Your best non-variable, threaded ND filters

puredrifting

puredrifting

Major Contributor
Hi all:

I often use the Canon 10-18 F4.5-5.6 IS outdoor in bright sunlight on a DSLR/gimbal. I use the 67mm Tifffen Variable ND filter which works okay at 18mm but at any wider focal length, I am seeing the dreaded "butterfly" effect because the FOV is too wide. I would like to be able to use the lens at 10-17mm but can only do so indoors now. I was thinking about forgoing the variable ND and just buying a couple of normal ND filters to get rid of this effect.

1. Will NOT using the variable ND and using a normal ND filter negate the "butterfly" effect where the exposure varies across the FOV, which I assume is coming from the polarizer function?
2. Which strength ND and which brand would you use in this situation? I know Singh Ray and B+W are decent, probably better than Tiffen but there so many brands I have not heard of. Have you heard of Breakthrough Photography? Premium prices but very well reviewed also. This is a cheap lens to begin with so I don't want to spend a fortune on ND filters for it but I don't want to put junk glass in front of it either. I don't use my matte box on this camera setup so they have to be screw on 67mm filters.

Thanks for your opinion.
 
Heard good things about Breakthrough Photography's NDs but no experience using them.

Seems the best NDs these days are using a metallic coating that typically provides superior color consistency over various strengths, & offers some IR protection. True ND, Format's Firecrest, Hoya's ProND, & others, use this technology, but not all of them offer screw-in sizes.

All my circular filters 82mm in diameter, & smaller, are Hoya's ProND. These were (are?) the darlings of BMCuser, & there's a very long thread about the filters over there that was stated by Kholi. Format's Firecrest may be a bit better built,, & available in sizes larger than 82mm, but there's been some issue with them shipping misidentified strengths, & they're usually harder to find in the USA. I had to special order some 95mm Firecrests, & it took months before they shipped, though Hot Rod Cameras had a Group Buy (& think they were contemplating another) so may have sets on hand.

Meanwhile the ProNDs are relatively easy to come by, & have served me well. Recently sourced sets of 2, 4, & 6, stop ProNDs in 62mm, & 67mm. Needed these in a hurry, & got them from B&H, Amazon, & eBay (some camera store in Washington state). There are other reputable eBay sellers based in the USA that will ship quickly, & think I got a number of my other sets from Colorado. Alternatively Hoya has offices in SoCal, I think somewhere near the South Bay.

Much of work involves travel, & rarely do I carry a mattebox, so I'm a huge fan of Xume Adapers, but these are best used inside a lens hood that attaches directly to the lens, usually the OEM that came with the lens, so I currently own sets of ProNDs in 58mm, 62mm, 67mm, & 77mm, though it's rare I carry all of them at the same time.
 
Apart from the pesky 16-35ii all the stills lenses I use are 77 or less - consider a 77 or 82 filter and step rings

I use 3 and 6 stop b+w and bought a $20 plastic ND - tested side to side and could not see much difference!

I think this depends on the ir sensititvity of your camera - ir/Nd is really required by some cameras
 
After a good look at reviews and tests, I've been using Marumi DHG ND filters (ND8 and ND16) and have found them very good quality and amazing value. I have some Tiffen NDs too (I like their blender ND 1.2), and there is no gulf between them.

Cheers,

Roland
 
I have noticed some image degradation and color shift from my Tiffen Variable NDs and in the past with no-name Chinese stuff. Read a bunch of tests and watched a bunch of videos and articles and I just decided to go for the Breakthrough Photography 3 stop 77mm ND for my 70-200 2.8 IS II and the Breakthrough Photography 6 stop for the 10-18mm 4.5-5.6 IS STM. My thought was there is no way I am putting an inexpensive piece of glass on the front of a $2,000.00 lens, that seems counterproductive. $180.00 is a lot for an ND but I think it will be worth it. The 67mm for the 10-18 was the same price as the ProND ($99.00) but I read a few shootouts where the Breakthrough NDs came out on top when compared side by side with Tiffen, Hoya, B+W and Singh Ray. No loss of sharpness, no color shift, little to no reflections. I'll post back my impressions once I get a chance to try them out.
 
