GH2 Which Vari ND Filter (Also Size)? Vignetting?

H

hanklepstein

Member
I'm looking for a variable ND filter to use on my Oly 12mm, Panasonic 20mm, Super Takumar 50mm, and possibly other smaller lenses in the future.

I have a cheapish (45 dollar) Polaroid vari ND I got on Amazon. It vignettes like crazy with all my stepup filters on the Olympus 12mm, of course! I'm guessing I could probably just get a to 46 to 72mm stepup ring for it which wouldn't stick out as far. But I was thinking of getting something a bit better and smaller for my smaller lenses.

So I guess my question is would a LCW 52mm or 58mm Fader ND Mark ii vignette at all on the Oly 12mm? (Of course I would need a stepup ring)

Also I'm wondering if there are better options for a variable ND, I really don't want to spend much more than 100. Also any opinions on if I should get 52mm or 58mm (assuming they both don't vignette on the Oly), I'm not sure if there are any nice M4/3 lenses with a 58mm filter thread.

Thanks for any help or suggestions!
 
I might get jumped on for saying this ..but do yourself a favor and look into the Neewer Variable ND. It is DIRT cheap ($11-18)…but don’t let that fool you. I picked up one a couple of weeks ago and sofar I’ve used it with my GH-2 and Super Takumar 50mm. No noticeable sharpness loss and there is notmuch evidence as a tint to the image (though naturally there is). Towards the end of this YouTube video you cansee an unscientific test of its sharpness.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQ87WIn9Ulo
FYI…some people like to make complaints about the filtermaking a big “X” mark on the image at certain levels. I have no such problem. It happens to those folks who overlap theiradjustments (especially since the filter doesn’t stop turning). Just use the markers on the filter and you’llbe set.

Here’s another comparison video (vs a more expensivefilter.

EDIT: OOps
https://vimeo.com/36122823
 
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Ian-T said:
I might get jumped on for saying this ..but do yourself a favor and look into the Neewer Variable ND. It is DIRT cheap ($11-18)…but don’t let that fool you. I picked up one a couple of weeks ago and sofar I’ve used it with my GH-2 and Super Takumar 50mm. No noticeable sharpness loss and there is notmuch evidence as a tint to the image (though naturally there is). Towards the end of this YouTube video you cansee an unscientific test of its sharpness.
Click to expand...

Interesting.. my Polaroid vari ND looks pretty similar to that one and cost 4x as much...

I definitely should pick up one of these though considering the price- even if it isn't as high quality as I want it looks like it could at least work as a backup. The reviews don't seem to be as good as the LCW, but of course reviews are always going to be higher to justify spending more... I'm interested in seeing a comparison between the two.

But more importantly, I'm trying to figure out if a 52mm filter will show on the 12mm wide angle lens. http://www.amazon.com/Goja-46-52mm-...LSH0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1339146418&sr=8-1 If I get a stepup ring like this instead of using 3 stepup rings (I have one of those sets) to get from 46 to 52... will that help?
 
hanklepstein said:
But more importantly, I'm trying to figure out if a 52mm filter will show on the 12mm wide angle lens. http://www.amazon.com/Goja-46-52mm-...LSH0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1339146418&sr=8-1 If I get a stepup ring like this instead of using 3 stepup rings (I have one of those sets) to get from 46 to 52... will that help?
Click to expand...

Well..I don't have any lens that wide (my kit lens starts at 14mm). But I don't believe you will have a problem with a 52 0r 58 mm filter on the end of that 46mm lens. I hope someone else jumps in and confirms this but as long as you don't start stacking filters on top of filters then you should be ok. All of my lens are small like yours...but what I did to feel extra safe was buy 67mm step up rings for all of my lenses and called it a day. From there every filter I get will be 67mm (just in case I start stacking filters in the future).
 
Yeah I could do the same thing with my 77mm polaroid ND, it would just be nice to have a small filter that doesn't dwarf lens. I'm going to go ahead and get one of the 52mm Neewers just because I might as well! I can test for myself if it will show up on the 12mm, should work fine on my other lenses though
 
Update: Just got my 52mm Neewer ND fader: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0059BH85K/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00

Didn't actually say Neewer on the box, but the filter looks like the one in that pic. I haven't really tested it enough to know what I think, but I did two short videos in the backyard today with it. It doesn't get in the field of view with a stepup filter. 12mm timelapse (video mode using 2 second shutter speed) and 12mm video of the parent's dogs at f2.0 (not enough depth of field for moving dogs but I wanted to try it!)

I'm not sure what I think yet, I need to try it with a longer lens to see what it does to the resolution. Also I'm not sure what I think about what it does to the colors. So I'm wondering if the LCW Fader ND will effect the colors and resolution less. If so I need to order one soon since I'm about to go on a trip to Seattle.

P1000413.jpg
By the way, it took all night to render that timelapse with vegas! If anyone knows a quicker way to render video timelapses, or maybe I should just stick to photo timelapses
 
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