Filter advice

[North Country Angler]

Hi all.

I am looking to get started on ND grads for landscape work and would appreciate some advice on a good set up filter holder and filters-wise. I'm on a 40D and at the moment the bulk of work would be done with a Siggy 10-20mm. so my questions to you good people are as follows:

1. What filter holder? Are they all standard ie can different manufacturer's filters be fitted into other's holders? I've seen reference to hacksawing off bits of holders to avoid them encroaching into the frame at short focal lengths. Can you elaborate?
2. What filters? I'm more commonly in the hills than at the seaside. Would soft grads be more useful to me than hard?
3. The Sigma has a thread dia 77mm, but I also have the 18-55mm IS kit lens. I'm assuming I could make the same filters work with that if necessary using a step down ring?

Budget is an issue. I'd like to be able to get set up for under £100 if poss, but at the same time, I'm willing to save up a bit if the quality of low end gear is rubbish.....


Your advice would be greatly appreciated.

Matt

[Alex]

Matt, I've got the same camera and lens set up and I use the Cokin P-series filter holder with the Hitech ND grads.
You can use a polariser and grads at the same time with this holder but I need to go down to 11mm to remove any vignette from the corners because of the polariser. You can also purchase a wide angled holder but it doesn't hold the polariser. If the holder has only the two filter slots then you'll have no need for the hacksaw.
I would go with the soft grads if your going to be taking more broken horizons, you can get then from a 0.3 (1 stop) - 1.2 (4 stop) plus reverse grads which are great for then the sun is near or no the horizon.
Buy adaptor rings to suit the threads of your lens.

These items can be bought from SRB-Griturn and the reverse grads from eBay, which should be with in your budget.

[baz]

Hi Matt
You can buy Hitech 85mm set of 1,2,and 3 stop for appx £45 from Amazon these can fit on a cokin p holder and adapters for your lens
for your budget,or go for the 100mm size for a little more and buy the hitech holder and adapters this will take you over budget.The cokin
will not work at the 10mm end siggy.Hitech are used by quite a few members mainly due to Lee filters long delays.

Baz

[homer2067]

Would the cokin holder and filters fit ok on a canon 18-55mm? Ive seen a cokin p holder and 3 nd grad filters for £50 is this worth it?

[baz]

Yes they will,cokin filters are ok good value for money.Hitech and lee's are obviously much better.But cokin are a good starting point.

Baz

[North Country Angler]

Thanks for your advice gents. I'll have a good think and let you know which way I choose to go.

M

[vault]

These items can be bought from SRB-Griturn

Many thanks for that Alex

I've just ordered a HiTech 10 stop ND from them as they had 2 in stock! Everywhere else I'd tried were quoting 2-3 week lead times..or longer!

[vault]

Many thanks for that Alex

I've just ordered a HiTech 10 stop ND from them as they had 2 in stock! Everywhere else I'd tried were quoting 2-3 week lead times..or longer!

..and it's just arrived! Excellent service

[ST]

Now how long will it be before we see an image where you use it Colin

[vault]

Now how long will it be before we see an image where you use it Colin

Soon I hope Peter

[North Country Angler]

Following your advice, I got myself kitted out with a set of three hitech soft grads (0.3, 0.6, 0.9) and both the standard p filter holder and the wide angle version. Throw in a couple of adapter rings to suit my Sigma and kit lenses and the whole lot was just over 50 notes, so no great strain on the pocket there.
Not had chance to try them yet......hopefully will soon.

Quick question re the soft grads: is it ok to let some of the transition section come down below the horizon? I had a quick play in the back garden and was struggling to accurately position the grad for best effect. I can see how this would be simple with a hard grad, but the long transition of the soft grads had me a bit flummoxed.....

thanks again for your help gents!
Matt

[ST]

Matt, glad you got a good deal. WRT filter positioning you may find this helps, try live view and slide the grad down/up quickly so you can see the traansition, choose the position the scene requires and you are ready to go. There may be other methods but that works for me.