General Variable ND filter, Heliopan or Tiffen?

M

mikcheck

Active member
Hello guys.

Between those two, is Heliopan the best? At least for the price it seems to be, its very expensive, but i've also read many good reviews for the Tiffen.

What's your opinion?

Thanks.
 
mikcheck said:
What's your opinion?
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I'd say Tiffen. Reputable brand as well as many good reviews.


*That being said, recently bought a 58mm one for outdoor shooting video (that'll be color graded after), so I wasn't much worried about a slight color cast in the picture. Ended up paying 63$ for one, including a 52mm to 58mm adapter ring at a local photo store. Brand is ProMaster and so far, it works perfectly. I haven't noticed (yet haven't done a deep testing though) any color cast when adjusting the filter.
 
I've tried most of them. I live in LA (land of camera equipment), so one day I went to several different camera stores and test 6 different brands on top of the 3 that's I've owned - Tiffen, Hoya, Lightcraft, Kenko, Heliopan, Genus and probably a few others.

The Tiffen was definitely soft on the longer focal lengths. The only ones that didn't have softening was the Heliopan (which I own) and the Kenko, both of which are very expensive.

The bad thing was ALL of them has a green cast, even the expensive ones.

Frank Glencarn raves about the Genus Eclipse which he says is very sharp and has a warm tint as opposed to green. Maybe check that one out.
 
gene_can_sing thanks a lot for your input.

Well yes they're expensive but i really need a good one because i always like to shoot with fast apertures, so it's a big deal for me.

If Heliopan and Kenko are the ones who didn't have or have less softening, then it's a good idea to buy one of those.

Yes i guess the green cast is present in all of the filters, but i think that's not a big problem.
 
No matter what version always white balance when you attach the variable filter.

I have Tiffen and Heliopan and I pretty much don't use them anymore. I prefer the Hoya ProND filters with the fast magnetic Xume filter adapters. 100% color accurate with no cast. I have a set of 4 in 56mm for Lumix and 77mm for EF lenses. I put them in a Tiffen pouch with velcro belt loop and eoth wear it or attach it to my bag. They pop on and off very fast.
 
Hello Erik, thanks for your reply.

Sorry for my ignorance, but it's better to buy individual filters with a constant stop or that variable one in the link should be ok?

Thank you.
 
mikcheck said:
Hello Erik, thanks for your reply.

Sorry for my ignorance, but it's better to buy individual filters with a constant stop or that variable one in the link should be ok?

Thank you.
Click to expand...

Keep in mind a "variable ND" is just two polarizers. And I can't imagine any pro DPs saying "hmm, instead of using the proper ND filter, I'll stick TWO polarizers on here and rotate 'em til it's kinda dark". And I can't imagine a DP concerned with beautiful skin shooting a human being with a polarizer.

They seem popular for that "first camera" era in a shooter's life, but I'd really try to move to real NDs as soon as affordable. A polarizer's a completely different animal, designed for a completely different purpose than exposure control. You'll have to watch for shifting sky colors, shifting color overall, and that hard-to-describe "skin tone death" that they can cause (due to the way light scatters in translucent human skin).

Not sure but I understand there's no way to repeatably use them, either, like if you killed 2 stops on one setup and wanted to kill 2 on another, vs. using a .3 ND at the same aperture? (Or are they marked with stops nowadays?)
 
mikcheck said:
Hello Erik, thanks for your reply.

Sorry for my ignorance, but it's better to buy individual filters with a constant stop or that variable one in the link should be ok?

Thank you.
Click to expand...
The one in this link isn't a variable ND filter. As mentioned variables do bad things to skin and I make a living shooting people. What that sounds wrong. :-D

Variables are fine for nature or general b-roll but if you shoot people and or dialogue go with neutral density filters and a Xume adapter.
 
Thank you for your replies.

Erik, can you please do me the favor of posting a link for one of those Hoya ProND you use?

Thank you
 
Michael Carter said:
Keep in mind a "variable ND" is just two polarizers. And I can't imagine any pro DPs saying "hmm, instead of using the proper ND filter, I'll stick TWO polarizers on here and rotate 'em til it's kinda dark". And I can't imagine a DP concerned with beautiful skin shooting a human being with a polarizer.

They seem popular for that "first camera" era in a shooter's life, but I'd really try to move to real NDs as soon as affordable. A polarizer's a completely different animal, designed for a completely different purpose than exposure control. You'll have to watch for shifting sky colors, shifting color overall, and that hard-to-describe "skin tone death" that they can cause (due to the way light scatters in translucent human skin).

Not sure but I understand there's no way to repeatably use them, either, like if you killed 2 stops on one setup and wanted to kill 2 on another, vs. using a .3 ND at the same aperture? (Or are they marked with stops nowadays?)
Click to expand...

First, what is a 'pro DP?' By my definition, plenty of pro DP's use variable NDs. Do 'pro DP's'
ever use DSLR's instead of real digital cinema cams? Much rests on how you define the term.

Second, yes you can repeatedly use them. I have the Heliopan and Genus. They both have marks
so you can 'repeat' the amount of stops you killed on a shot. Heliopan even has hard stops
at either end. The big deal to me is sharpness. Test them for sharpness at telephoto ranges
like 200-300mm and make sure they stay sharp. The color cast is easily fixed by white balancing with
the filter on the lens.
 
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