What to get- Graduated Neutral Density Filters ?

net1994

Going to Yosemite soon and I would like to get a graduated neutral density filter for my 77mm threaded lens. I have never used one, and wondering how difficult/expensive they are. Does anyone make these filters in the screw on fashion like most filters? Seems a lot/majority of them are square plate type variety.

What do you recommend, 0.3 or 0.6? I'd like to spend no more than $70 or so.

gus

net1994 wrote:

Going to Yosemite soon and I would like to get a graduated neutral density filter for my 77mm threaded lens. I have never used one, and wondering how difficult/expensive they are. Does anyone make these filters in the screw on fashion like most filters? Seems a lot/majority of them are square plate type variety.

What do you recommend, 0.3 or 0.6? I'd like to spend no more than $70 or so.

Ebay is full of 77mm screw on ND's. I bought one from there a short while ago.

net1994

gus wrote:

Ebay is full of 77mm screw on ND's. I bought one from there a short while ago.

What was the quality like? Or should I get a few extra on standby if they can't hold up?

Pindy

screw-on GDNFs are kinda useless, as you have no control over where the split happens. You're better off with a filter holder and P-size (Cokin) or Lee-size (4x4 or 4x6) filter.

Cokin

Lee

I have the Lee Foundation kit and love it.

Art Scott

Pindy wrote:

screw-on GDNFs are kinda useless, as you have no control over where the split happens. You're better off with a filter holder and P-size (Cokin) or Lee-size (4x4 or 4x6) filter.

Cokin

Lee

I have the Lee Foundation kit and love it.

I ABSOLUTELY AGREE!!! Also if the need arises you can hand hold and even with a holder you can adjust where the horizon of the filter is.....it is not always gonna be dead center, which is where you'd be stuck with it in a screw on filter........

Lovesong

I would have to agree with Pindy and Art Scott. Having the ability to move the filter up and down, as well as rotate, allow you to have the composition you're looking for. I use a Cokin P holder with Singh Ray ray filters (the Cokin filters aren't all that great, Lee are better). I would recommend first getting a 2-stop soft and a 3-stop hard filters, and using them together.
This may also help.

net1994

Lovesong wrote:

I would have to agree with Pindy and Art Scott. Having the ability to move the filter up and down, as well as rotate, allow you to have the composition you're looking for. I use a Cokin P holder with Singh Ray ray filters (the Cokin filters aren't all that great, Lee are better). I would recommend first getting a 2-stop soft and a 3-stop hard filters, and using them together.
This may also help.

Took a quick look on Adorama.com, and came across the colkin P holder for $17 and a ND4 soft edge GND filter plate for $24. I don't mind spending $40-50 or so for this filter, but going over $150 isn't something I want to go to. I know it the ye old 'you get what you pay for,' but would these suffice without causing image quality degradation?

Also, the holder I was looking for was for 77mm lenses. Can I use a 77>72mm step down ring and have the holder work on my 72mm size lens?

cmason

net1994 wrote:

Took a quick look on Adorama.com, and came across the colkin P holder for $17 and a ND4 soft edge GND filter plate for $24. I don't mind spending $40-50 or so for this filter, but going over $150 isn't something I want to go to. I know it the ye old 'you get what you pay for,' but would these suffice without causing image quality degradation?

Also, the holder I was looking for was for 77mm lenses. Can I use a 77>72mm step down ring and have the holder work on my 72mm size lens?

The Cokin Filter holder is universal. You buy adapter rings that fit your lens. So you get one for each size lens. I suppose you could get a step down, but the adapters are only $17 each, so basically about same price, and you can leave the adapter ring on the lens if you like.

Cokin adapter rings

Shot using Cokin ND4...no image quality issues I have seen:

Shane422

I had a step down ring for my Yosemite trip and it was OK, but for $7 I sould have gotten another Cokin Ring for the other lens. It would have been much easier to swap the filter holder between lenses.

net1994

Shane422 wrote:

I had a step down ring for my Yosemite trip and it was OK, but for $7 I sould have gotten another Cokin Ring for the other lens. It would have been much easier to swap the filter holder between lenses.