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My first set of decent ND filters were the cheap Tiffen ones. Not bad, but they had a green shift that had to be corrected with custom WB every time I changed a filter. I switched to a Hoya ProND set, and they're clearly better. I don't know how much better because they're good enought that I don't worry about my ND filters anymore: I haven't felt the need to carry out a "scientific" test to check what effects they may be having in terms of image quality; if there's an effect, it must be very small.

I have both a 67mm set for my regular lenses, and a 49mm set for my RX100-IV and my tiny NEX primes.
 
Samuel H said:
My first set of decent ND filters were the cheap Tiffen ones. Not bad, but they had a green shift that had to be corrected with custom WB every time I changed a filter. I switched to a Hoya ProND set, and they're clearly better. I don't know how much better because they're good enought that I don't worry about my ND filters anymore: I haven't felt the need to carry out a "scientific" test to check what effects they may be having in terms of image quality; if there's an effect, it must be very small.

I have both a 67mm set for my regular lenses, and a 49mm set for my RX100-IV and my tiny NEX primes.
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Since I also use these for still photography, I wanted to make sure I bought the least affected NDs as they will be used on many different cameras for shooting many different types of work. Buy once, cry once. I wish our C100/300 had the same dual filter wheels as the C300 MKII but they don't so in addition to the internal 2, 4 and 6 stop ND, we will now also have 9 stops with the addition of the 3 stop ND on the 70-200 2.8 IS II. Going to be shooting a lot of beach stuff this season so I may even need to add a 6 stop too, but I need to get out there and see.
 
The thought of ditching my B+W NDs in favor of Hoya's seemed counterproductive, but in practice they've been great. Never was a fan of Tiffen's NDs, though I still own a couple of their Vari-NDs, & a number of their Hot Mirror filters from back in the RED One era, all of which have been shelved.

Not a fan of Vari-NDs, & imagine they may have softened your 70-200, especially at the long end. Seen a bunch of footage where they've ruined the image due to reflections/ghosting, usually in circumstances we're the light was relatively subdued but there was a bright light source either inside, or just outside the frame. I still carry a couple sizes of Heliopan's Vari-NDs, but only as insurance in case something we're to happen to my traditional NDs.

The main reason I'm chiming in once more is to push the Xumes on you again, especially if you add additional ND strengths, or Clear/UV protective filters, which I assume you will at the beach. Not only will they allow quicker filter swaps, but also protect the plastic filter threads on that 10-18mm. I'm also guessing you use the 17-55/2.8, which I believe also has plastic threads.
 
Bern Caughey said:
The thought of ditching my B+W NDs in favor of Hoya's seemed counterproductive, but in practice they've been great. Never was a fan of Tiffen's NDs, though I still own a couple of their Vari-NDs, & a number of their Hot Mirror filters from back in the RED One era, all of which have been shelved.

Not a fan of Vari-NDs, & imagine they may have softened your 70-200, especially at the long end. Seen a bunch of footage where they've ruined the image due to reflections/ghosting, usually in circumstances we're the light was relatively subdued but there was a bright light source either inside, or just outside the frame. I still carry a couple sizes of Heliopan's Vari-NDs, but only as insurance in case something we're to happen to my traditional NDs.

The main reason I'm chiming in once more is to push the Xumes on you again, especially if you add additional ND strengths, or Clear/UV protective filters, which I assume you will at the beach. Not only will they allow quicker filter swaps, but also protect the plastic filter threads on that 10-18mm. I'm also guessing you use the 17-55/2.8, which I believe also has plastic threads.
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So the Xumes are magnets essentially? Have you ever had one fall out when transporting a camera/lens over rough terrain, riding in a vehicle? So instead of screwing the filter in, you just touch it to the Xume?
 
puredrifting said:
So the Xumes are magnets essentially? Have you ever had one fall out when transporting a camera/lens over rough terrain, riding in a vehicle? So instead of screwing the filter in, you just touch it to the Xume?
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As long as the Xumes are protected from glancing blows by being mounted inside a lens hood I've never had one get dislodged no matter how rough the camera was treated. I often hang a camera outside a moving vehicles window, & even at speed have never had a Xume come loose.

