Which ND ?

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Kidbond30

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Hey guys, I am looking into getting an ND filter to shoot woth skiing because i want to achieve a slow shutter of around 160-250 in bright sunny conditions. I would be aimig for an aperture of f8 to f11. Can anyone recomemend me a good ND filter?
 
On a bright sunny day, a 1.2 filter will allow you to shoot f/5.6 1/50s ISO 100. If you want f/2.8, it has to be a 1.8 filter, or a 1.2 plus 0.6 if you don't mind stacking filters. If you want to go f/1.4, you need another two stops of filtration. And so on.
If the day is not that sunny... well, it will depend on the day, but you will surely need a lot less filtration. That's why people usually buy ND filters in sets.
Check this set (it is available in other sizes too).
 
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I went though this recently and had lots of advice from many quarters. The results were: If you have a good lens do not skimp on the filters. Go for b+w or Hoya. The beter the quality of the filter the better the results.

Also I was recommended (on a Panasonic AC90) to use an IR/UV cut filter with the ND filter. The ND filter will mean the aperture is wider open and the digital sensors are more susseptable to UV and IR that film was.
 
Tiffen makes a very good Variable ND. I picked up the 82mm and a bunch of step up rings so I can use it with all my lenses. The Tiffen keeps the images sharpness but like all ND filters it shifts the color. Not to bad just white balance after you put the filter on.
 
Slap a 1.2 on and ride your IS0 or aperture. You'll be fine.

Variable NDs can work, but they are a fiddle, and as Erik says they also shift colour. They can also be useless with super-wides and telephoto lenses. Plus, you can't use a lens hood with a variable ND either.
 
Dont use variable ND, they arent good enough for serious work , color shift is bad and also problems on wide end + softness on telephoto, buy regular ND filter, if you have to film with 0.8 and use iso 1600 then you can take off ND and film at iso 100.
 
I think there are some good variable NDs out there, but I've never used one, they are really expensive, much more than the LCW Fader ND v2 that I bought and sold a couple of years ago
 
bwwd said:
Dont use variable ND, they arent good enough for serious work , color shift is bad and also problems on wide end + softness on telephoto, buy regular ND filter, if you have to film with 0.8 and use iso 1600 then you can take off ND and film at iso 100.
Click to expand...

I guess it depends on your definition of 'serious work'. Features films probably don't use them.
But guys like Philip Bloom and Frank Glencairn certainly have used them in what I would consider
'serious work'. A good variable ND doesn't suffer from softness at telephoto. Color shift is very minor
and if you white balance after you put the variable nd on (and why wouldn't you do this?) the color
shift is gone. Polarization effects can usually be fixed, by rotating the variable nd 90 degrees.
Of course they are not perfect, but they can be pretty good if you don't buy the cheap ones.

I'm not sure about the last comment. I would think, that before you decided to use ND filters (of
any kind) that you would check to make sure your ISO is as low as it can be? Maybe some people
dont check this? I guess maybe its cause I came from a video background, and gain was 'bad', but
even with the clean ISO's of modern cameras, I never boost the ISO unless there is a reason, like
low light.
 
I have a set of 3 4x4 Glass ND filters: 0.6, 0.9, 1.5 as well as a Polarizing filter to use with my mattebox. The brand is Cavision, available on B&H and pretty worth the money, considering the price. Slight blueish color cast when staking filters, but nothing that can't be easily corrected in post.
I wrote about it here, and post some pictures to show the difference, which is minimal for the price. Depends on the use you plan to make out of it.
 
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