half the price of a quality variable ND (Heliopan).
Another thing is that maybe 6 stops is a bit too much, because at six stops even quality filters may start giving you color cast issues, and you are stuck with too much light loss for intermediate scenes, where you'd have to up the ISO (probably adding noise), but may not be dramatic in the end.
 
A ND filter on the cheap....
Use 2 Polarizing filters together. They can go all the way dark to just over 1 stop dark.
There are "variable" ND filters which can go upwards of $50 which basically are the same thing.
 
I didn't know about that rule, but I can confirm that in bright sunlight I most often need .9+.6 filters in order to shoot at f/3.5, 1/50s and ISO 100 - plus: I have the cheapest tiffen screw-ins ($65 for a 0.6+0.9+1.2 set at 67mm), and, even though more picky people will pick, they are great by my standards: http://www.similaar.com/foto/lenstests/lenstestsn.html
 
Thank you guys. I updated the first thread, as a 4-stop ND is a better option, so you are covered for the extreme situation (with f/5.6) and still have extra room for intermediate scenes. (good point, kostas)
 
well, if you're at f16 the point of using a large sensor DoF dslr camera for video kinda goes away........ do stay away from fader nd's, they're all a bloody joke. This is decent, Heliopan is said to be decent after philip bloom's post on it but yet to see any actual resolution tests.

just buy your regular Tiffens and get over the lazyness. (I usually end up with a nd8 filter as a standard)
 
* that marumi looks great; my tests say the tiffen 0.3 and 0.6 have absolutely no effect on sharpness, but the 0.9 does have a small impact; if you can't see any impact on a 100% crop from a still, I'd call it outstanding
* if you're only getting one filter, I think the 1.5 or even 1.8 would be more useful than the 1.2: if it is too strong for a certain setting, you can always shoot at ISO400; but they're more expensive, so maybe a kit is the way to go
* for that same reason, I find the 0.3 one to be the least useful one
* if you can afford it, the 0.6+0.9+1.2 kit is perfect; I'd usually shoot with 0.6+1.2 at ISO 200, and quickly switch to ISO 100 or ISO 400 if needed
 
I hardly doubt most people can tell the difference between 50 shutter speed as opposed to 120 shutter speed. Unless you are shooting water or things like that, it is very hard to notice any difference in shutter speed. Personally I just up my shutter speed or use a polarizing filter which not only helps with light, but gives you great blue skies when they are available.
 
ND 1.2 is not enough, its tiny bit darker than ND 0.8, i had to stack both of them to get correct exposure with shutter 50 in regular rainy day.
 
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