The Xumes do push the filter a bit further away from front of lens, so they caution using them on lens with a FOV wider than a 24mm on a FF35, but as long as the lens can handle two stacked filters without vignetting it should handle one filter mounted to Xumes.

From what I've heard your 10-18mm can accept two stacked filters, so should handle a ND/Xume combo.
 
Bern Caughey said:
As long as the Xumes are protected from glancing blows by being mounted inside a lens hood I've never had one get dislodged no matter how rough the camera was treated. I often hang a camera outside a moving vehicles window, & even at speed have never had a Xume come loose.

The Xumes do push the filter a bit further away from front of lens, so they caution using them on lens with a FOV wider than a 24mm on a FF35, but as long as the lens can handle two stacked filters without vignetting it should handle one filter mounted to Xumes.

From what I've heard your 10-18mm can accept two stacked filters, so should handle a ND/Xume combo.
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Hmm...may give them a try sometime, they sound interesting.
 
TheDingo said:
I just bought a few of the Hoya SOLAS PRO IRND filters to see if they can clean up IR contamination. I only wish they came with thin filter mounts...
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Never heard of the Solas series. Wonder if these will replace the ProNDs, which are somewhat harder to find then in the past?

Are the Solas stackable? Not that I do that often, just wonder if they incorporate a Hot Mirror similar to Hoya's IR Cut, which I most often see attached to the front of lenses mounted on BlackMagic's cameras.

Like you I wish Hoya filters used thinner frames. Think my 95mm Firecrests frames are about 1/2 as thick as the smaller diameter Hoyas.
 
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Received the Breakthrough Photography ND3 and ND6 filters and tried them out, these look very nice, I could see no color shift or softening of the image. Not cheap but nicely made with Japanese glass. Designed in San Francisco, made in China (isn't everything?) These are thin filters and the best part is that they accept the Canon lens caps. That's what I dislike about my Tiffens, they will not take the lens cap so you end up leaving the filter on when you should have been using the lens cap instead. Don't know if these do much for IR contamination but that's rarely been an issue for me anyway.

This is their ad copy on Amazon

"WORLDS SHARPEST AND MOST COLOR NEUTRAL ND: From the moment you pick up X4 ND you’ll immediately feel the craftsmanship and quality. X4 ND maintains a very well controlled and flat transmission all the way throughout the visible spectrum and into IR, delivering the worlds most color neutral results.
MRC16 OPTICAL COATING: 16 Layer Multi-Resistance Coated to significantly reduce lens flare and ghosting while making the filter Anti-Scratch, Reduce Reflection, Water Repellent, Increase Surface Durability, Oil & Dust Resistant. All these fantastic attributes are essential for working effectively outdoors. Our proprietary MRC coating is structurally harder than the glass itself and the reduced reflections improve the efficiency since less light is lost.
NANOTEC®: In addition to state-of-the-art MRC, our optical engineers developed new nano coating layer technology, called nanotec®, from the ground up to repel dirt, water and other elements by beading rather than absorbing and smearing. Set in our workhorse and built to withstand extreme wind, salt water, dust and other abrasive conditions and elements.
FITMENT: Compatible with all 77mm camera lenses. Your lens thread size will be printed underneath your lens cap or written somewhere on the lens barrel. Make sure you order the correct size otherwise it will not fit your lens.
25 YEARS SUPPORT: Guaranteed to be free from craftsmanship defects for 25 years. When you activate your 25 Year Ironclad Guarantee online we associate your X4 serial number to you, so any future discussions on this unique filter are tracked, issues recorded and all that stuff which goes into future product design."
 
Your lens cap comment brought up another issue with Xumes...they do not work with standard front lens cap.

Xumes makes a 77mm lens cap that attach magnetically, but no other sizes, so I buy metal screw-in lens caps, & attach a Xume filter adapter, for my non-77mm lenses.
 
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