(the obligatory harassment..)

Hi Shane, how was your Yosemite trip overall? Come on man, where are the pics!! Do you have a website to view them on?

Shane422

Well I posted a few Picasa conversions of the Raw files for some friends here. So be warned that no serious photo editing has yet occurred. This is my favorite so far, the tunnel view at sunset with a
Hitec Coken P sized Graduated ND (1.2). It is an amazing place.


I'm working in Lightroom now and trying to learn Photomatix to do some HDR stuff. I bracketed everything.The Tioga Pass did open while we were there, so I got a few good pics from Olmsted Point. I wanted to get the "Valley View" Shot from the El Capitan side of the river, but that road was not yet open. There is a lot of construction in and around the park right now.

net1994

Shane422 wrote:

Well I posted a few Picasa conversions of the Raw files for some friends here. So be warned that no serious photo editing has yet occurred. This is my favorite so far, the tunnel view at sunset with a
Hitec Coken P sized Graduated ND (1.2). It is an amazing place.


I'm working in Lightroom now and trying to learn Photomatix to do some HDR stuff. I bracketed everything.The Tioga Pass did open while we were there, so I got a few good pics from Olmsted Point. I wanted to get the "Valley View" Shot from the El Capitan side of the river, but that road was not yet open. There is a lot of construction in and around the park right now.

BEAUTIFUL!!!! If I can only this one picture like this, the trip will be totally worth it. Thought I have two things working against me. Since I will be out there in 3 weeks I know that the waterfalls will be less 'fierce' with the flow. How was it when you were there, were they at peak?

Also the cloud cover tends to diminish in the summer, but that isn't the end of the world.

I think what I will do is go out and take pics in the early morning and late afternoon. Take nap in between. Too much harsh light in the day. I will take along my D50 as a secondary body and leave on the 18-200mm lens.

I'm looking forward to more of your pics man. AWESOME!!

Shane422

net1994 wrote:

BEAUTIFUL!!!! If I can only this one picture like this, the trip will be totally worth it. Thought I have two things working against me. Since I will be out there in 3 weeks I know that the waterfalls will be less 'fierce' with the flow. How was it when you were there, were they at peak?

Also the cloud cover tends to diminish in the summer, but that isn't the end of the world.

I think what I will do is go out and take pics in the early morning and late afternoon. Take nap in between. Too much harsh light in the day. I will take along my D50 as a secondary body and leave on the 18-200mm lens.

I'm looking forward to more of your pics man. AWESOME!!

Thanks for the compliments. This was a 1st for me since I usually take childrens portraits. I was happy to come away with one winner, but I hope I have a few more in the batch. You should look at Hikin' Mikes Pics, He does Yosemite well and makes me feel very humble about my sorry effort.

I don't think the waterfalls will be a problem in 3 weeks. They said that the peak is usually around Memorial Day, but there seems to be plenty of snow still to melt.

I think the mid day opportunities are the Mariposa Grove, and possibly Glacier Point. I was never at Glacier Point for Sunset, but I think the shadows would possibly not be so desirable then. I was there at about 9AM it it was nice then. Valley View, Tunnel View, and the Sentinel Bridge seemed to be the sunset places to be. But for the bridge, plan on arriving early and still being elbow to elbow with other tripods. That was the only place where I ran into that problem. The other photogs were setup, but not taking pictures. They were waiting for Half Dome to turn orange and they ad taken over the bridge 30 minutes before it would do so. I thought it was kind of rude, but I kind of understood it as well.

One other sunset place was the Mono Lake. It is outside the park on the Tioga Pass. There are odd little rock formations called Tufas at the South end of the lake that would photograph well at Sunset. Plus I'm guessing that Half Dome from Olmsted point would look cool at sunset.